Poke Hanoi is located in Hang Khay street which is one of main streets of Old Quarter, right next to Hoan Kiem lake, but trust me this favorable location just takes a minor part in explanation of why this brand new restaurant become so well-known with tourists.
A local restaurant becomes insanely famous with tourist but almost unknown with local.
I, as a local foodie, didn’t even know about this restaurant either.
The story was, there was a Korean friend of my Korean friend planning to visit Hanoi for the first time. And that friend kept asking to go the restaurant named Poke Hanoi. He said he had searched about Hanoi and decided to put this restaurant in his must-try-list.
I was surprised since I had never heard of Poke Hanoi before, and I’m quite sure that I know most of good Vietnamese restaurants here.
- What Vietnamese dishes do they serve over there?
- Nah. Not Vietnamese food but Hawaiian food.
I’m like “if you visit Vietnam, you should try Vietnamese food, don’t you think? Why Hawaiian one in must-try-list?”
I didn’t get it. Until I visited the restaurant myself.
What is Poke? How come Hawaiian food gets famous in Hanoi over our amazing local food?
As its name, the poke is served as main dish here.
Poke is diced raw fish served either as an appetizer or as a main course and one of the main dishes of native Hawaiian cuisine.
Wikipedia
Its style is kinda strange for me. At first, I dont even know how to order. Haha. There is a regular poke bowl with the price of $8 and if you would like to add more ingredients in your regular bowl, you can pay for extra poke with price of $1.5. Excluded VAT and drink.
I couldn’t believe that a bowl of rice can be that expensive. It may sounds reasonable for you. But please be noted that Hanoi is the place you can buy a regular meal with just $1 - $2 only. And it’s amazingly delicious.
My friend said that this poke is really healthy. Ah yeah. Now I get it, I get why people don’t eat clean and don’t prefer healthy food. Way too expensive. Maybe this also the reason why Poke Hanoi is not well-known with local.
With poke, you can customize your own bowl by picking your favorite base, poke, sauce, toppings and crisp. You can see the menu below. If you see the menu is too long and confused dont know how to start, dont worry, well-English-speaking staffs will help you out. They did help me too. And the one they recommended to me was so tasty.
It is customized and there are many kind of fruits and vegetable, that is why it’s also kind of vegetarian friendly.
I ended up picking the Savoury as in Recommendation list with the base of sushi rice.
The price makes my mood down at first. But I gradually feel better since I see all the topping put on the table looking so fresh and appetizing. I can also see the way they making my poke really professional and clean.
But I still don’t think it is tasty that much because there are just rice and topping added on top. What is special?
Until my first bite.
Burst of flavors
With the first bite, I can feel a burst of flavors inside my mouth. I dont know exactly what makes my bowl is extremely delicious. The perfectly-cooked rice or the sauce they mixed, or the topping?
Salmon is so fresh and almost melted down in my mouth. Salmon is main poke but with me quail eggs are the star. The best quail egg I have ever had. If you love runny yolk, you will be crazy for it. Most of other things is just vegetable but it is savoury, too. It goes really well with rice and other stuffs and also helps to clean and refresh your taste.
Having a mouthful of poke makes me craving for another one. It is just one bowl but the portion is really a lot. Although it is tasty, I’m too full to take more in. But with other foreigners in the restaurant, especially westerner, it seems not enough. I saw a guy even order for the second bowl. Haha.
They love it. So do I.
The local restaurant of foreigners
Not just poke, I was surprised by something else. It’s really weird that I was the only one Vietnamese in the restaurant, except the staffs. This is local restaurant, and it is in Vietnam, isn’t it?
When I was ordering my bowl, people lining up behind me. All was foreigner. When I was having meal, people (foreigners) kept coming in. When I finished and walked out of the restaurant, a few groups of tourist was looking for Poke Hanoi, and I directed them to head up level 3 of the building.
“What is happening?”.
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The first thing I do when I get home is to google Poke Hanoi because I cant get why it is so well-known with foreigners? And below is result of Poke Hanoi in Tripadvisor.
Ohh....
Brand new restaurant is rated 5 stars with over 600 reviews.
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I admit that with that quality of food, location, service and professionalism, Poke Hanoi deserves that fame.
As a Vietnamese, I’m supposed to introduce and recommend our amazing local foods, but I think you should put Poke Hanoi in your must-try-list when visiting Vietnam. Highly recommended.
📍Poke Hanoi - Level 3, 11B Hang Khay street, Trang Tien ward, Hoan Kiem district, Vietnam
🕚 11am - 9pm
💲 $8-$10
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