I love poke, but I am not a fan of the sauces that most of the California poke restaurants use. Some of the sauces are so thick and creamy that they mask the flavor of the fish.

I hope that this Palo Alto poke restaurant does a better job at opening than Poke Works in Mountain View that was supposed to open last December but is still not open for unknown reasons.

Does anyone know why California poke restaurants put an accent on the E, while Hawaii poke restaurants do not? I thought poke was a Hawaiian word, so why misspell it?

I wish people would choose another example than Chiopotle for the build-a-meal restaurant metaphor. For example, Asian Box, well known (better known?) in this area anyway. Because along with an ordering format, Chipotle also carries negative connotations, like food-safety violations (food-poisoning outbreaks going back several years in the news), not to speak of dull food carelessly served. A new, untried restaurant doesn't deserve that baggage.

To foodie: The accent-mark problem has come up here with other restaurants using the P-word and was explained. The word is meant to be spelled with a macron (bar) over the e, but this web site has problems with some characters and the accent is an effort to approximate.

@foodie:

I think the accent is often placed there to instruct people not familiar with Hawaiian pronunciation how to correctly say the word. The Hawaiian fish dish "poke" is pronounced differently than the well-recognized English noun/verb "poke." In English, often the 'e' isn't pronounced if it is the last letter of a word.

Note that with the accent, the word resembles the Nintendo game Pokémon (the pronunciation is similar) so it's not so far fetched to use the accent.

Anyhow, regardless of how these restaurateurs and writers are treating the Hawaiian "poke" word in print, I am happy to see more variety in our local dining scene.

Tried Pokeworks in New York, can't wait for it to open here. Hopefully, minus the loooooong line

We tried Poke Bar in Mountain View. It was OK. Anyone know how Pokeworks plans to be different? They are supposed to open a block away from Poke Bar. Also, how will this new Palo Alto place be different, apart from having the weirdest spelling yet of poke?

fyi - my favorite Bay Area poke so far is Aloha Fresh in Cupertino. For you Chipotle haters, they are very un-Chipotle-like.

+1 for Aloha Fresh. Or +10. Totally worth a drive.

Most authentic Ahi Poke that I had in the Bay Area is the ones from from Takahashi Market in San Mateo, the rest of Poke here in California is nothing close to what you can find in Hawaii....

@Humble,

I love Asian Box. Every time i see an Asian Box, I chow down.

@mmmm

That's what she said.

@Miss Foodland Poke,
Absolutely! Poke made here tastes nothing like what's offered at Foodland in the islands!

You can buy black seed roasted sesame oil from Japan at olive crush in San Carlos. It's the best sesame oil to use with poke.

I think the accent is often placed there to instruct people not familiar with Hawaiian pronunciation how to correctly say the word. The Hawaiian fish dish "poke" is pronounced differently than the well-recognized English noun/verb "poke." In English, often the 'e' isn't pronounced if it is the last letter of a word. [Portion of post removed.]