Poke Bowl Near Me on the Upper West Side: Uptown Poké, Amsterdam Avenue

Uptown Poké runs as a takeout and delivery kitchen first, and its own website says so in its headline: open daily for takeout and delivery, seven days a week from 11am to 8pm. The shop is at 506 Amsterdam Avenue, between 84th and 85th Streets. For anyone on the Upper West Side typing poke bowl near me, it is the neighborhood's independent answer, with Hawaiian fusion bowls and a full bubble tea menu under one roof.

The shop opened in August 2018. In June 2020, the neighborhood site I Love the Upper West Side included it in a guide to Black-owned restaurants in the area and described the business as Black, woman and Latinx owned. The official site frames its mission simply: it opened with a promise to serve fresh and healthy ingredients every day, in Hawaiian fusion style.

Fusion is the key word. The menu leans on Japanese sushi-bar ingredients like kani, tempura crunch, spicy mayo and a sweet eel-style sauce, rather than the strict shoyu-and-onion seasoning you would find at a Honolulu fish market. That makes the bowls richer and crunchier than traditional poke, which is exactly why they travel well in a delivery bag.

Salmon Sunrise is the bowl most customers gravitate to; it ranks among the most-liked items on the shop's Postmates page. It loads salmon, tuna and kani with avocado, edamame, dried seaweed, lemon, tempura crunch, spicy mayo and the house sweet sauce. The lemon matters here, cutting through two creamy sauces that would otherwise flatten the fish.

The West Side, named for the neighborhood, takes the spicy route with spicy salmon and spicy tuna, seaweed salad, avocado, white mushroom, tempura crunch and sweet sauce. If you prefer clean flavors, the Tuna Special is the better pick: tuna with scallion, seaweed salad, onion, cucumber, pineapple and ginger under a wasabi aioli, the closest thing on the board to a classic poke.

The Salmon Special pairs salmon with avocado, mango, ginger and seaweed salad, finished with spicy mayo, sweet sauce and tempura. The Leo is the no-raw-fish option built on kani with avocado, pineapple, cucumber, mixed bell peppers, red onion, tempura crunch and spicy mayo, a good choice for a child or a cautious first-timer.

Vegetarians get the Veggie Sunset, with hijiki salad, avocado, white mushroom, cucumber, red onion, grape tomatoes and mango under spicy mayo. Hijiki, a dark Japanese seaweed simmered until tender, gives the bowl a savory depth that most vegetable poke bowls lack. For eating on the move, the sushi burrito wraps the same base, toppings, proteins, sauces and crunch in seaweed.

Besides the chef's bowls, you can build your own in a regular or large size, working through base, toppings, proteins, sauces and crunch. The regular build is the single most-liked item on Postmates. The honest advice is to limit yourself to one creamy sauce. Spicy mayo plus sweet sauce plus wasabi aioli turns any bowl into a dessert, and the fish disappears under it.

Bubble tea is the other half of the business. Flavors include Thai tea, taro, mango and matcha, and a creamy taro or Thai tea softens the heat of a spicy bowl. If you are buying for a family, one large bowl split two ways plus two teas usually feeds more people than ordering two regular bowls.

Postmates tags the shop as vegetarian-friendly as well as Black-owned, and the veggie bowl plus the kani-based Leo give a mixed group enough choice that nobody has to settle. Anyone avoiding raw fish entirely should say so when ordering a custom bowl, since several of the standard proteins are served raw.

Most orders go out through ChowNow, Postmates and Uber Eats, DoorDash and Caviar, and Postmates lists its delivery cutoff at 7:30pm, half an hour before the store closes. Postmates also shows a 4.7 rating from more than 3,000 ratings, which tells you this is a delivery staple for nearby apartments. Walking in to pick up an order is the fastest way to get the food while the tempura crunch is still crisp.

Lunch between noon and 1:30pm and the 6pm dinner wave are when delivery tickets pile up. Ordering ahead for pickup at 11:30am or after 2pm avoids the wait. If you need dinner after 8pm, plan on another option along Amsterdam; Uptown Poké does not stay open late.

Two blocks north, Barney Greengrass at 541 Amsterdam Avenue, between 86th and 87th Streets, has been selling smoked fish on the Upper West Side since 1908, and its store hours run Tuesday to Sunday from 8am to 5pm. Pairing a poke lunch with a look at its sturgeon and nova counter is a neat lesson in two very different fish traditions.

Five blocks south and one avenue west, Zabar's at 2245 Broadway on 80th Street is the neighborhood's landmark food market. Walk the coffee and cheese aisles, then head one block west to Riverside Park if the weather holds, where benches face the Hudson and you can finish the bubble tea in peace.

Address: 506 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10024, between 84th and 85th Streets. Hours on the official site: daily 11am to 8pm, takeout and delivery. Nearest subway: the 1 train at 86 Street on Broadway, about two blocks west. Order through the ChowNow link on uptownpokenyc.com, or through Postmates, Uber Eats, DoorDash or Caviar. Email: uptownpokenyc@gmail.com.