goPoke
Recommended by: We discovered that the owner of Dochi is the brother of the owner of goPoke down a few blocks. We really enjoy the poke there, so it’s time for a revisit and review.
Description on the goPoke’s website: Authentic Hawaiian Poke and Desserts.
Neighborhood/Type: ID (International District)
Address:625 S King St, Seattle, WA 98104
What we ate/drank: 12th Man Bowl – Salmon, spicy aioli ahi, spicy aioli salmon, fried garlic, edamame, ocean saled, ginger, krab salad, cucumber. Aloha Bowl – Sweet sirracheeahi, shoyu shaka ahi, mango salmon. Classic Salmon, spicy ahi bowl
Comments: goPoke opened in late 2016 right in the middle of the Seattle poke craze where poke places were popping up like mushrooms. We briefly mentioned the saturation of poke places in our Stop N Shop Poke post. Many poke places have since closed up shop. We also predicted that the only poke places that would survive will be the ones who emphasize quality and customer service and goPoke has both.
Poke in Hawaiian means “to cut/to slice” and is a Hawaiian dish of raw fish cut into cubes and typically marinated in soy sauce, green onion and sesame oil. At goPoke they have pre-designed bowls or you can create your own bowl. Like most poke places they have a Subway/Chipoltle model of picking your ingredients until your bowl is completed with your choices of rice, poke and toppings.
They make a concerted effort to keep line moving fast, but will allow you to sample the poke if you can’t make up your mind. That’s a nice touch.
Depending on how many choices of poke you choose for your bowl – 1, 2 or 3 are priced at $11, $13, $15 respectively. You might be thinking this is a little on the high side for poke. We agree, but the generous portions, various poke choices and quality fish definitely make the few extra bucks justified in our mind.
There’s also something comforting knowing that the owners originated from Hawaii and that they pretty much survived as a family selling poke there. So they must know what they’re doing. I encourage you to read this Seattle Met article that provides some background into the family history of the owners. Their father was a Ahi tuna fisherman and the children sold fish door to door. Their mother created and refined a poke recipe and they sold it at flea markets and small local shops.
A lot of poke places seem like they were opened as an afterthought. Like “Poke seems easy enough. I’ll open a poke place!” goPoke seems like a real sustainable business. It feels like real thought was put into goPoke. The ingredients are quality(that’s obvious), it’s always clean, there’s a Hawaiian theme(shaved ice w/li hing mui powder, Dole whip, keiki menu, Hawaiian Sun, span musubi), their assembly line process is efficient, the space is big, updated and airy for being in the ID(International District).
A true indication of a good business is the mood of the employees. They seem to be hard working, but genuinely happy to be working there and friendly.
We’re pretty certain that you won’t see anymore poke places reviewed here. Unless some new outlier brings something totally fresh to the poke Seattle landscape, goPoke, Stop N Shop Poke and Seattle Fish Guys are our defacto poke places in Seattle.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: 4.50
Service: 5.00
Food/Drinks: 4.75
Bang for the Buck: 4.50
Overall: 4.65
Locals Only Factor: “Locals Only” grading-We’ll assign a grading as to how “local” a place is.
-
- Well known or Touristy. Most locals don’t go there unless they have business dinners or visitors in town.
- Most locals know about it
- Locals “in the know” know about it
- Only those who live close by know about it.
- You’re in on the secret. Don’t tell anybody!
Servers recommendations to visit in the future:
Related Articles:
Dochi
Recommended by: After our Donut Factory review posted, a reader tipped us off to another doughnut(actually a mochi doughnut) place that opened in the International District called, Dochi.
Description on the Dochi’s website: Mochi donuts are a pleasant cross between the sweet and chewy Japanese rice dessert and the classic American fried donut. As you bite into the dochi, you will feel a slight crunch on the outside with a soft, and chewy center. They’re glazed with our many exotic flavors and delicious toppings you won’t find anywhere.
Neighborhood/Type: ID (International District)
Address: 600 5th Ave S, Seattle, WA 98104
What we ate/drank: Cookies & Cream w/ Cookie Butter, Ube Glazed, Matche Oreo, Strawberry Shortcake
Comments: Very similar to when hot spots like Cinnaholic and Snowy Village first came to Seattle, there were massive lines, long waits and a billion Instagram posts when Dochi opened. Dochi opened in August of last year and now that 6 months have passed, we figured that it was safe to go now without the waits. Our hunch paid off. When we went this past Friday afternoon, there were only a few people ahead of us. A far cry from a line out the door and down the block as you can see in the attached video below.
