Poke Bowls

Sweet and Sour Pork is a must-order at zichar stalls for my family and East Bistro just aced it with their rendition of Iced Sweet and Sour Pork ($18[S], $27[M], $36[L]). 🌟🌟🌟
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This is definitely something different from what you get elsewhere as the tomato-based sauce has been cleverly swapped up by hawthorne sauce. 💕 This dish leans towards the sweet side, which I personally felt would be better if it was more tangy for a balance. The deep-fried pork, however, was well-executed - crispy skin and not overly tough. 😋
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What is the purpose of the ice, u may ask. Well, it lent a helping hand in securing the sauce onto the meats & retaining the crisp, while the pork remained warm inside. ✔ What an ingenious idea! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

The spicy salmon at Aloha poké never disappoints. Marinated in an addictive spicy sauce fragrant with sesame oil, the salmon is always fresh and nicely diced. I opted for the pokeritto ($11.9+ for one scoop of poke), which is essentially all the poke ingredients contained in a nicely toasted wrap. Admittedly, the staff could have been more generous with the fish... $11.90+ barely got me 5 small cubes of sashimi! They weren't very generous with the other ingredients either - the miserly amount of vegetables could barely fill up the standard-sized tortilla wrap (see the empty folds)! In short, don't expect too much in terms of portion size; but what aloha lacks in that aspect is somewhat made up by the quality of fish and deliciously robust marinades. Perhaps the management could look into a more generous serving of vegetables....surely that's not too much to ask for.....

Poké Lulu remains one of my favourite poké joints in Singapore. It sets itself apart with generously cubed fish, and free flow of kimchi, pickled cabbage and pickled ginger. At $15.90, it's slightly pricey but I got this with the entertainer 1 for 1 app which made it quite a steal!

Aloha is still my all-time favourite poké place, even after trying so many of its competitors. Fish so fresh that it almost seems a shame to be dousing it in addictive house marinades; smooth and clean cuts yielding well-sized cubes of poke without jagged edges; generous assortments of toppings; nutty and chewy brown rice; and importantly, easily accessible with the number of outlets within town.

I usually prefer to customize my own bowl/wrap, but this time I opted for the xmas special - avocado salmon and garlic shrimp* atop salad and brown rice, accompanied with fresh (not canned!!!) pineapple, cranberries, pomegranate, walnuts and vegetarian caviar. You have the option to swop the shrimp for something else if you prefer, so I chose my favourite spicy salmon instead. I thought the fiery and flavourful marinade was the perfect counterpart to the avocado salmon, which was otherwise a tad bland on its own.

Service at the main outlet is prompt, friendly and obliging. Can't say the same for some of their other outlets (eg Citylink Mall), where the perpetually sour faces of the counter staff are a bit of a put-off sometimes.

This xmas bowl with two scoops of poke set me back $17 (after 7% GST), which is very slightly higher than other similar establishments. But given the quality of food and consistency of standard, I am always very happy to return

Generous chunks of (reasonably) fresh salmon marinated in a shoyu dressing spiked with sesame oil. I got it for $10 (original price: $14) as part of a Fave promotion.

Paid an additional dollar for the red/brown rice mix, but it was a tad dry and plain for my liking. The toppings were disappointingly sparse as well.

Service was good and prompt. The girl manning the counter was friendly, and readily obliged to my request for a change of toppings.

In all, I wouldn't mind returning but only with the Fave promotion. Otherwise, there are better poke options available for that price.