If you remember the Hokey Pokey rhyme from your childhood then this should ring a bell, except it’s Hokey Poki that you can eat.
Located in FOMO Singapore along Sultan Gate Road, Hokey Poki’s there for you when you need your Poke Bowl fix.
For the uninitiated, “Poke” translates to “a raw fish salad served as a meal”, from Hawaiian. What makes Hokey Poki so different from the multitude of all the others, you might ask. For one, I was absolutely delighted to find out that they do Poke Soba bowls, instead of your usual rice-based bowls.
Despite the societal expectations to love my rice as an Asian, I really am more of a noodles person. So if you can relate, then Hokey Poki should definitely be on your to-try list.
First on the menu was the Salmon Poke Bowl ($10.90) which was a colourful mix of seasoned salmon sashimi chunks, mango, Cold Cha Soba (additional $0.50), jellyfish, edamame, cherry tomatoes and seaweed flakes, topped off with sesame seeds.
On the outside, it may look just like a regular salad bowl, until you dig in. We had fun fishing out the strands of cha soba for this shot and the noodles were easily our favourite component of the bowl. It had the right texture and went really well with the umami base sauce.
I’m a huge Sashimi fan too, so naturally, I was really excited to have a go at the salmon sashimi chunks. Adequately seasoned but lacking the wow factor; they were good, but not great. I would really have preferred some spicy mayonnaise salmon chunks instead, but that’s just me.
The owner of the stall, Shannon, very kindly sat us down and talked us through each dish we were going to be served. He explained that while their menu is still fairly experiential and has yet to be finalized, their tacos have been flying out of the kitchen ever since their opening and are likely here to stay.
We were served the Lemongrass Mentai Chicken Taco ($5.90) and Cheesy Prawn Tempura Taco ($5.90).
The Tacos were served in a crispy seaweed shell, meaning it was impossible to tear into halves to share. We decided that the only way out was to just take a hearty bite out of each taco, then do a swap.
I didn’t expect myself to like the Lemongrass Mentai Chicken Taco because I really don’t like how lemongrass tastes, but the lemongrass flavour of this dish was so well-infused into the mentaiko, so it really worked for me.
The mentaiko sauce provided a light, fragrant balance to the chicken underneath it.
Needless to say, the Cheesy Prawn Tempura Taco was really yummy — I mean you can hardly go wrong with prawn and cheese, right? Both my colleague and I agreed that it was better of the two.
We ended off the meal with a S’mores Taco ($5.90) each, which were torched in front of us just before being served.
This Taco came in a seaweed shell too and as you would expect, I didn’t really know how to feel about the marshmallow-seaweed combination. Our taste buds were a little confused at first but my colleague admitted that it eventually grew on her. Who knows, you might like it too?
Hokey Poki also serves Sushi Burritos, such as the Wasabi Mayo Grilled Chicken Burrito ($8.90) and Smoked Duck Burrito ($8.90) to grab and go. I’ll certainly be back to try one of them the next time i’m in the area!
Expected Damage: $15.80-$18.80 per pax
