Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you probably aware that poke it all the rage these days in San Diego.
It’s interesting because there was such limited options for poke just a couple years ago, and now there’s probably close to a dozen options now.
One interesting restaurant (and store) that caught our attention was Poke Etc. in National City.
Inside they have a full Hawaiian menu with traditional plate lunches and sides.
They also have a breakfast menu which looks delicious as well.
Just behind the main counter, they have a poke bar which houses a few different ones. They are happy to let you sample a couple if you like.
For the uninitiated, poke is a raw fish salad that originated in Hawaii. It’s typically mixed with some sort of sauce, maybe some seaweed, and sesame seeds.
If you’ve never had poke and love sushi or ceviche, you have to try this!
Above is their original (front) and sweet & spicy (back).
Both were very tasty, although Jorgina and I both preferred the original the best (shoyu, seaweed, green onion, sesame seeds, etc.).
We liked that they had a mini store, filled with many Hawaii goodies.
You can’t tell from the picture, but the restaurant is pretty big inside. By the time we left, there were a decent number of patrons there, so we were lucky to get their early to beat the lunch crowd.
A whole fridge of fruity island beverages!
This plate combination included their kahlua pork and shoyu (soy sauce) chicken.
Both meats were good, but not necessarily great in our opinion. We felt the chicken was a touch dry and the kalua was missing something.
We did enjoy the little bits of cabbage in the kalua.
The other combination plate we ordered was lau lau (taro leave wrapped pork and butterfish) and more kahlua pork.
The lau lau was again good, but wasn’t as moist as I’ve had it elsewhere.
Nevertheless, each of these plates were good enough to get on your Hawaiian food fix for the day.
Portion sizes were a smaller compared to other frequented Hawaiian restaurants like Homestyle Hawaiian & Island Style Cafe.
Again, we loved the mini store and walked out with a link of portuguse sausage!
We’ll definitely come back for more poke one day soon. Let us know if you’ve tried them and what else is good!
Poke Etc.
916 E 8th St.
National City, CA 91950
619-474-2866
That’s good you found another Hawaiian place. I usually get kalbi or kalua pork at Homestyle Hawaiian.
Soo, I need to try the kalbi. I always get stuck ordering the same things… korean chicken, kalua, and the shrimp!
Tbat used to be the old Point Point Joint Filipino eatery.
I never tried that before, CC. Was it any good? I like Tita’s down here in National City for Filipino.
It was pretty standard. Tita’s serves bigger portions than here but it was good for what it was. My dad’s office used to be be near here. Now there’s a pupusa place next door to this place. I also remember seeing roaches back in the day so I stopped going here, ha ha.