Dochi is not from LA, not from SF, not from NY, nor Hawaii, but a transplant from the hotbed of Japanese food, Orlando FL. Orlando?!?! Yes, you read that right. This combination of Japanese mochi and the American doughnut originated in Orlando.
Dochi is actually located in the food court of Uwajimaya. It’s actually in the location of a former takoyaki stand, so that tells you how small it is. For those of you not from Seattle, Uwajimaya is the defacto Asian market in Seattle that’s been in business for close to 100 years. It’s a small little stand and only open Thurs – Sun. Their hours on Sat and Sun are 12pm – 6pm and Thurs and Friday are 11am-2pm, so you have a limited time frame to come here.
The small booth has three workers – order taker, packer and cashier, so the line moves pretty fast.
On the day we went they had four choices available- Cookies & Cream w/ Cookie Butter, Ube Glazed, Matche Oreo, Strawberry Shortcake. Our understanding is that the flavors are always changing. Each dochi is $3 and $16 per half dozen. We got 2 of each flavor, so they charged us for a half dozen and two additional dochi.
The dochi come in a Tiffany blue colored box, which upon opening you see, “You Deserve This”. Genius marketing implying that this is a special treat. This is not a flimsy box either. It’s pretty sturdy, which also adds to the feeling of the dochi being something special.
The main differences between the dochi and your regular doughnut is the texture and it’s unique shape. Dochi is not like a cake or raised doughnut. It’s crispy on the outside and very chewy like mochi. Although it’s chewier than a cake doughnut, we’ve never had mochi doughnuts and were expecting it to be really chewy and gooey like regular mochi.
We really love the shape of the dochi. It’s like 8 doughnut balls that are connected together. You can either eat it as a regular doughnut or tear it apart and divide the 8 little doughnut balls to share. This design is great for our daughters. We can tell them that they can have three balls which is basically 3/8 of a dochi and they can easily measure it out for themselves.
It’s a little food stand, so the dochi are not made on site. If you have the opportunity, microwave them and it’ll make your eating experience much better. If they open a real brick and mortar location with a kitchen, these would be great fresh out of the oven.
We had about 10 taste testers who ate portions of the 8 doughnuts we got. Here are their cumulative rankings:
- Matcha Oreo
- Cookies & Cream w/ Cookie Butter
- Ube Glazed
- Strawberry Shortcake
As mentioned, we love that you can easily portion out the doughnut due to its shape and the taste of the doughnuts are fine. Is it better than Top Pot, Mighty-O, Tempesta, General Porpoise Doughnuts, Half N Half Doughnut Co or The Donut Factory? Nah. Would we wait in line for 15 or more minutes? Nah. Would we make a special trip to the ID(International District) and deal with traffic or parking for it? Nah. But Dochi will definitely be a regular stop whenever visiting Uwajimaya for groceries and I think it’s uniqueness does make a good pick up for out of town guests.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: N/A – It’s just a stand.
Service: 4.50
Food/Drinks: 4.50
Bang for the Buck: 4.00
Overall: 4.35
Locals Only Factor: “Locals Only” grading-We’ll assign a grading as to how “local” a place is.
-
- Well known or Touristy. Most locals don’t go there unless they have business dinners or visitors in town.
- Most locals know about it
- Locals “in the know” know about it
- Only those who live close by know about it.
- You’re in on the secret. Don’t tell anybody!
Servers recommendations to visit in the future: We discovered that the owner of Dochi is the brother of the owner of goPoke down a few blocks. We really enjoy the poke there, so it’s time for a revisit and review.
Related Articles:
Mike’s Noodle House
Recommended by: A fellow diner at Dough Zone Dumpling House advised they were there, because they intended to go to Mike’s Noodle House, but it had a long wait and mentioned they had the best Wonton Soup in Seattle.
Description on the Mike’s Noodle House website: Not surprisingly, they ain’t got one.
