BYO Poke is a newly opened DELIVERY kitchen in Motor City. As its name suggests it specialises in Hawaiian Poke, which by the way is pronounced (poh-KAY) and rhymes with okay. Just to give you an idea of how popular poke has become in recent years, there are no less than seven poke delivery points between Studio City, Motor City and Sports City – five of them in Motor City alone. Poke is okay!
This is how you receive your food 
Jumbled up inside 
That’s a long, long receipt 
Shaken…not stirred 
Out of the box
Using the Zomato app the ordering process was easy and also eligible for a 25% discount – a welcome relief considering a large poke bowl costs nearly AED80! Like many of the other poke start-ups, BYO encourages you to build your own poke bowl. You’re offered a base upon which you thrown in whatever you like. It’s an easy process with enough options to satisfy almost everyone. Portion sizes are not US but they’re not miserly either. I was happily stuffed with my medium whereas my wife couldn’t finish her small bowl (I sometimes think she does this on purpose, so we all comment on how little she eats).
Medium 
Small 
Medium
Zomato’s live online tracking made the (roughly) 40-minute order-to-door wait a lot more bearable (and entertaining). What I did not appreciate, however, was the state in which the food arrived; each of the plastic bowls looked as if they had been shaken…not stirred (sorry, I couldn’t resist). That aside, our self-made concoctions were…um, okay but nothing in the same league as my favourite, Poke Poke. I think the problem with BYO (and others like it) lies in its build-a-poke process. You don’t find Japanese restaurants offering build-a-sushi so why poke? You should get what they make; their creation. And if it has roughnesses, pimples and warts…so be it.
Although this was far from bad, I will stick to my set-piece poke favourites and leave the adventure of building ones own to those who are so inclined. I would have rated BYO a 3.0 from 5.0 but the messy state in which we received our food means I will give it a Ravenous Rating of 2.5 out of 5.0.
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Xerxes physically dines at, or orders from, each and every venue he reviews. He pays in full for whatever he and his companions eat, drink, take away or occasionally throw at each other. Xerxes accepts no money, gifts, discounts or free meals in return for reviews or favouritism. What you have read was NOT influenced in any way by the venue. Join me on Instagram @ravenousxerxes or email me on xerxes@dellara.com.