Yes, Poke Dot is yet another poke joint. Yes, it's like Pokinometry. Yes, it has the usual selection of small, medium, and large sizes that comes with 2, 3, or 5 scoops of fish. Yes, rice, brown rice, salad mix, chips or a wrap as choices for the base. Yes, cucumber, onion, avocado, and crab mix are free; as are the so-called “toppings” of green onion, masago, seaweed flakes, ginger, wasabi, and sesame seeds. Yes, there are a variety of sauces to dress your protein choices of salmon, ahi, yellowtail, shrimp, octopus, scallop, and spicy tuna, including a house-blend in various levels of burn.
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But it does have options Pokinometry doesn't, such as jalapenos, tempura crumbs, and a cilantro dressing…which is, actually, when you think about it, not that much of an improvement.
Let's face it, Pokinometry's setup and operating model is damn near perfect–that's why every single poke joint out there is copying it nearly verbatim. But if you're going to copy Pokinometry, you can't do it much better than how Poke Dot's doing it.
So good luck Poke Dot. And good luck Pokinometry for all the competition your idea has wrought.
Poke Dot, 17921 MacArthur Blvd., Irvine, CA 92614, (949) 250-5956; http://pokedotlove.com
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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.