The Hawaiian cubed-fish dish: sashimi-grade ahi tossed with shoyu, sweet onion, sesame oil, limu seaweed and inamona kukui-nut salt. Eaten by the pound at counters and over two scoops of rice as a bowl.
Where to eat it: 4 restaurants across 1 city.
Poke (Hawaiian for 'to cut crosswise') was pre-contact reef-fish scraps tossed with limu salt at the shoreline. The dish came onto the modern Hawaiian table when Foodland and Tamashiro Market in Kalihi began selling prepared shoyu-ahi poke from the 1970s. Maguro Brothers Hawaii in Chinatown's Kekaulike Market formalized the sashimi-grade fresh-from-the-Honolulu-Fish-Auction version in 2014. Foodland Farms Ala Moana now runs a 20-variation poke bar; Ono Seafood in Kapahulu sells the most-affordable two-scoop bowl in the city.
Common allergens: Fish, Soy
Tip from the editors. Sashimi-grade fish only. If your fishmonger sells it labelled for raw consumption, you are safe; if not, freeze 24 hours at -20C first.
Ono Seafood in Honolulu: Tourists go to Foodland for poke; locals come to this Kapahulu storefront for the sashimi-grade shoyu ahi at half the price.
Why locals love it: Tourists go to Foodland for poke; locals come to this Kapahulu storefront for the sashimi-grade shoyu ahi at half the price.
Tip: Closed Sunday and Monday. No inside seating; sells out by 16:00 weekends.
Maguro Brothers Hawaii Chinatown is a two-brother poke counter inside Kekaulike Market; the Tsuchiya brothers source from the Honolulu Fish Auction at dawn.
Why locals love it: The two-brother poke counter inside Kekaulike Market sells out by 13:00 and never opens past lunch, so Waikiki visitors miss it.
Tip: Monday to Saturday 09:00-14:00. The Tsuchiya brothers source from the Honolulu Fish Auction at dawn.
Off the Hook Poke Market is manoa valley is twenty minutes off the tourist track but uh manoa students fill the counter for the city's best two-scoop bowls.
Why locals love it: Manoa Valley is twenty minutes off the tourist track but UH Manoa students fill the counter for the city's best two-scoop bowls.
Tip: Closed Sunday. Order via the website for pickup to skip the lunch queue.
Foodland Farms Ala Moana in Honolulu is the flagship of the local grocery chain that calls itself Hawaii's Home for Poke, with a 20-variety poke bar.
Tip: The Mauka Makai poke counter at the back of the store is the canonical Foodland order; bento and pipikaula at the deli.
More cities are in research. Want poke covered somewhere specific? Tell us where you want to eat.