Honu Poke and Grill

🇺🇸 USA (Hawai'i)
📍 1824 Lomita Blvd., Lomita, South Bay.
🅿️ Ample parking in plaza
🥤 No Alcohol

Near the beginning of 2023, another player decided to get into the poke game in Southern California. In Los Angeles, the vast majority of decent poke places (besides Fish King in Glendale) are in the South Bay, where you can find most of the area's traditional Hawaiian foods as well. Honu is the green sea turtle, which can live between 60 and 80 years, and is seen as a symbol of longevity and good luck.

This turtle makes its way into much of the new restaurant's minimal decor, providing an enjoyable place to sit and eat orders of poke and Hawaiian plate lunches. The initial visit here was just to sample some new poke, but it was good enough that a couple plate lunches (called "Honu bento") were ordered for takeout to eat the next day.

They offer poke with salmon and crab stick, but the yellowfin tuna (ahi) is always too good to pass up for most poke bowls ($11.95, above and below). A selection of six or eight sauces/flavors are available for any order, the ones shown here are spicy mayo (above) and shoyu (below). You will notice immediately the freshness of the fish, which does not need to hide behind their equally tasty sauces.

If there is one gripe, it would be not having the option for sushi rice, but that is the usual standard in California. The nice white rice with furikake is good enough to eat every grain though, as happened here. This will probably be the place to try after coming back from Hawai'i with those poke cravings still coming daily.

The "grill" portion of the title is put to good work for one of the four Honu bento ($14.95 each, above) options, which rely heavily on the meats. A scoop of white rice and side of macaroni "salad" comes standard with these bentos like any proper Hawaiian plate lunch should, and all four meats sampled were really well made.

Honu bento #1 gives you the option of pork or chicken katsu combined with chicken teriyaki, both of which are supremely comforting. Katsu orders come with a side of excellent katsu sauce, which you will end up using to its last drop. Hanu bento #2 is a combination of kalua pork and chicken adobo, which again are even more flavorful than they look. Add on an order of Portuguese sausage and some pork lau lau, and the full beauty of the plate lunch is attainable right here in Lomita.

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