Neighborhood/Type: International District
Address: 418 Maynard Ave S, Seattle, WA 98104
What we ate/drank: Wonton Noodle Soup, Wonton & Beef Brisket Noodle Soup
Comments: Update 9/22/19: Mike’s Noodle House just made Seattle Met’s 100 Best Restaurant
You can call Mike’s Noodle House, “The Il Corvo of the ID(International District)”. Like Il Corvo, Mike’s Noodle House has the following qualities:
- It has a loyal following that often leads to lines out the door.
- It has a limited amount of seats, so don’t be surprised if you’re sharing a table with fellow diners.
- Noodles(and wontons) are their specialty.
Like many places in the ID, Mike’s Noodle House is a no frills establishment. If you’re looking for pristine conditions and over the top service, this ain’t your place. If you want fast efficient service and great food that’s served very quickly, then you’ll love Mike’s Noodle House.
First things first, CASH ONLY. Don’t get caught going out on a date and only having plastic on you.
One of the things I like about Mike’s Noodle House’s Wonton Soup is the soup is very subtle and not overpowering. It reminds me a little of saimin. The plump wontons each have an entire shrimp and ground pork that are encased within the thin, but sturdy wrapping. The noodles are long, thin and plentiful.
One of the nice touches is that they provide a pair of scissors when we are sharing a bowl of soup with our 2 yr old. They bring a small bowl for her. If you’ve ever tried to transfer long noodles from one bowl to another, you know it’s going to be a mess. Having the scissors there to cut the noodles during the transfer from bowl to bowl is ingenious. I’ve not seen this in any other restaurant before.
I typically order the OG, Wonton Noodle Soup that comes with 5 wontons. The soup doesn’t come with any veggies which is a bit unusual. My wife orders the Wonton Noodle Soup with Beef Brisket. Their soups are perfect during the cold months in Seattle. Another cool feature is the big window that you can peer through as the cooks prepare the dishes.
In summary, you may have to wait, you may have to sit with strangers, you won’t be getting any travel point since you can’t use a credit card and you won’t get a warm greeting or small talk from the staff, but the soup is totally worth it.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: 3.75
Service: 4.00
Food/Drinks: 5.00
Bang for the Buck: 5.00
Overall: 4.35
Locals Only Factor: “Locals Only” grading-We’ll assign a grading as to how “local” a place is.
-
- Well known or Touristy. Most locals don’t go there unless they have business dinners or visitors in town.
- Most locals know about it
- Locals “in the know” know about it
- Only those who live close by know about it.
- You’re in on the secret. Don’t tell anybody!
Servers recommendations to visit in the future: The servers here are too busy for small talk. But a funny story. We were here eating before going to a friend’s house warming party. We noticed a couple that came in around the same time as we did. We end up at the house warming party and noticed the same couple from Mike’s Noodle House there. We both laughed. Great minds think alike. We made some small talk and we both talked about how much we liked Mike’s Noodle House and asked for some of their other favorites. They recommended Xian Noodles in the University District as a place that specializes in biang biang noodles at a reasonable price.
Related Articles:
Dough Zone Dumpling House – International District
Recommended by: I briefly mentioned Dough Zone Dumpling House in my Little Kitchen review. Friends of ours gave their own opinion on who had the best dumplings in Seattle. They said if you take everything into consideration-price, quality, clean environment, taste, that Dough Zone Dumpling House was the best. We’d thought we’d revisit Dough Zone Dumpling House to see if they were right.
Description on the Dough Zone Dumpling House’s website: Our house special Q-bao are originated from the famous Shanghai Sheng Jian Bao (Pan Fried Buns). They are tasty buns fill with moist pork and wrapped with half fluffy, half crispy dough. Our Q-bao are made with quality ingredients and prepared in a traditional way. After being half steamed and half pan fried, buns are becoming soft on the top and crispy crust on the bottom. it’s PERFECTION.
Neighborhood/Type: International District
What we ate/drank: Pork Q Bao Buns, Beef Stew Noodles, Pork & Shrimp Steamed Dumplings, Pork Xiao Long Bao, Dan Dan Noodles, Broccoli w/Oyster Sauce, Pork Wonton in Szechuan Sauce
Comments: Update 9/22/19: Dough Zone Dumpling just made Seattle Met’s 100 Best Restaurant
You can call Dough Zone Dumpling House, “The Local Din Tai Fung” or “The Seattle Din Tai Fung”. It’s the restaurant that Dough Zone Dumpling House is most compared to. We thought about doing a Dough Zone vs Din Tai Fung review as part of our Food War Series, but the logistics were just too hard to pull off.
