Poke showdown all in one location! This year, the festival was held at Park Lane parking lot, kinda of a random place. I didn't like the location, although it's shaded, but the noise level was horrible, and with the muggy weather, I really much rather be in open air. There were over 10 poke shops, demonstrating their variation of how poke is done. I would say that We tried about at least 6 shops, and our favorite was Tanioka's, and Aloha poke. I think the event could have been better if there are areas for the patrons to sit down and enjoy the poke with drinks. Doesn't have to be fancy, but like Kapiolani or Ala Moana Beach Park would work. read more

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The 2nd annual Pokefest underwent drastic changes from prior year. Now admission is free in the covered parking lot under Park Lane condominium in Ala Moana, but with two levels of Poke passes, which function like Disney like fast passes, except without the screaming, whining preteens and toddlers. The poke pass was totally worth it. Offered in two levels, $35 for 6 passes, or $50 for 10 passes, they offered their holders vastly shorter lines and pre-paid for poke pass specific food options. While the poke pass food items were smaller, they were significantly less expensive than the ala carte prices for non-pass items. I shared a $50 pass with two other friends and we went family style sampling options down the poke line. The pass was an economical way of trying lots of options without stuffing yourself silly. Only a limited number of passes were available and were sold out by event day. My two favorite poke items of the night were PF Chang's slightly seared ahi over lettuce, and the salmon belly poke from Hawaii Sushi. The seared ahi reminded me of 3660's seared ahi, with firm texture and good ahi flavor in a In-N-Out Protein Style lettuce wrap. The salmon belly tasted fresh with firm meat, and just the right level of seasoning. Off the Hook's shoyu ahi was a bit too much swimming in sauce, but the addition of firm, mild onions helped balance the dish out. Gochi's grill went a bit overboard on the citrus in its poke medley. Aloha Cone's sesame ahi was small, but had good quality fish without an overpowering sauce. Pai Hawaii's scallop ogo poke was massively disappointing with slightly mushy barely there scallops and not much flavor. Overall, there was a huge variety of options, including pork. Yes, you read that right, Pork. Fish apparently took the name literally at Poke On Da Run and ran out around 6 pm, so they substituted kalua pig in place of fish. The festival was a bit disorganized, as it wasn't clear where to cash in the PokePasses, but that may have been due to the number of entrances not next to the redemption table. That's understandable due to vendor and safety needs, but some instructions would have been nice to have included with the email ticket. A fair number of tables were spread out for dining convenience and a small bar was setup at the west end of the festival. In terms of photos, the lighting was bad being in a parking lot, but at least there were lots of mall bathrooms and lots of free parking. All in all I'm coming back for 2019's festival. read more

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Honolulu Pokefest 2018 was a great event. HPF is relatively new, only about two years. Compared to San Diego & Orange County's I Love Poke festivals (SD had its 9th iteration), it was pretty surprising that it took so long for Oahu to come up with its own poke festival. This year's event was staged at the Ala Moana Shopping Center in the 2nd floor makai parking garage between Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdales on the Morton's Steakhouse side. It turned out to be a better venue than I first thought. Free parking (something last year's Pokefest didn't have), and covered in case of inclement weather. Things were initially a little crazy- long lines at all of the booths, and no signs for pre-sale ticket pickup. But I found the Frolic Hawaii tent, and Yeep Kelli S. pointed me to the pick up table. The two pre-sale ticket packages were for 5 or 10 Pokepass samples. I knew I wouldn't eat 10, but 5 would be too small. Eh, I could always give away the tickets. This was a change from last year's festival too, where the most expensive package was twice as much with complimentary parking and one hour early entry. Going to the actual booths, the long lines were for cash sales. On the opposite end of a given booth, there was a small "Pokepass" sign were ticket holders could belly up to and redeem your tickets for a small 4 oz sample. That was so genius! The problem with a lot of these festivals is that most vendors sell full plates, not samples, to maximize their per unit sales. Having "mini" samples help give you enough room in your opu to truly sample a lot of vendors. Managed to visit 8 booths. It very interesting to see all the variations, both in the offering and food distribution. Some of the sample cups were filled mostly with rice, some very little or none; some with choke fish, some with one really thin layer. As I mainly prefer a very simple limu poke, it was adventure to try some of the really saucy variations I wouldn't normally get. Nothing caught my fancy and made me change my mind about my favorite, though. Very enjoyable, will repeat and recommend! Watch out in Yelp or Frolic Hawaii for news of next year's Pokefest! read more

