Loki Poké: ‘A satisfying and Instagrammable lunch’ – takeaway review

It must be the perfect day to open a restaurant in Wapping Wharf – for the first time in what feels like forever, the sun is shining and the sky is a truly gorgeous shade of July blue. It feels like a day quite literally custom-designed for a lunch moment by the harbour.

With sunglasses dusted off and placed firmly on my nose, I wander down to the opening of CARGO’s newest culinary resident, Loki Poké, for what promises to be a totally wholesome and very nutritious midday meal.

Planted between Dog Town and Frankly Store, Loki Poké offers the traditional Hawaiian dish, poke. In its literal form, poke means ‘sliced and diced’ – a dish of chopped raw fish. Traditionally served in the form of tuna, Loki Poké also offers salmon, chicken and tofu options to suit everyone.

The converted shipping container, now home to Loki, can only be described as dinky. With room for no more than a couple of people perusing at a time, it is cosy while remaining light and airy – think sardine can, but with a window to the outside world.

Smiling faces from the team at Loki Poke, which has opened in Wapping Wharf – photo: Robin Connolly

The idea is to order a ‘house bowl’, pre-designed to Loki Poké’s own recipe, or to build your own, mixing and matching bases, proteins, veg, crunch and sauce, with a whole range of choices to decide from.

I’m greeted by two delightful servers, with what you can tell are massive grins even from behind their masks. They’ve got that fresh, opening day energy and are clearly excited to talk about the array of ingredients in front of them.

Asked what they’d recommend, they instantly share their thoughts, with one opting for tuna and another salmon. After a short debate about the pros and cons of different fish, sauces and pickles, I opt for a regular tuna house bowl, with a base of half sushi rice, half slaw (£10.95).

While my bowl is assembled, Loki Poké’s founder, Georgia, explains that she discovered poke while she was living in Sydney and was inspired to bring the dish to the UK. She says Loki is an example of yet another lockdown lovechild, which she conceived during those bleak, mid-pandemic stricken days and is now ready to take Bristol by storm.

A satisfying and Instagrammable lunch – photo: Robin Connolly

Once built, sauced and ready to go, I take my bowl and leave CARGO’s Unit 3, ambling along by the water to try and find a spot to sit and eat.

With its bright array of colours and neat organisation, lunch has never felt so Instagrammable.

Appearance aside, the bowl goes down a treat. When I was ordering, Georgia and her colleague chuckled that poke would give “good mouth feels”, and blimey, they are not wrong. I’m getting crunch from the slaw, the best kind of slime from the pickled cucumber, soft yet tough from the tuna and warm from the rice. It’s a whole sensory experience, and I’m loving it.

The best way I can describe it – and this may just be the bowl I chose – is like deconstructed sushi. I’ve got the rice, the seaweed, the fish and the vegetables, yet rather than being rolled into neat and fiddly little parcels, the ingredients are perched in easily accessible piles.

My only comment would be that I quite literally could not get enough of the miso sesame sauce that crowns the dish. It is stupidly tasty, yet I could have done with a gravy boat of the stuff on the side, rather than the drizzle I’ve got on top.

Note to self: next time, ask for miso in a pint glass.

I’m left satisfied without being over-full. While poke sits on the pricey side for lunch, it was definitely worth treating myself – far more exciting than the meal deal I would have no doubt scranned on any other Wednesday afternoon.

Loki Poké, Museum Street, Wapping Wharf, Bristol, BS1 6WP
0117 251 0327
www.lokipokeuk.com

Main photo: Robin Connolly

Read more: Pony Bistro: ‘A flawless next chapter for the Pony & Trap’ – restaurant review