A poke bowl of ahi shoyu and Papa Bid, or lemongrass, salmon at Ry’s Poke Shack in Pasadena.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
13 of the best poke spots in Los Angeles
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Refreshing and laced with seaweed, aromatics and sauces, Hawaiian poke can be one of the most energizing and delicious meals to seek out, especially during the summer. Los Angeles was an early appreciator of poke, embracing the raw, seasoned cubed fish long before it went mainstream throughout the country in the 2010s.
Raised in Pepeʻekeo, Hawaii, Unreal Poke co-founder Jordan Maldonado credits this not only to California’s proximity to Hawaii, but also to L.A.’s understanding of poke as it pertains to Hawaiian culture and tradition. The latter, he said, is fueling a new wave of independent poke shops and pop-ups throughout L.A. and Orange County.
“It’s gone further than what happened in the big poke boom of 2008 to 2015,” Maldonado said. “Culture is just as important as food and flavor, and I think that people in L.A. are waking up to: This is a community, this is a culture, these are people that were displaced… They say, ‘Hey, not only do I want to eat here because the food’s good, but I feel like I’m supporting something bigger.’ That became kind of unexpected for me, like, ‘Whoa, my customers care.’”
Maldonado and others are educating customers not only on poke flavors and formats, but also about seafood sourcing and Hawaii’s fishing ecosystem. Some are also introducing guests to new products by stocking imported teas, pantry items, macadamia nuts and nori. Others are infusing traditional poke with their own heritage, incorporating Korean banchan or Laotian sauce blends.
As a result, L.A.’s poke landscape is more diverse and more thoughtful than ever before.
“I was proud that we had a poke shop doing pretty well in Hawaii,” said Ry’s Poke Shack co-owner Ryan Ching, who expanded his famous Oahu stand to Pasadena and Lomita earlier this year. “The next state that’s very competitive for the poke industry is California, so I figured if we start in the two hardest locations, then every other state should be a cakewalk.”
From stalwart South Bay spots to a new parking lot poke pickup in the San Fernando Valley, here are 13 of L.A.’s best poke spots. —Stephanie Breijo
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Ali'i Hawaiian Grill
Manhattan Beach Hawaiian $
(Angela Osorio / Los Angeles Times)
Just a mile away from the shores of Manhattan Beach, Ali’i Hawaiian Grill serves poke bowls with salmon drenched in ponzu sauce that melts in your mouth, a creamy garlic tuna and a light onion limu coated in soy sauce and Hawaiian salt. Try the signature potato mac salad and other Hawaiian dishes like the Kalua loco moco (rice topped with smoked kalua pork, two eggs and gravy), fried Teri salmon and Huli chicken.
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Aloha Poke and Grill
Carson Hawaiian $
(Angela Osorio / Los Angeles Times)
In an unassuming, standalone building on Main Street, you’ll find fresh poke available in a bowl or by the pound, with your choice of tuna or salmon coated in sauces like spicy mayo, wasabi and hot crunchy garlic. Choose from an array of Hawaiian and Filipino breakfast and lunch plates, including chicken katsu, Kalua pork and sweet longanisa (Filipino sausage). Filipino kambing (goat) dishes are also available, including kilawin (chopped goat skin marinated in vinegar, onion, ginger and spices) and adobo (goat meat cooked in vinegar, garlic and soy sauce).
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Dover Sole Market
Seafood $$
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Some of the city’s top poke is also its most elusive. This parking lot pop-up occurs weekly, usually appearing in Sherman Oaks and Koreatown though new locations are in the works. Longtime fish purveyor Kelsey Sachi Lee launched Dover Sole Market earlier this year in an effort to serve the fresh, high-quality but pared-down poke she ate while growing up on Oahu. The simplicity of her sauces and offerings — poke by the half-pound and pound in plastic deli cups — allows the product to shine. The star is her clean, ruby-red ahi, sourced meticulously from Hawaiian fishers each week and dressed lightly in either shoyu and onion or spicy mayonnaise and tobiko. Orders are placed in advance via Instagram messages, and the address is given once orders are confirmed.
