Chaya, the Costa Mesa Japanese cafe that we've written about and awarded for its salad dressing some three years ago, is now shuttered and has become Uroko Cafe. Care to guess what Uroko Cafe sells? Yes. Uroko continues the proliferation of poke. It is the umpteenth poke shop to open within this past year and it won't be the last, not even in the same block. Another poke store is slated to open soon down the street at Bristol and Baker any day now.
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Uroko is, of course, just like the others. It offers its poke in the same assembly line fashion as Pokinometry, which pioneered the concept in Anaheim a few years ago. About the only thing I noticed on the menu that's slightly different than Pokinometry is the option of garlic chips and to wash it down with sake or a cold mug of beer.
A small bowl starts at $7.00; a medium $8.75; and a large, $10.75.
3030 Bristol Street, Costa Mesa, CA 92626, (714) 436-5798; http://www.urokocafe.com
Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.