Recognizing that the word “bowl” was too generic, the bowl industry got smart and rebranded — to “poké bowl.” Pronounced poh-keh (say it quickly, with the accent lightly on the first syllable), it means “to slice or cut” in Hawaiian. 

What’s the difference between the bowls of a few years ago and the poké bowls of today? Not much, as far as I can tell.*

I did a quick online search and found about a dozen restaurants in Tampa Bay that have “Poké” in their names. And the cuisine can now be called just “poké” — so you can say to someone, “Go for some poké?” And they can answer: “Okay!”

Which is what we did. Our contestants are Island Fin Poké Company in South Tampa and Poke Island in Pinellas Park.

ISLAND FIN POKÉ COMPANY

At 7:30 Sunday, we parked right in front of Island Fin, which is located in a shopping center on Kennedy Boulevard between Lois Avenue and Dale Mabry. The vibe was bright and cheerful, made even more so by our two young servers, Alana and Kai. How Hawaiian is that?

This South Tampa store, which opened in February, is the only Island Fin in Tampa Bay. The growing chain has 19 locations.

Like most poké spots, the bowls are assembled cafeteria-style by the servers. Rather than going the build-your-own route, we chose two of the restaurant’s specialties: Spicy Tuna (with brown rice); and Korean BBQ Chicken (with white rice). Both cost $11, which I found more than reasonable. I added a Jaritos soda ($3), mango flavor.

Appearance

The cardboard bowls were well stuffed with stuff that looked altogether tempting. The presentation exuded health.

Texture and Taste

We shared our pokés, leaning across the table to take bites from each other’s bowls.

I got the kimchi on the side because the girls cautioned me that it was spicy hot. Well, maybe a little. The kimchi’s zing banded together with pickled veggies to form a delightful complement to the cubed chicken, which wasn’t actually barbecued. Only the rice was warm. The X-factor was the white daikon radish, which came in long wedges that added delightful crunch. Overall, though, I couldn’t detect much Korean BBQ character.

The Spicy Tuna — let’s call it mildly spicy — also had a winning combination of flavors, led by the cubed raw fish, accented by a sprinkle of crispy garlic on top. Brown rice provided earthiness. The X-factor here was a generous helping of edamame. I love edamame.

Alana gave us each a small bowl of Dole Whip, a dairy-free frozen dessert, vanilla-pineapple flavor. It provided a refreshing cap to a lovely meal.

POKÉ ISLAND

Poke Island shares a small shopping center with a Wingstop and a Subway on stretch of 66th Street north of 62nd Avenue that was all but traffic-free at 6:30 Tuesday.

Poke Island has a few specialty bowls, but our genial server, Van — who’s part of the family from Southeast Asia that owns the restaurant — suggested we use the build-your-own model. More options, better value. We chose the Spicy Tuna ($14.49) with white rice, and Fried Chicken ($12.49) with brown rice, and added Seaweed Salad to each for $1.50 per.

It was fun walking down the line picking this and that (edamame!) to go along with our proteins.

Appearance

Size, would it matter? These bowls looked bigger than the one at Island Fin. (We checked when we got back to the FFF Lab + Photo Studio™, and this bowl was nearly an inch deeper.)

Taste and Texture

A surprise star emerged: the fried chicken. The crust was perfect, the white meat inside succulent, and there was lots of it. The bird played well with edamame, corn, cucumber, shredded carrot, seaweed and probably some other stuff I neglected to jot down. Bonnie’s plastic fork kept sneaking across the table to grab a piece of chicken. One more attempt and we’d have gotten into a plastic fork fight.

Like Island Fin, this spicy tuna didn’t have much heat (certainly when compared to the versions I’ve had at sushi places). We had selected mostly the same veggies as the chicken bowl, with the addition of jalapeños, which didn’t add much to the spicy quotient either. This is not a complaint, just as observation.

And the Winner of the Poké, Okay? Challenge Is …

Hem. Haw.

Poké Island.

This was effectively a toss-up. We greatly enjoyed our meal at both places. They exuded health. Just what the (my) doctor ordered, after a few weeks of less-than-healthy FFFs. Each used a soy-based poke sauce and spicy mayo that were essentially identical.

I appreciated the pickled veggies at Island Fin, and the complimentary Dole Whip, but the decision ultimately came down to that fried chicken.

* On. Dec. 16, 2022, I published Battle of the Bowls. I don’t recall my research turning anything up about poké. I could’ve missed something — Van said Poké Island has been open about six years — but this time around poké was ubiquitous.