The Size Button Is a Fish Button: Poke in St. Louis
Revised October 15, 2026
What typically comes in a poke bowl?
Layers, from the bottom up: a base of rice or greens, cubed raw fish tossed in sauce, then toppings and a drizzle. Ahi tuna and salmon are the usual fish. At PokeDoke in the Central West End, a build-your-own Regular is three scoops of poke for $18.50, with cucumbers, onions and your pick of toppings.
Keep reading ↓The ahi is cold enough to feel through the fork. The rice under it is warm, and the spicy mayo and eel sauce slide off the fish and pool in the seam between them, so the last forkful at the bottom of the bowl is the best one. Fried onions crackle. Masago pops between your back teeth. That is the PokeDoke Bowl on South Euclid in the Central West End: three scoops of ahi tuna, seaweed salad, crabmeat, pineapple, edamame, fried onions and masago, for $18.50.
Now the part nobody tells you. Read that counter’s own menu and the size button turns out to be a fish button. A Small build-your-own bowl is two scoops of poke for $15.50. A Regular is three scoops for $18.50. A Large is four for $21.50. Every step up is one more scoop of fish and exactly $3, while the rice and the cup barely move. You are buying tuna by the scoop.
Which means the smartest bowl on that board is not the biggest one. Two scoops of ahi and one of salmon in a Regular costs the same $18.50 as three of ahi, because the scoops are mix or match. Two fish, one price, and a better lunch than the person behind you who tapped Large.
It is also worth knowing where you are standing. PokeDoke opened in the Central West End in autumn 2017, and St. Louis Magazine noted that at the time it was the first poke-centered restaurant in St. Louis. The counter still calls itself St. Louis’s first poke restaurant. If you have ever stood in a poke line anywhere in this metro, tapping a screen while four people breathe behind you, this is the counter that got here first.
Whether you are carrying lunch back to an office in Richmond Heights, feeding kids from O’Fallon, Illinois, or wondering if poke is still healthy once the sauce goes on, the bowl starts the same way.
What typically comes in a poke bowl?
Layers, from the bottom up: a base of rice or greens, cubed raw fish tossed in sauce, then toppings and a drizzle. Ahi tuna and salmon are the usual fish. At PokeDoke in the Central West End, a build-your-own Regular is three scoops of poke for $18.50, and the menu recommends picking a spice level, cucumbers and onions, and toppings.
Here is how to walk up to the counter at 23 South Euclid Avenue and order without freezing, word for word. Say “Regular, white rice.” That is three scoops for $18.50. Say “two ahi, one salmon.” Give them a spice level and say yes to cucumbers and onions, which is exactly what the menu itself recommends. Pick toppings you can name without staring at the board: seaweed salad, edamame, pineapple. Then one drizzle. If the bowl is riding back to a desk in Richmond Heights, add four more words: “drizzle on the side, please.” Want it waiting for you instead? The Euclid counter’s number is (314) 833-5900.
Why that order works: rice carries the sauce and keeps the bowl from eating like a plate of straight sashimi, and the cold fish against the rice is half the pleasure. Ahi is deep red and glossy once the sauce hits it. Salmon is softer, almost buttery. Cucumber gives cold crunch, onion gives bite, pineapple a hit of sugar. Three drizzles and nine toppings would bury the fish you just paid for.
Hawaiian poke at its roots is a shorter list: diced raw fish tossed in seasoning and eaten as a snack or a main, with no mountain of rice underneath. The build-your-own bowl grew out of that dish. It is related, not identical, and it helps to know which one you are ordering.
How do you say poke, and what does the word mean?
Two syllables. POH-kay. Not “poke” like a finger in somebody’s ribs. In Hawaiian the word means to slice, or to cut crosswise into pieces, so the dish is named for the knife work, not for the bowl it lands in.
That definition explains poke better than most menu boards do. When somebody behind the glass tells you the fish was cut this morning, they are talking about the exact part of the dish the word refers to. Everything else is seasoning laid over a knife cut.
Nobody at a counter is going to correct you, and plenty of regulars say it wrong for years. Still, it is a Hawaiian word for a Hawaiian dish, and getting it right takes one try.
How do you order a poke bowl without guessing?
Pick a base, pick one fish, pick one sauce, then stop. Almost all first-bowl regret comes from three drizzles and nine toppings burying the fish you just paid for. A default that works almost anywhere: white rice, ahi, shoyu, sweet onion, seaweed salad, scallion, sesame.
One fish, one sauce, the first time
Two proteins in one bowl means you taste neither clearly. Sauce works the same way. Spicy mayo is rich and it takes over, which is fine when that is what you came for, but it will flatten a delicate piece of salmon. Shoyu lets the fish come through cold and clean.
Start with the smallest bowl that has the fish you want
PokeDoke’s Mini is one poke scoop, up to three toppings and two drizzles, for $11. That is the cheapest way to find out whether you are an ahi person or a salmon person before you spend $18.50 on three scoops of the wrong one.
Ask, and ask for the sauce on the side
Ask which fish came in most recently. Ask what the house sauce tastes like. And if you are eating twenty minutes from now, ask for the drizzle on the side. Rice that has been sitting in spicy mayo since the counter turns to paste by the time you reach a desk in Richmond Heights.
The $3 scoop, and where a bowl quietly doubles
The expensive ingredient is the one you are actually buying. Fish meant to be eaten raw costs more at every step before it reaches the counter. Rice is cheap. Tuna is not. That is why the PokeDoke ladder climbs in clean $3 steps from Small to Regular to Large: each step is one more scoop of poke.
