Island Poké
1674 Douglas St
Victoria, BC

Hours: 11am to 9pm
Phone: (250) 590-0801

I’m not sure how long it will take to eat all the available salad combinations available at Island Poké. After two visits, I need three more to go. That’s because there are four signature bowls — the Ohana, Island, Salemona and Earth — and the last visit, I craved a build your own crazy combo. Scallops with masago, pineapple, sesame seeds and jalapeno peppers is a crazy combination. I could’ve asked to double up, but didn’t want to set my mouth afire.

When my craving is for seafood burritos, they got a Rock & Roll and CRUNCHii which I have to try out. Each of these have way too many ingredients to list. Instead of naming them all, I will point out the highlights.

The sweetness coming from the dressing really came across with the tuna bowl I had. I opted for lettuce instead of rice, and to make it more like a salad helped make the flavours of the fish to stand out. According to their Facebook page, the salmon is now wild instead of farmed. The combination of other veggies and dressing made this dish explode with a lot of flavour. When I was dizzy from the oceanic scent, I could not wait to dig into my meal! The dish is prepared on the spot and key components are kept separate until ready to toss into one dish.

I enjoyed the freshness of it all; Subway can learn a lot from them as their lettuce is always lifeless. The additional toppings and garnishes to be added are through the roof. The variety is much better than any other design it yourself operations. The firm corn helped make this dish stand out and the imitation crab-meat better than the average fare I tend to find. To make this dish stellar would have required toasting up the tortilla crumbs and adding that last. I feel eating at the diner is better than taking it home, where it’ll get cold.

I have to admit to cheating a bit with this bowl. I topped my takeout dish with Argentine shrimp from Thrifty’s Food. After sampling this sweet delight, I made my large order into a feast of the kings. The next time I’m at Island Poke, however, I will have to ask which ocean their crustacean comes from. I’ve become rather picky with this particular meat. After tasting it from off the Coast of Mexico to further south, I’m finding the meat from these decapods definitely has a slightly different taste to them. It’s tough to go back.

4½ Blokes out of 5