North Shore Poke CO and Banzai Bowl in Huntington Beach, CA

A few weeks ago, I hung out with my sis in Huntington Beach. We were both hungry and looking for a place to eat. We actually were going to eat in Long Beach, but we couldn't find the sushi place, despite circling around for 20 minutes. -__-She suggested we try this poke place in HB so we drove over.

North Shore Poke Co. in Huntington Beach, CA. A casual order&eat place on Main St.

Cute kitschy interior

I walked in and was greeted by a very (read: overly) friendly and enthusiastic cashier named Tiffany, covered with those rainbow colored fabric leis. Some people are just super happy and upbeat naturally; but if I were like that all the time, I don't know how I could muster up enough energy for an hour lol. To each their own.

How you order: 1) Choose tuna, salmon, or albacore fish and regular or large size, 2) Choose white rice, brown rice, or cucumber salad, 3) Choose from four different poke sauces (you can split your bowl and order two different sauces), 4) Add optional toppings such as mango, avocado, smelt egg, or ogo (Hawaiian seaweed).

For those that may not know what poke is, poke (or also spelled poki) is raw fish usually dressed with Hawaiian seaweed, green onion, sesame oil, and soy sauce, typically found in Hawaiian cuisine but becoming increasingly popular in the US.

North Shore Poke Co. lets you choose from four different poke sauces

Pipeline: Classic preparation with soy sauce

Waimea: spicy mayo based sauce with smelt eggs

Sunset: Soy sauce-based with a spicy kick

Haleiwa: Coconut juice and wasabi added 

I like different textures so I wanted to order their poke nachos, but the girl said it's more like an appetizer with 2 oz of poke. The regular poke bowls come with 4 oz and the large bowls come with 6 oz, I believe. My sister and I were hungrryy so we split a large poke bowl with Haleiwa sauce ($ since the coconut juice sounded interesting. I added mango ($1 charge), the sweetness sounded like a good juxtaposition to the savory poke. I still wanted chips and the hyper cashier girl told me their chips are suuper good so I ordered some on the side for $2.

Haleiwa style poke, cucumber salad, Hawaiian Sun, chips

Our food! Okay first I have to say that since the girl raved about their chips, I was expecting them to be made in store and super fresh, especially since I paid $2 extra. Uh no, I watched the guy pour some chips from a big bag onto a paper plate. Hmm... okay... but to be honest even if they were from a bag, the chips were really good!

Looks boring but I love Japanese marinated cucumber salad. They have this at my work too and it's super addicting to me. My sister said it tastes funny but I think it's crisp and refreshing (better than at my work, shh :X)

Poke!

Piece de resistance. Not gonna lie, it looks better than it tastes haha. The mango was a really nice touch, but I was underwhelmed by the poke. The fish was fresh but the I couldn't taste any wasabi at all, even though it was supposed to be the main thing to set this poke apart from the others.

My adorable sister! Ain't she a cutie

We wanted dessert and this was just next door. Everyone has been raving about Banzai Bowls, 

so we stepped in. They have fruit smoothies that have cool ingredients like acai and goji berries.

Hmm, gee I wonder if Volcom owns this place... lol

My sister goes here often so she ordered for us. You walk into a small hallway to see a counter and cashier. You order and turn to the right into this area. Cute!

Me! :)

I tipped. Jk, I didn't hahaha

We got a Maui Sunrise, small $6.75 Huge portion for a small!
Inside is: coconut milk, pineapple juice, acai, bananas, strawberries, mango.

My sister is very impatient and dug in before I could take a proper picture -_-
I like bananas, but hate when they are blended into something, like yogurt or smoothies. So we asked for no bananas blended in, but bananas on top would be fine. I think the guy that was making it messed up and forgot to exclude bananas. He hesitated, asked if any of us were allergic to bananas. We said no and he handed it to us.

On top: bananas, blueberries, strawberries, coconut flakes, granola, and honey.

I take a bite and yep, there is definitely banana in the smooth boo. The smoothie underwhelmed me too, I guess Huntington Beach doesn't like me :( I felt like the smoothie would have benefited a lot from some milk or some sort of creaminess. It was pretty tart and I couldn't really taste any acai at all. I only took a few bites and let my sister finish the rest. Bleh.

Time for real dessert--Dippin Dots!

Afterwards we stopped by the beach and I was definitely not satisfied by Banzai Bowl, 

so we stopped at a little beach hut and got Dippin Dots! 

Brought back memories from when I would go to Disneyland with my family and always eat Dippin Dots :)

Mandatory generic beach picture

Although North Shore Poke Co and Banzai Bowl were not that good and I probably won't be going back, Huntington Beach is always a nice place to hang out with friends and just chill.