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Fish King
Glendale Seafood $$
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
This stalwart Glendale fish market has been a poke mainstay since before the 2010s’ poke wave. While wholesaling seafood to a market in Hawaii, Fish King’s team saw how popular the item was on the islands and flew home with a few sample recipes. Now, poke is one of Fish King’s most popular dishes and comes in a range of five or six options daily. Poke is made in large batches each morning, and nearly always sells out by the end of the day. Drop by early to taste the fan favorites such as hamachi, salmon or ahi. The tuna is sliced into thick, meaty cubes carrying the scent of ginger, while scallops — lightly coated in mayonnaise — are plump and taste as if they’ve been plucked straight from the sea. Purchase any variety by the container and scoop it out with the reasonably priced, freshly fried wonton chips or tostadas, or enjoy as a poke bowl when ordered from the prepared-foods counter.
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Jus’ Poke
Redondo Beach
(Angela Osorio / Los Angeles Times)
South Bay native Stefanie Honda grew up making poke with her Hawaiian dad, a fond memory that later sparked the opening of the poke shack in Redondo Beach in 2014. It’s not uncommon to find a long line snaking out the door, with reggae music on full blast and Honda’s family pictures hang on the wall. Choose from eight poke flavors, including the creamy California roll with Japanese mayo, avocado, imitation crab, cucumber and tobiko and the spicy Hawaiian coated in bird pepper, shoyu, sesame oil, green onions and ogo (red seaweed). Enjoy your bowl at the indoor counter or head over to the beach, which is just under a 20-minute walk.
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Ohana Superette
Silver Lake Hawaiian $
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
L.A. poke fans let out a collective cheer when Ohana Superette recently returned after five years of closure. Owners Eric and Miriam Park built a loyal fan base when they initially ran their poke shop out of their Silver Lake deli, Black Hogg. It closed during the pandemic, but in 2025 they reopened it as its own standalone restaurant, and in its new wood- and marble-accented home this Ohana Superette is more sleek and also more streamlined: There are fewer add-ons, in an attempt to keep the poke more traditional, but the Parks still offer exceptional fish and sides that blend Hawaiian classics with their own Korean heritage. Look for options such as garlicky shrimp tossed with Thai chiles and fish sauce; tuna with shiso, sesame oil and onion; unagi salmon with sesame; and banchan such as oi-ji pickles, ponzu glass noodles, and fresh cucumber salad in kimchi dressing. Don’t leave without the brown-sugar Spam musubi.
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One Poke
El Segundo Hawaiian $
(Danielle Dorsey / Los Angeles Times)
This no-frills poke shop in an El Segundo business park lets you build your own bowls with up to three scoops of proteins such as spicy tuna, salmon, scallops, cooked tamago and octopus; toppings like cucumber, imitation crab, seaweed salad, pickled ginger and green onion; and sauces that range from mild teriyaki and spicy mayo to a fiery jalapeño. Order your salmon or tuna plain if you prefer fresh cubed pieces over pre-mixed versions. Proteins are tossed in shoyu and ponzu sauce then deposited into a bowl with the rest of the ingredients and topped with fried onions and sesame seeds. One Poke gets busy with local office workers during lunch hour, with indoor and outdoor tables for enjoying your bowl on-site.
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Poke Etc
Carson Hawaiian $
(Angela Osorio / Los Angeles Times)
Born in the Philippines and raised in Hawaii, Ofelia Shively started selling poke bowls in the back of a Carson grocery store in 2013. Wanting to bring authentic Hawaiian food to the South Bay, she opened her first Poke Etc location in Carson in 2014. Choose from over 10 options served with furikake rice, including creamy spicy mayo with tuna; octopus poke smothered in soy sauce and sesame oil and a spicy calamari salad. Visit Monday through Sunday for poke happy hour from 3 to 7 p.m., with tuna for $14.95 a pound and salmon for $20.95. Hawaiian breakfast plates are also available, including Spam and Portuguese sausage served with eggs and rice.
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Poke & More
Lomita Hawaiian Filipino $
(Angela Osorio / Los Angeles Times)
This Lomita hole-in-the-wall serves up fresh poke bowls and traditional Hawaiian dishes like loco moco (white rice topped with two beef patties, eggs and house-made gravy); a sizzling pork sisig (marinated pork belly with onions and bell peppers); Spam musubi, and a loaded burrito filled with your choice of poke, white rice, avocado, cucumber, seaweed salad, sushi ginger and wonton chips. Poke & More opened its first location in Long Beach in 2015, later opening an additional location in Lomita in 2024 due to popular demand. Visit on Tuesdays for a combo special featuring 8 ounces of poke, two scoops of rice and a drink for $12.79 (with tuna) or $13.49 (with salmon).
