Big Fish Little Fish

It's good poke and in a convenient location that is walking distance to many buildings/offices and easily accessibly by public transit. I went during off-lunch hours so it wasn't busy at all - there were plenty of tables and staff milling about. Why, then, did it seem to take so long to get service? And while the poke bowls here were good, I don't think I would "crave" them like I do with other places. For that price, I think I would prefer to go to another location. So summary is, ehh, it's pretty good and definitely filling, but a bit pricier than I would like and could be a bit tastier.

I'm so stocked Big Fish Little Fish opened up in the financial district. Up until this point, all there has really been for poke in the area is Coast Poke which is about 2 out of 5 stars. Big Fish Little Fish uses quality fish and octopus and has a wide spread of additional toppings from which you can choose as many as you like. They are very generous with their portions and the flavors are wonderful. It's located in the outside center area of the Rincon Center with ample seating both indoors as well as outside. I just went there again for lunch today and already ready to go back tomorrow.

There’s a reason why I avoid mall food. It’s just not that good. The shrimp was soggy and the toppings selection wasn’t great. The service was good and fast, but it’s fast food poke and that’s not a great experience. I tried the sesame and sweet onion sauce hoping it would add some flavor to the poke, it didn’t help much. The meal was not worth $14 for a small bowl of poke.

If all you care about is the quality of the fish, then I think you'll be OK here but if you're looking for an efficient and environmentally conscious restaurant, this is not the place. There was no line when I arrived at 11:30am and they had all the ingredients for their signature bowls but for some reason they weren't offering them. Strange but I just ordered a bowl with the same ingredients as their "Everybody Loves Spicy Tuna" bowl. Their spicy tuna is like nothing I've seen at a poke place before nor does it look like anything on their website. It's finely chopped/pureed tuna that's more like a paste than the chunks of fish you'd expect. It was OK but not the spicy tuna flavor I was used to in Hawaii or other local Poke places in SF. They also have a wasteful order assembly process where they use an aluminum tray to hold your fish while the rest of your bowl is assembled and then they just throw it away (hopefully recycled) when they put the fish on top. This makes no sense when they could easily just change the order in which they place ingredients. I think this place is new so I'll go back in a few months to see if things have improved.