The other half of a big total is the add-ons. Extra scoops, premium toppings, a second drizzle, a side of crab rangoon because the person in front of you ordered one and the smell got you. Each one is small. Six of them are not. Build the bowl you want, then take two things back off before you pay. It is still the same bowl.
Lunch adds up fast. So do bank fees in St. Louis, and those are avoidable.
Is a poke bowl actually a healthy lunch?
The base bowl usually is. Fish, rice, vegetables and seaweed is a straightforward plate of protein, carbohydrate and produce. What changes the picture is what gets stacked on top: creamy drizzles, fried onions and crab salad are where most of the extra fat and sugar arrive.
Salt is the one people miss. Shoyu is salty. Seaweed salad is seasoned. Furikake and masago are salty. Stack four of them and the bowl gets genuinely salty in a way the rice hides while you eat. You notice it an hour later, reaching for water at your desk.
So here is the honest version. Rice, fish, vegetables and one soy-based sauce is a very good lunch. Three scoops under spicy mayo, eel sauce, crabmeat and fried onions is a different meal wearing the same name. Both are worth eating. Only one is what people mean when they call poke healthy.
Read the counter before you read the menu
You can judge a poke counter with your eyes before you order anything. The fish should look bright and firm, not grey, dull or sitting in liquid. The pans should sit down in ice or refrigerated wells, not stranded on a warm counter. Staff should change gloves and use separate scoops between pans. It takes about three seconds of looking.
Then time and temperature do the rest. Poke is meant to be kept cold and eaten soon. If you are carrying a bowl home to Creve Coeur or across the river to O’Fallon, Illinois, keep it cold in the car and eat it that day, not tomorrow.
Anyone pregnant, immunocompromised or told to avoid raw seafood should build the bowl around a cooked protein or tofu instead. This is general information, not medical advice, and your doctor’s guidance beats anything written here.
Not into raw fish? Order the cooked side of the menu
The person in your group who will not touch raw tuna is not stuck. PokeDoke’s own site sells Hawaiian BBQ right next to the poke, Kalbi short ribs included, with crab rangoons on the side. The same counter also runs Papa Shih’s, a Chinese brunch concept with soy milk, green onion pancakes and handmade pot stickers.
That cooked side comes from the Hawaiian plate lunch, the working meal the whole cuisine hangs on: one or two scoops of white rice, a scoop of macaroni salad and a hot main, often chicken katsu, teriyaki or Korean-style kalbi. It is food portioned to actually fill somebody up, and the macaroni salad is not a garnish.
- Raw-fish fan: a Regular build-your-own bowl, ahi, shoyu, one drizzle.
- Not sure yet: the $11 Mini with one scoop.
- No raw fish at all: the Hawaiian BBQ plates or a cooked-protein bowl.
Taste the $3 scoop for yourself, then compare. Start at the counter on South Euclid, then browse Hawaiian food spots across the metro on St Louis Near Me Directory and ask each one the same three things: how often the fish is cut, what is made in house, and what comes cooked. The gap between the answers tells you more than any menu board.
If you run the poke counter, the plate-lunch window or the truck with the rice cooker steaming before 11, this part is for you. The hungry person typing “poke near me” at 11:40 picks lunch before they ever see your door. A Gold listing puts your bowls, your cooked options and your hours where they are looking, so you get more customers for under a dollar a day. See how to list your spot.
Frequently asked questions
Is poke bowl really healthy?
The base usually is. Fish, rice, vegetables and seaweed is protein, carbohydrate and produce in one container. What shifts it is what you pile on top. Creamy drizzles, fried onions and crab salad add fat and sugar, and shoyu, furikake, masago and seaweed salad stack up more salt than most people taste. One soy-based sauce and plenty of vegetables makes a genuinely good lunch.
How is poke pronounced?
Two syllables, POH-kay. In Hawaiian the word means to slice or to cut crosswise into pieces, so the name describes what happens to the fish, not the bowl it is served in.
Why is poke so expensive?
Because raw-grade fish is the ingredient you are paying for, and it is sold by the scoop. On PokeDoke’s menu a Small build-your-own bowl is two scoops for $15.50, a Regular is three for $18.50 and a Large is four for $21.50, so each size up is one more scoop of fish and $3. Add-ons do the rest.
How to eat poke for beginners?
Start small and simple. One fish, one sauce, a few toppings. Ahi with shoyu, sweet onion, seaweed salad, scallion and sesame is a reliable first bowl. Mix it before the first bite so the sauce reaches the rice. If you want a cheap trial run, PokeDoke’s Mini is one scoop for $11.
Is it common to get sick from poke?
There is no honest number to hand you, and anyone quoting one is guessing. What matters is handling. Look for bright, firm fish, pans sitting in ice or refrigerated wells, and staff changing gloves between pans. Keep a take-out bowl cold and eat it the same day. Anyone pregnant or immunocompromised should choose cooked or tofu options. This is general information, not medical advice.
Do you eat a poke bowl hot or cold?
Eat the fish cold. Some counters put it over warm rice, which is why the first bite has that cold-on-warm contrast; just never heat the fish itself. Do not microwave leftovers. Keep a take-out bowl cold and eat it that day.
What is a typical Hawaiian plate lunch?
One or two scoops of white rice, a scoop of macaroni salad and a hot main, often chicken katsu, teriyaki or Korean-style kalbi. It is filling working food, and the mayonnaise-based macaroni salad is a real part of the plate.
More St. Louis guides
- Best sushi and Japanese food in St. Louis
- Seafood boils and crawfish in St. Louis
- The best restaurants in St. Louis
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