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It's truly amazing that it took until 2017 for there to be a PokeFest in Honolulu, a place that runs on raw fish! The local delicacy of raw fish with various sauces and spices over rice, comes in so many combinations and varieties that it'd be impossible to try them all. Luckily Hawai'i's up and coming online food magazine Frolic decided to do something about it and organized Honolulu PokeFest. The festival brought together over 15 different restaurants from the area, each with a single or multiple unique styles of poke for the attendees to try. We loved the event and hope this is the first of many to come! My better half Kristine was very lucky to have won a pair of tickets to the event this year, which of course got us to come! When we first heard about it, we kept reading and got very excited. Thank you Frolic for the tickets, but also thank you for all the hard work that was put into the event, it was something special. For the weeks leading up to it, there was constant advertising online, in print, and most notably on all the local news food segments where they showed off the dishes to come. All correspondence including the festival's website were extremely organized, which I feel is rare for a first time event. Tickets were for sale in the weeks leading up to the event online: $100 for VIP and $60 for general admission (a $5 off promo code was also available). VIP included some nice perks: reserved parking inside Pier 11, a separate entry line, reserved seating with waitstaff, and two drink tickets good for anything. VIP and general admission included all the poke you can eat as well as live music, standing tables, door prizes, and swag. The event was located at Pier 11 next to Aloha Tower Marketplace. General admission parking was reserved at two garages nearby as well as coming by ride share service or Chinatown garages. After checking in, you simply picked up a bowl of rice (white or sushi), Cropstick chopsticks, then visited the fixings bar which included sesame, limu, kimchee, boiled peanuts, and other compliments for the fish. Each restaurant had a table around the perimeter of the room, with well printed and visible signs stating the restaurant and type of poke available. At the beginning, the restaurant staffs were very talkative and friendly, but as it got super busy, it became more a matter of scooping as fast as possible. Everyone seemed excited to show off their creations for the event, and there was plenty to try! I couldn't even begin to list everything but some of the standouts were: various fresh ahi poke, oysters, crab, salmon, cerviche, etc. My favorite was the Maui nui venison poke; so tender and delicious! This event was strictly 21 and over due to the alcohol available. Wines and liquors were available for purchase. I was delighted to find out that Aloha Beer Company was providing the brews; they had a classy set up and brought their Aloha Blonde and Kaka'ako Kommon, both of which went perfectly with all the fish. The event hall was the perfect place, it was air conditioned, spacious, had clean large restrooms, and plenty of areas to sit or stand while eating. I loved the upstairs tables overlooking both the harbor or all the people at the event. It was very popular, with many attendees and a line that took about an hour to finally wind down. My only complaint for the evening was that all the poke was just so rich I physically couldn't keep eating it! The three hour limit of the event was more than enough, as some people started leaving after an hour or so. A portion of all ticket sales went to the Hawaii Seafood Council who also had a booth with information about sustainable fishing. Thank you again to Frolic Hawaii for hosting a much needed local event! read more

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Great way to sample all the poke from many different places. I wish the event can be held somewhere a little more spacious next time. I feel like it was a little dark and cramped. read more

I attended the PokeFest in 2018, and had a great time.I even participated in the food eating contest(poke). Hours before the event I had walked by the area where it was to be held and did not see any vendors setting up, which had me worried, but they all arrived about an hour and a half before the event, and everything went up really fast. The food eating contest was intense, with a trip to Vegas on the line. There was no entry fee and almost 50 people tried to sign up within the first few minutes, but only the first 10 were let in. I did not realize that the poke eating contest required the use of chopsticks, and I am no good with those . I still had a lot of fun, and was happy that my close friends came to cheer me on. There were many wonderful looking poke dishes at the event, with one of the most unique being a poke cone. The lines were long for almost the entire event, but I think that it was because people really like poke. There were lots of volunteers and they appeared to be well coordinated. P.s. lmao@all the people who showed up in Pokémon shirts. read more

