KEEPING IT FRESH

The craze that’s swept the globe continues its domination, with the Gold Coast’s first specialty poke eatery opening its doors, writes Sally Coates

ORIGINATING in Hawaii, a poke bowl takes raw fish and pairs it with delicious fresh ingredients for a flavour explosion. Now we’ve got a hot spot dedicated to the beautiful bowls.

Poké Poké is the creation of Morgan Walsh, the brains behind beloved Mexican restaurant Bonita Bonita, who has executed her tropical poke paradise with obvious expertise.

“I could see they were about to blow up on the Gold Coast, so I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon and specialise before someone else did,” she says.

“Poke suits the Gold Coast lifestyle; it’s fun, colourful and suits a tropical climate. I’m a very visual person ,so for me it’s got to look beautiful and what’s in the poke bowls does the work itself.”

Before we delve into the food itself, we want to focus on the fitout of the former fruit shop, designed by Morgan and built by DCQ Constructions – and there was plenty to build.

Morgan says the idea was to be “a little bit ridiculous.” It’s only around 150 square metres, but somehow they’ve fit in a cave wall, flamingo wallpapered arches, an Aztec-style wooden carved wall, neon pink signage, three giant bunches of green bananas, shipwreck-style stained glass front doors, a rustic arched mirror and so much more. But with the streamlined beach takeaway style of service, you’ll barely finish your Instagram post before your order arrives. “I always intended for it to be a fast little takeaway spot,” Morgan says.

“It’s all prep-based food and obviously with raw fish you don’t need to cook it, so we can pump food out as quickly as possible.

“The most important ingredient is the quality of fish, so we only use the freshest tuna and salmon available, and if we can’t get that we won’t use anything else. Then the toppings and add ons are things like crispy shallots, zucchini noodles, pickled cabbage, corn salsa from Bonita and cucumber jalapeño salsa.”

The fish Morgan mentions is a key feature of a traditional poke bowl, but everyone is catered for, with breakfast poke and Caribbean roti bread also on the menu.

“The menu, like everything I do, ended up being a Morgan interpretation of a poke bowl,” she says.

“There are the traditional options of tuna and salmon, but raw fish isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, so it was important to get meat and vegetarian options on the menu to get some variety.

“It’s not technically traditional poke, but I want to have something for everyone.

“Getting the flavours right was just a matter of trial and error. I’m pretty lucky with Bonita’s kitchen because I got to play around a lot before we opened. But it is still a work in progress, you get an idea in your head of what you think will work, but we’ll gauge with customers now that we’re open and see what works.”

Poké Poké, 2375 Gold Coast Highway, Mermaid Beach