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Ry's Poke Shack
Pasadena Hawaiian $$
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
After building a North Shore poke destination, husband-and-wife team Ryan and Khannie Ching brought their famous fish to the mainland with an outpost in Huntington Beach in 2025, and then in Pasadena and Lomita earlier this year. Ryan, born and raised on Oahu, began with a food truck and a simple premise: Serve high-quality poke and keep it as fresh as possible by hand-mixing every dish to order. By not allowing his seafood to sit in sauces throughout the day, it better allows the fish to maintain its natural texture and flavor — though Ry’s Poke Shack sauces are flavorful too. They coat ahi, salmon, tofu and specials in classics such as limu, shoyu and spicy tobiko, while more unique flavors draw on Khannie’s heritage with options like a spicy Laos blend of Thai chiles, garlic and fish sauce or the lemongrass-heavy Papa Bid Spesho. Order the hand-mixed fish by the pound, as a rice bowl or salad, or atop the signature nachos.
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SweetFin
Santa Monica Seafood $
(Danielle Dorsey / Los Angeles Times)
The sunny Southern California-based poke chain is one of your best bets for satisfying a raw seafood craving for less than $15. Plus, you can feel good knowing that the fish you’re eating was sourced ethically. While the menu is focused on fresh fish, vegan options and land-based proteins also are available, and the entire menu is gluten-free. Signature bowls feature albacore tuna tossed in yuzu kosho and white truffle oil, yellowfin doused in sriracha ponzu and salmon coated in a black garlic gochujang sauce. The brand also collaborates with influencers on limited-time bowls, like a new option from podcaster Brooke Schofield with line-caught yellowfin, mango, jalapeños, house-made Zab’s hot honey ponzu and hot honey wasabi mayo served over sushi rice..SweetFin also lets you build your own bowls and offers bowls catered to different diets, such as “functional” bowls that claim to boost immunity and brain power.
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Tangaroa Fish Market
Culver City Seafood $$
(Danielle Dorsey/Los Angeles Times)
This Maori-owned seafood market and restaurant is a destination for New Zealand snapper and ora king salmon along with seafood staples such as spicy tuna crispy rice, a 1-pound lobster roll and cioppino. The poke can be ordered with ora king salmon or tuna doused in a house sesame ponzu sauce, and comes with avocado, sushi rice, seaweed salad, pickled cucumbers and ginger, carrots and wonton chips that are big enough to pile high with ingredients like nachos. Grab a seat on the wraparound patio or in the breezy interior and take down a bowl alongside a glass of New Zealand rosé.
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Unreal Poke
Arcadia Hawaiian $$
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
The case by the register is packed with gleaming mounds of ahi poke. Some are flecked with imported Hawaiian seaweed and slivered onion, others with ginger and scallion in a nod to Hainan chicken. Beneath them are heaps of traditional Hawaiian sides such as mac salad, seaweed salad and a vibrant purple ’uala mash. With shelves of imported pantry goods and a range of traditional poke by the pound or in bowls, Unreal Poke’s new bricks-and-mortar restaurant is an ode to Hawaiian cuisine and Kanaka culture.
“I tell people when you step into those four walls, you’re on the Big Island now,” said co-founder and native Hawaiian Jordan Maldonado. “I miss home so much that I’ve created a space for myself and my community.”
In 2023 he and longtime collaborator Imran Ashraf co-founded Unreal Poke as a pop-up in honor of Maldonado’s late grandmother, who sold food from her trunk in Hawaii. Their new Arcadia restaurant offers an extended menu of poke, including limited-quantity premium ahi that’s sourced from Hawaiian fisherman and flown in every other day. It also offers newer items such as the ’uala mash and kalua pig. In addition to the Arcadia storefront, Unreal Poke can also be found at Smorgasburg on Sundays.
“I tell people when you step into those four walls, you’re on the Big Island now,” said co-founder and native Hawaiian Jordan Maldonado. “I miss home so much that I’ve created a space for myself and my community.”
In 2023 he and longtime collaborator Imran Ashraf co-founded Unreal Poke as a pop-up in honor of Maldonado’s late grandmother, who sold food from her trunk in Hawaii. Their new Arcadia restaurant offers an extended menu of poke, including limited-quantity premium ahi that’s sourced from Hawaiian fisherman and flown in every other day. It also offers newer items such as the ’uala mash and kalua pig. In addition to the Arcadia storefront, Unreal Poke can also be found at Smorgasburg on Sundays.
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