Our history with Din Tai Fung:
Back in 2013, Din Tai Fung opened their first Seattle location in University Village. At the time Din Tai Fung only had branches in Los Angeles and Bellevue in the entire US. The long waits started immediately. For the early goers who stood in line, there were bragging rights to have waited so long and posted pictures of meals on Instagram to rub it in their friends’ faces. To this day, we still enjoy Din Tai Fung. We love their efficiency and consistently delicious dishes, but we’ve got to admit, we’ve seen the price go up and up the last few years, which is warranted. Obviously, with long lines still happening anybody who took Econ 101 knows prices will rise until demand is met. And the demand is still there. When Din Tai Fung first opened we felt the food portions, the yumminess and the low prices at the time, made for a screaming deal. Screaming deal now days? Not so much.
Back to our Dough Zone Dumpling House story:
During this time(2014) we heard of a place in the Eastside that had a same type of fanatical following. We’d heard the stories of a place called, Dough Zone Dumpling House that had better food than Din Tai Fung. As you know from our Third Culture Coffee post, we don’t go to the Eastside much, so all we could do was speculate and wonder if the stories were true. We heard that they were expanding their empire on the Eastside with 2 Bellevue, a Redmond and Issaquah locations, so we knew it must be good to sustain 4 branches in a relatively small area.
Then in 2017 word that they were finally expanding to Seattle spread like wildfire. Finally we’d be able to taste for ourselves. In the Fall of 2017, Dough Zone Dumpling House opened in a brand new building in the ID(International District). Of course the lines started as soon as the restaurant opened. We figured we’d wait a bit and let them work out the kinks and perhaps the lines would die down. Our first time going was Christmas Eve of 2017 and we’ve been regulars ever since.
Like Din Tai Fung, there’s normally a long wait. We’ve been extremely lucky each visit we’ve made to Dough Zone in that we’ve been seated immediately. Thank you, Food Gods! And then when we leave the waiting area is packed and we look at each other and say, “perfect timing”.
The prices per dish are definitely cheaper, but smaller than Din Tai Fung. I think we prefer it this way, because we’ve been able to try a lot of different dishes without getting too full. And if you really like a certain dish you can always create your own bigger portion by ordering multiple orders.
The minute you sit down they give you a paper checklist to mark the dishes you want. They are literally back in 5 minutes to see if you’re ready. Like us, I’m sure most returning visitors have their favorite dishes already in mind, so a quick turn around must be normal. No matter how busy it is, the dishes come out in rapid fire succession shortly after ordering. If you’re starving, this is a good thing. If you’re there to have a leisurely meal and catch up with friends and family, shut your pie hole and start eating. There’s an angry mob of people on the wait list screaming to get a seat.
One of the best qualities of Dough Zone Dumpling House is that it is right across the street from the International District Link Light Rail Station, so if you use the Link Light Rail or any of the buses that use the tunnel, it’s super convenient to get to. We typically do take the Link Light Rail, but we’ve also just spent $20 worth of groceries at Uwajimaya a block away and got two hours of free parking.
Below are our ratings of some of our favorite dishes from our various visits. All are very good, but some are damn good!
Because we were advised to go hear specifically to compare the dumplings from our Little Kitchen’s Review, I have to say that Dough Zone’s are better than Little Kitchen’s dumplings, but not as good as Little Ting’s Kitchen.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: 4.50
Service: 4.75
Food/Drinks: 4.75
Bang for the Buck: 4.75
Overall: 4.70
Locals Only Factor: “Locals Only” grading-We’ll assign a grading as to how “local” a place is.
-
- Well known or Touristy. Most locals don’t go there unless they have business dinners or visitors in town.
- Most locals know about it
- Locals “in the know” know about it
- Only those who live close by know about it.
- You’re in on the secret. Don’t tell anybody!
Servers recommendations to visit in the future: Not a server recommendation, but a fellow diner at Dough Zone Dumpling House advised they were there, because they intended to go to Mike’s Noodle House, but it had a long wait and mentioned they had the best Wonton Soup in Seattle.
Related Articles: