I do not find myself making a trip to the northwest side of Wichita very often. Sometimes you can find me at the northwest Target looking for an item the east Target does not carry, but rarely would I make this trip. Of all the Hawaiian restaurants that recently popped up in Wichita, Poké Mix only serves poké. An import from Hawaii, poké (pronounced poh-kay) consists of a mixture of fish and onions dressed in soy-based sauce and eaten with rice.
Poké makes me feel almost guilt-free from a health perspective, but my bank account suffers. Due to fresh ingredients required by poké and our location in Kansas, it runs a pretty penny depending on where you get it, and Poké Mix charges about average for poké found in Wichita. A regular-sized serving will run you anywhere from $9-$11.
Walking into Poké Mix, it reminds me of Chipotle meets sushi. You can pick from set combinations or you can build your own; you will need to choose regular or large size, white or brown rice, fish, sauce, and various toppings. I normally make things easy on myself and order the Ono with tuna and spicy mayo, it comes with red onions, green onions, grated ginger, garlic, nori (seaweed), masago (flying fish roe), fried onions, mayo (regular or spicy), avocado, and seaweed salad.
I always enjoy the fresh and unctuous flavor that comes from raw fish; if you do not like raw fish, you will not like poké. Of all the restaurants that offer poké, I like this one most because of the quality preparation of ingredients. You can tell that they prepare their ingredients everyday with care. You should be able to mix all the ingredients together or enjoy them separately based on your preference; you should never fish out a piece of tuna and have it connected to 5 other pieces of tuna by fatty tissue or cartilage (it’s happened before at other restaurants).
Some critics of Poké Mix suggest that they do not serve real poké, because real poké should only consist of fish, a bit of onion, and sesame seeds dressed in a soy-based sauce. Poké Mix does offer you to build your own poké, so if you want to stay true to the Hawaiian roots of poké, you can do that. I like the flexibility and flavors that Poké Mix offers.
I am glad that Wichita offers many choices for poké. If it only takes me a 20-minute drive to get reasonably good poké and a taste of Hawaii, I’ll take it.
Poké Mix
8918 W 21st St, STE 600, Wichita, KS 67205
316-831-7716
Monday-Sunday 11:00AM-9:00PM