Poke spots have definitely been on the rise lately and the newest one to pop up in D.C. is Poke Papa. The fast casual spot has a menu with seven pre-built poke bowls, including a chicken option. You can also build your own bowl with all of your favorite toppings.

Poke Papa

When my friend and I visited, she opted to order one of the pre-designed bowls, the Volcano. You have your option of white, brown, or black rice with each bowl, my friend chose white rice to accompany the spicy tuna, jalapeno, scallions, masago, cilantro, sweet shoyu, and lava sauce. We were warned for sure, but this bowl was spicy. That lava sauce is not one to be messed with. It was delicious and the fish was so fresh even though she started to really sweat from the heat about halfway through the bowl. Fortunately she opted to add some pineapple to the bowl which helped temper some of the heat.

the Volcano

I wanted to build my bowl and perhaps went a little crazy – all the toppings looked so good so I tried almost all of them. For my base, I picked black rice and topped it with ahi tuna, lomi salmon, and spicy tuna. I really had to refrain myself from trying all the sauces so I went with the sweet shoyou (manager’s favorite) and the sriracha aioli. Next up were the toppings which is really where I went a little wild. I topped my bowl with edamame, pineapple, seaweed salad, masago, scallions, watermelon radish, onion, and pickled daikon. Even though I added so much to my bowl, the genius minds at Poke Papa made sure all the flavors would work well together and it was so delicious.

Build Your Own Poke Bowl

Poke Papa is located at 806 H St NW, Chinatown

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While this meal was paid for by Poke Papa, all views stated here are my own.