Hooked on PokeBowl

I never set out to review PokeBowl Cafe.

It’s small. It’s counter service only. The menu consists of poke bowls, boba teas, a small handful of sides — and that’s it.

I never thought this 8-month-old south Fort Myers joint warranted a full onreview.

A couple-dozen visits later, I’ve reconsidered.

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The News-Press

A signature poke bowl from PokeBowl Cafe in south Fort Myers.

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Special to The News-Press

A make-your-own poke bowl with ahi and tofu from PokeBowl Cafe. The restaurant offers a few preset bowl combos, but the make-your-own option seems to be its most popular.

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Special to The News-Press

Takoyaki are a street food that originated in Osaka, Japan. The pancake-like dumpling balls are filled with octopus and garnished with wispy bonito flakes at PokeBowl Cafe in south Fort Myers.

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The News-Press

A look at the toppings available at PokeBowl Cafe.

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The News-Press

A tuna poke bowl with edamame, spicy cucumbers, seaweed salad, greens and more from PokeBowl Cafe in Fort Myers.

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The News-Press

PokeBowl Cafe also offers house-steeped boba teas.

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PokeBowl has become an honest-to-goodness addiction of mine. I was there just the other day. I may go back this evening. Or maybe tomorrow for a quick lunch.

Why? Please, allow me to elaborate:

1. It’s cheap. In the best sense of the word. The so-called “small” bowls start at $8. They are my perfect size — enough to fill you up but not weigh you down, enough to curb any remote thought of hunger without sending you into yawny-yawny-nap-time land (we’ve all visited).

2. It’s healthy. PokeBowl’s make-your-own bowls start with a base of brown rice, sushi rice, soba noodles,zucchini or greens. You can layer on raw cubes of ahi, spicy tuna or salmon. Prefer your protein cooked? There’s tofu,shrimp and scallops, too. From there, the counterful of toppings becomes your playground: edamame, kimchi, shredded carrots, avocado, radishes, seaweed salad, cucumber two ways (raw or pickled in a peppery brine of spices). Fried plantains, cashews, peanuts and shredded coconut add crunch. For spice there’s wasabi, jalapeno and slivered ginger. Finish the bowl with a drizzle of eel sauce, house-made spicy soy sauce or mayos infused with ginger and sriracha (OK, it’s healthy-ish).

3. IT’S GOOD. There is no magic here (maybe a tiny bit in that spicy-soy house sauce). The delicious beauty of PokeBowl is in the freshness of its ingredients and the generosity with which they’re shared. This place isn’t fancy. It’s hardly groundbreaking. But man, it’s good.

Beyond being good, PokeBowl takes that extra step, even when it’s least expected. Its boba teas aren’t made from powders and extracts, but with real tea leaves and real tapioca pearls clouded by real condensed milk.

Its sleekly simple dining room is set with cushy U-back chairs along one wall. Aqua-hued subway tiles line the open kitchen, which is framed by pendant lamps lit with glowing Edison bulbs. The cooler is packed with fruit-infused nigori sakes and those marble-popping ramune sodas that taste like fizzy SweeTarts. Just the other day I noticed pre-packaged desserts in there, too:pale-green matcha cakes and dorayaki smeared in sweet bean paste.

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Jean Le Boeuf, or JLB, is the pseudonym used by the restaurant critic for The News-Press and Naples Daily News.

There’s more to this place than just poke. Not much more, but more. PokeBowl is a rare purveyor of takoyaki, little round pancake-like dumplings filled with chewy bits of octopus. The balls are garnished with Kewpie mayo and wisps of bonito flakes that wriggle and dance (as bonito flakes do) in the takoyaki’s steam.Also: gyoza, which are fine, but not nearly as whimsical or enticing as takoyaki. But let’s get back to that list:

4. It’s fast. Whether you order online for takeout or delivery, or go about PokeBowl the old-fashioned way (in person, stomach grumbling), this place is quick. The longest I’ve waited is five or so minutes for those takoyaki one afternoon. Otherwise, I’m in and fed and out, like that.

5. So cheap. So good. I can’t emphasize these points enough. $8 doesn’t get you much these days. For an extra $3, you can tack on a second protein. Poke-Bowl’s hugely and ungodly “medium” bowls are $13. There is allegedly a $17 “large” option, too, something in the barrel/trough range, I imagine.

In all seriousness, I don’t go to restaurants 20-some times in eight months.

I struggle to get back to even my favorite places. That’s the irony of this food-critic life I so luckily lead. I like a good restaurant. But give me one that’s cheap, fast, healthy and good — and you’ll have me hooked.