Poke Stop - Elmer Guzman Serves Up Excellent Seafood
Fran Wilson Magbual, Food Adventurer & Seafood Lover
July 2005

[Editor's Note: Elmer Guzman is an avowed seafood lover with highly developed culinary skills which were previously put to use as the executive chef at Sam Choy's Diamond Head. He just opened his own shop in Waipahu and we sent our newest food writer to check out the offerings.]

I think the food here is great. The hot, made-to-order dishes are definitely the way to go. I hope Elmer maintains the quality of the ingredients he's using. To me they're worth the little bit more that you pay over other take-out or fast food options on the Ewa Plains.

1st Visit - Friday 2pm

We tried three cold seafood items and two prepared 'boxed' items.

1. Shoyu Ahi Poke - $9.95/lb. - Typical poke preparation of ahi chunks, shoyu, sesame oil, sesame seeds, white onions, green onions and limu seaweed elevated slightly by very fresh fish cut into uniform chunks. Fish was less stringy and seemed to be a higher quality than the average supermarket poke. The limu was also very fresh and added a nice texture to the poke. The flavor was good; I liked the fact that there wasn't too much gloppy sauce and I could still taste the fish.

2. Oysters in Korean-style Sauce - $8.95/lb. - Whole, raw oysters in a spicy chili sauce with limu, white onions, green onions and sesame seeds. We buy this from one of the supermarkets and my complaint has always been that the oysters are too big to eat in one bite and they come from a bottle. The oysters in the PS dish were smaller so they were easier to eat and they were fresh. I love raw oysters and spicy food, so I enjoyed this poke.

3. Crab in Korean-style Sauce - $7.95/lb. - Raw Blue Pincer crab cut up and seasoned with spicy chili sauce. This is one of Gil's favorite things at family parties. I usually don't eat it because I don't like the texture of raw crab, especially if it's not super fresh. I decided I should try this one, though, and was pleasantly surprised. The crab was definitely fresh and the texture was more meaty than mushy. Gil also thought they did a good job with this one.

4. Salad with Cajun Spiced Fish - $6.50 - The salad was made of romaine lettuce and cherry tomatoes with a generous sprinkling of parmesan cheese. The fish was dusted with cajun spices, lightly seared on all sides and then sliced and fanned on top of the greens. We were a bit late for the lunch offerings so the lettuce was starting to wilt. Other than that there wasn't a brown spot to be seen and the flavor was still good. The dressing was a honey mustard with a very subtle wasabi flavor. It went well with the fish. This would make a good light lunch.

5. Furikake Popcorn Tako - $3.95 - Pieces of octopus deep-fried in tempura batter and sprinkled with furikake. We like this a lot and wish we had tried it warm from the fryer. The octopus was seasoned just right and there wasn't too much furikake on the pieces to get in the way of the fresh flavor of the seafood. A great snack item.

2nd Visit - Sunday 2pm

We tried a couple of the made-to-order lunch and dinner items and the soup to go. While I was waiting for my order, Elmer pulled out a beautiful filet of ahi from the cooler to cut steaks that someone ordered. It looked so good! We'll probably go back to order raw fish by the pound to prepare at home since I eat poke, but my favorite way to eat tuna is kelaguen-style (a preparation very popular on Guam which resembles ceviche) with lemon, salt, onion and chili peppers.

1. Poke Stop Oyster Po Boy - $8 - A generous helping of deep-fried battered oysters on a Kaiser roll with iceberg lettuce and a Hawaiian chili pepper remoulade. The sandwich was served with a generous helping of tossed greens and Caesar dressing. This is an excellent sandwich! The oysters were deep-fried but not greasy. The bread was fresh and soft, but still had a crust with some bite to it. The chili pepper remoulade could have used more chili for my taste, but was flavorful none the less. Since it is homemade, maybe they could offer a spicier version for those that like heat. The tossed greens were a nice fresh mix of different greens including baby spinach. It's the kind of green salad you would expect at a fine dining restaurant. The Caesar dressing was excellent with lots of parmesan cheese and flecks of black pepper throughout. I will definitely go back for this sandwich.