T'was Frolic Hawaii's very first ever Honolulu PokeFest at Aloha Tower Waterfront, Pier 11. It must have been the Hawaiian Gods that was on my side as soon as I pressed the "submit" button to enter Frolic Hawaii's contest to their very first Honolulu PokeFest event. I normally don't win anything, but I'm so thankful to have won two VIP tickets for this event. Alexander and I were overly excited and saved our appetites. Tickets for general admission is $60 includes all poke tasting. Parking is at TOPA/Harbor Square flat rate of $5. VIP tickets are $100 not including tax/processing fees. VIP package comes with VIP parking pass at Pier 11, food, two drink tickets (redeemable for alcoholic beverages, water, juice), and reserved seating. This event is strictly 21 and up only. The event was immensely organized with Frolic's bright red tent openly visible with two makeshift signs, one for VIP line, and for general admission. Part of the tickets sold goes to 501(c)(3) nonprofit org, Hawaii Seafood Council. Thanks to HSC for educating the public while helping to keep the balance of responsible fishing and keeping our seafood's sustainable in Hawaii. So what is Poke? Poke is one of Hawai'i's many seafood staples served raw, in cube slices as an appetizer or in a rice bowl. This is primarily served in raw tuna (ahi), tako (octopus), or various raw fish like yellowfin tuna, and among my favorites, onolicous salmon and sometimes other varieties of shellfish. They are then served in a wide array of seasonings and sauces like shoyu (soy sauce), kimchi, sesame oil base, sea salt, chili peppers and spicy mayo, scallions and other ingredients, etc. I'm personally a lover of most raw seafood's and coming to Honolulu PokeFest was the best thing, EVER. The doors opened promptly at 5, ID's are checked, and tickets are scanned by Frolic's ticket handlers and are given a red wrist band for the VIP's. We were greeted by Island Insurance Company and were given a pack of wet naps to take home. Pier 11 was an open space filled with some of the most reputable and famous poke vendors. We received a rice bowl (two to choose from, white or sushi rice), and the famous Cropsticks! What are Cropsticks? Cropsticks is made with sustainable bamboo (crop) with a build in rest and are then recycled after use. Adjacent to the rice table are varieties of garnishes to add on top of the rice. A few of them were garlic chips, sliced onions, sesame seeds, furikake and seaweed, boiled peanuts, and whole garlic cloves. To the left side after the rice bowl station where Aloha Beer Company served their Kaka'ako Kommon and Aloha Blonde Ale beers ($9), water ($3) and select liquors to pair with these delicious poke selections. Thankfully they do open tabs, however with a minimum purchase of $20 per card. There are ample stand up tables for enjoying your poke, with ample reserved tables and chairs for VIP wristband holders. VIP areas have servers and people constantly offering additional poke or offer drinks. With about 15 poke vendors, I will name a few of my favorites. Tanioka's Spicy Marlin Poke was perfect over warm sushi rice. Forty Carrots's Maui Nui Venison Poke with umami mayo, and crispy dried inamona was wonderfully flavorful and rich. It was my first time having venison prepared poke style. I also adored MW's Surf n' Turf Poke with all natural and fresh brandt beef, grilled shrimp, mushrooms and eggplant. I normally detest eggplant but tasted nice with its concoction. I've completely forgotten where the giant raw oyster was from but I was taken aback by the size and the flavor with the light shoyu and wasabi tobiko, I had to come back for seconds. My most favorite is the Smoked Salmon poke with Cream cheese, aioli, cucumber and red diced onions. There's something special about raw salmon I can't describe that would likely supersede over ahi for me. I need to comeback to Aloha Cones for an entire bowl of their raw salmon poke bowl. Garlic is among one of my favorite ingredients with any foods eat and I adored Michael Mina's classic ahi poke with pear, garlic, mint, and toasted pine nuts with their ancho chili powder and spicy sesame oil. I've added lots of new poke spots since this event. Towards the middle of the event, the lines became long and busy. Ohana Broadcast was DJing throughout the night with prize giveaways and a few roundtrip neighbor island tickets with Island Air. Frolic Hawai'i did a great job in organizing this event. Thank you Frolic Hawaii and all the sponsors for having Hononulu PokeFest inside a clean air conditioned room for everyone to enjoy their poke. It is extremely hot and humid outside in July. The nautical aesthetic of Pier 11 simply set the mood wonderfully for all fish and seafood lovers alike for this fantastically planned event. I'm looking forward to going again next year! Social Media IG/FB/Twitter: Frolic Hawaii FB: Honolulu PokeFest Pier 11 has clean bathrooms! read more

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