Poke Bowl Near Me in Redondo Beach: Jus' Poke on Pacific Coast Highway

Jus' Poke is a small family counter at 501 N. Pacific Coast Highway in Redondo Beach, on the corner of Beryl Street, and it sells poke the way it is sold in Hawaii: by weight, from a case of marinated ahi, with rice and a side on a plate. A regular bowl with a third of a pound of poke, rice and one side costs $13.75 on the shop's own online menu. If you are searching poke bowl near me after a morning in the South Bay surf, this is where locals line up.

South Bay magazine told the origin story when the shop approached its tenth year. Stefanie Honda and her husband, Jeff, came out of the water hungry after a surf session, searched for a poke shop nearby and found nothing. Neither had much business experience, but Stefanie had grown up making poke with her Hawaiian father, cutting the fish and making sure it marinated overnight. They opened Jus' Poke in March 2014, and Los Angeles magazine featured it as a frugal find that October.

The shop's own About page fills in the rest. Stefanie's father and grandfather moved to California from Pu'unene on Maui, and the family describes itself as a long line of fishermen and surfers. Her grandfather's old fishing pole hangs on the wall, the pickled cucumbers follow her auntie's recipe, and South Bay magazine noted that the Hondas' son and daughter still come by to help make poke. Ohana-owned is not a slogan here; it is the staff list. Pu'unene, for context, is the old sugar plantation town in the central valley of Maui, and plate-lunch poke with rice is everyday food there, not a health trend.

The menu lists eight styles. Original is the plainest, with green onion, sweet onion and chopped ogo seaweed. Shoyu adds soy sauce to that base, and it is the one South Bay magazine named as a top seller alongside Spicy, which uses the house spicy sauce with chili peppers. Sweet Heat brings a sweet Thai chili sauce with sesame oil and garlic, and the Hawaiian Chili Peppah version leans on bird's eye chili with shoyu.

The less common styles are worth a look. Local's Wasabi mixes wasabi, shoyu and tobiko with the onions and ogo, giving the ahi a sharp, nose-clearing finish. California Roll poke trades raw-fish purity for cucumber, avocado, tobiko and imitation crab. There is also a Tofu Poke with no ahi at all, made with tomatoes, ogo and shoyu, so a vegetarian in your group is covered. Most bowls let you choose two styles, so pair a clean one with a spicy one.

Prices on the shop's Square ordering site are set by the pound. A third of a pound of poke on its own is $9.95, half a pound is $12.95 and a full pound is $23.95, with up to two styles in each container. The Regular bowl is $13.75 for a third of a pound with rice and a side, and the Large Poke Bowl is $19.25 for half a pound of poke, a side and two scoops of rice.

Sides cost $3.50 each and include white or brown rice, seaweed salad, edamame and spicy edamame, Hawaiian chips, wonton chips and the auntie's pickled cucumbers, which cut through the richer spicy and wasabi styles. Drinks are island staples: Hawaiian Sun juice at $2.75 and coconut water at $3.50. For dessert, the menu lists coconut pineapple ice cream and mochi ice cream, a cold finish after a plate of chili-heavy poke.

A sensible first order for two people is one Large Poke Bowl split between Shoyu and Spicy, plus a third-of-a-pound container of Local's Wasabi and a side of pickled cucumbers. That gives you three of the eight styles for well under $40, and it shows how the same ahi changes with each marinade. Ask for brown rice if you want a firmer base under the wetter spicy style.

Expect a queue. South Bay magazine described a line out the door on most days, and The Infatuation's 2022 review said the line is made up of office workers on weekdays and post-beach crowds on weekends but is always fast-moving. The space is basic: a small room with a counter, the fish case and a few outdoor picnic benches. The shop opens at 11am every day, so arriving within the first half hour gives you the best pick of the case and an empty bench. Sunday closes an hour earlier, at 7pm, so a late weekend lunch is the time to aim for rather than a weekend dinner.

Ordering ahead through the Square site skips most of the wait, since you choose the weight, the two styles and the side online and collect at the counter. If you do order in person, decide on your two styles and your side before you reach the glass, because the person behind you has probably just come out of the water as hungry as the Hondas were the day they had the idea.

Poke from a takeout counter is best eaten outside. The Redondo Beach Main Library is a short walk south at 303 N. Pacific Coast Highway, inside Veterans Park, whose lawns run down to the Esplanade above the beach. Take your tray down to one of the park benches and you have an ocean view with lunch. From there, the Redondo Beach Pier is a short walk south along the waterfront, with fish markets and an easy path back up the hill.

If you came for the surf, a half-pound of shoyu ahi with rice is the refuel the shop was built around. For a longer outing, follow the Strand north toward Hermosa Beach on foot or by bike after you eat, then double back to the car on Pacific Coast Highway.

Address: 501 N. Pacific Coast Highway, Redondo Beach, CA 90277, at Beryl Street. Hours on the shop's website are 11am to 8pm Monday through Saturday and 11am to 7pm on Sunday. Seating is limited to outdoor picnic benches, so plan for takeout on busy days. Redondo Union High School is a few blocks away, which is a useful landmark if you are coming from inland on foot.