Vegan POKÉ option comes to Manhattan Ave

Poke Zest located on 629 Manhattan Ave in Brooklyn is my NEW go-to for fresh vegetables, legumes, grains and bowls as deep as the grand canyon.

About two weeks ago, I had been walking on Manhattan Ave and spotted construction being done on this store front. Signs, flyers and posters covered the front of the store advertising for this BRAND NEW establishment called Poke Zest. My first thought: PLEASE HAVE VEGAN OPTIONS.

For those that do not know, Poke means to "cut or slice" in Hawaiian and refers to a raw FISH salad is over a rice and vegetable base. So chances of a spot having vegan options...not likely.

As you walk up to the counter at Poke Zest, you are given a long slip of paper and a pencil aka what you will use to order. You can choose from variety of appetizers like portabello mushroom buns, silk tofu, side salads and small sushi rolls. They offer teriyaki rice bowls with your choice of protein that are packed with kale, onions, carrots, yellow squash and purple cabbage. They also offer house specials which are proteins mixed with different vegetable and sauce combinations. I would 100% advise you to BUILD YOUR OWN because their toppings are endless! (seriously look at those awesomely cut and crunchy-looking veggies pictured above)

How to order (what I ordered is in bold):

Choose a size: Regular (2 scoops) and Large (3 scoops)

Choose your base: Sushi white rice, brown rice, mixed greens, zucchini noodles and quinoa.

Pick your protein: With the large you get to pick THREE proteins so I chose all three vegan options: silken tofu, portabella mushrooms and soy seitan chorizo.

Pick you toppings:

1. Premium toppings (are 2$ extra): avocado, boiled egg, guacomole, korean kimchi, masago and seaweed salad

2. Veggies (Up to 4 and after that are $1.50 extra: black beans, carrot, cherry tomato, cucumber, edamame, jalapeno, kale, mango, oodo seaweed, purple cabbage, red radish, sweet corn, yellow squash

3. Finishes (UNLIMITED): cilantro, furkake, himalyan sea salt, nori, pickled ginger, pickled radish, red onion, scallions, seasame seeds, togarshi, white onion, wasabi.

4. Crunch (choose 1 and extra is $1.50): almond slices, crispy wontons, fried garlic, fried shallots, garbanzo beans, tempura flakes, toasted rice puffs,tortilla strips, wasabi peas

5. Sauces (choose 1 and extra is $1.50): caviar mango, ginger dressing, poppy seed dressing, spicy soy mustard, thai sweet chili, wasabi aioli,

I also ordered two appetizers: the seaweed salad because I am literally obsessed with seaweed salad and edamame because extra protein of course.

At this point, I am so excited because it just sounds like a lot of food and portion sizes literally make or break a restaurant for me!

This place did not slack AT ALL on the amount of food they gave. The food felt like it went on FOREVER. After an hour and a half of continuous eating and talking, I still wasn't even half way done with my bowl. That to me, is EVERYTHING. I love a place that does not skimp on the quantity of food. You know what I love even more, a place that really focuses on the QUALITY of the food. Every vegetable was super crunchy, fresh and cut uniformly. The protein was seasoned really well. The sauce was AMAZING. Everything about this bowl was PERFECTION. You know what I love even MORE than quality and quantity of the food, excellent customer service.

After my sister and I had an entire photo shoot with our glorious POKE bowls, the owner (I believe) came over to us and said "I have one more thing for you...something special" and then gave us the sweetest smile and giggle EVER. She then proceeded to place this dish on our table and say "This dish is not on the menu. I usually serve this dish with fish but by your order I assumed you do not eat fish so I made a special version just for you!". It was sushi rice fried, topped with avocado, soy seitan chorizo and some really bangin' sauce. The owner came to check on us multiple times and asked us how everything was. Every single time, I responded which some different noise and saying like "oh my god this is amazing".

They just opened about a week ago and their currently CASH ONLY. Check them out soon because before you know it they will have a LINE out the door.