2. Sous Chef Bento - $11 - This very large bento included Kalbi boneless short ribs, Puna's potato salad, furikake island fish, steamed rice and your choice of poke. I chose the limu ahi poke. Also, this wasn't listed on the menu description but the bento came with a serving of fried poke. This is enough for two people to share. The piece of furikake fish was a thick filet that was cooked perfectly and had just enough furikake to add flavor without overpowering the fish. The Kalbi boneless short rib was very tasty. The meat was thicker than the Kalbi ribs you find at most Korean take-out joints. Although it was cooked completely done, it was still tender and not chewy at all.

The fried poke was interesting. This is the first time I've tried this and I actually enjoyed it (I normally prefer my fish raw or kelaguen-style). It's only slightly cooked so the inside is still cool. Of course, the texture is very different from raw poke, but cooking changes the flavor a bit as well. The limu ahi poke (raw) was also good, again owing to the freshness of the ingredients.

My favorite part of the bento was the Puna's potato salad. It's such a refreshing change from the macaroni salad that everyone else serves. It's made with perfectly cooked skin-on red potatoes and just enough mayonnaise to hold it together without being gloppy. Aside from white onions, I'm not sure what else is used for flavoring, but this is one of the best potato salads I've had for a while. I didn't see the potato salad listed separately on the menu, but this would be great to stop and pick up for a dinner side dish.

3. Poke Stop Seafood Chowder - $3.95/cup - This chowder is rich and creamy with big chunks of seafood. Our cup had a chunk of salmon in it that was so big it would have passed as a full serving of fish at any other take-out place! The menu says the chowder is enhanced with coconut milk. Having grown up on an island, I'm a firm believer that everything tastes better with a little coconut milk! At first I thought the serving was too small for the price, then I tasted it. There are multiple layers of flavor that had to take time and care to develop. I decided it was worth it and something I would come back for again and again.

3rd Visit - Tuesday 6pm

I had Gil stop on the way home to pick up the Poke Stop Surf and Turf for dinner.

1. Poke Stop Surf and Turf - $9 - Boneless Korean-style short ribs paired with garlic jumbo shrimp. You get your choice of Puna's potato salad or mixed greens and a scoop of steamed rice with this dish. Since it was late, the potato salad was already gone. Too bad because I wanted an extra order of the potato salad. This is the same short rib preparation as in the Sous Chef Bento and it was still as tender and flavorful as it was on Sunday. The mixed greens came with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing which I really liked because it was on the vinegary side and I love sour flavors.

The plate came with three of the jumbo garlic shrimp. After tasting PS's other dishes I should know better, but I was expecting the typical take-out garlic shrimp that's overcooked and smothered in a bitter coating of mashed garlic. Somehow the garlic flavor never gets past that mushy coating and the shrimp itself is flavorless. This garlic shrimp is so much above that level that it should be called something else. The shells were nicely caramelized and there was flavor in every nook and cranny of the shrimp. It's so good that you have to suck all the good flavor out of the heads or you'll feel like you're wasting the best part of the dish. The shrimp was perfectly cooked and you could tell they were at their freshest when they went into the marinade.

General Observations

They do not have a system set up for the front of the house yet. There is no obvious place to go to place your order when you walk in so it's not clear whether the people standing there are waiting to place their order or waiting to pick up their order. When Gil went in on Friday his order was forgotten and he had to place it again. He also thought it was too hot in there. When I went in on Sunday, I placed my order with the cashier after figuring out that the people I thought were in line were just waiting for their orders to be filled. I didn't think it was too hot though, maybe they adjusted the air-conditioning in between our visits.

Our overall impression of the food was very good. The poke assortment is good, but not distinct in flavor from other fine purveyors like Tanioka's down the street. It's the hot dishes and bentos that really set them apart. The ingredients are so fresh and the dishes are upscale and unexpected from a kitchen no bigger than the average lunch wagon.

Poke Stop
94-050 Farrington Hwy
Waipahu Town Center (next to Sizzler's)
Waipahu, Central Oahu
676-8100