Poké Papa - Fast-Casual, Hawaiian-Inspired Poke Bowls on 8th and H Street near Capital One Arena

[mdjordy]

Nice lunch today at http://pokepapa.com  Much better than the Annandale version of Poke.

Similar to the California places I wrote about...choice of rice (brown, while or black) and/or salad, plus scoops of fish (tofu and chicken also) and toppings.  Big difference they had 3-4 varieties of salmon and Ahi already tossed with dressing.  A Korean spiced version, basic sweet with green onions, and a siracha mayo mix...plus plain Ahi and Salmon, cooked scallops, some ceviche, etc.  I had 3 scoops trying the Korean, basic, and siracha.  This saves the step of tossing the fish with your choice of sauce...but having 3 different flavors confuses things inside the bowl.

Lots of choices of toppings, including fake crab salad, seaweed, ginger, etc. The crunchy toppings are self service, after you pay.

Overall, very good.  Would be a great place to have your first Poke!  I left very satisfied.

[iolaire]

Got the Onolicious bowl via MealPal on Friday.  Great value, lots of tuna.  I didn't care for the fake crab salad which was sort of sweet and mayonnaise.  The Ahi tuna marinated with seaweed, lotus root, ginger, sesame, scallion and onion was a bit bland. I think I'd enjoy a spicy version much more.  Also the fish had lines of hardish white stuff in it, so its not been trimmed to be soft. Overall it seemed like a good value but again its a bowl with a ton of other stuff so its a completely different experience than real poke.  I was surprised that they were willing to sell the bowl via Meal Pal for a sub $6 price.  The line at 11:30 was very short.