I only had my first poké experience earlier this year, and it was at Daddy’s Kitchen. I have since had poke at a couple of other places and have come to realization that Daddy’s Kitchen is the likely the best option for Keto diet peeps in Vancouver at the most reasonable price.
Centrally-located with easy access from the Broadway-Commercial skytrain stop, Daddy’s Kitchen sits innocuously at its Commercial Drive location amid an array of other less healthy fast food chain restaurants like McDonald’s, Fresh Slice Pizza, and Quiznos. You might not even realize just how healthy an option it is with such surroundings and a name like ‘Daddy’s Kitchen,’ which is why I really wanted to write this review.
Poké bowls are a Hawaiian import. It’s kinda like sushi in a bowl but they are built to your specifications with a variety of veggies, seafoods, sauces and toppings, usually served on rice. If you don’t know what you like, they do have their own recommended combos, but I prefer to pick out exactly what I want in my bowl.
Two Keto Poké Base Options
What makes Daddy’s Kitchen unique is that they have two different alternatives to rice that satisfy Keto diet needs: mixed greens AND... zucchini noodles! All the other places I’ve been to only had mixed greens, which aren’t as filling as zoodles. It would be awesome to see cauliflower rice as an option in the future, but I'm happy enough to have zucchini noodles, which really go well in the mix.
Building a Keto Poké Bowl
If you choose the build your own bowl option, you get to choose from two different proteins for a reasonable $10.95. I went with wild salmon and octopus, but if you’re not into seafood, they have beef teriyaki (though teriyaki sauce is usually high in sugar), or if you’re vegetarian, they have organic tofu.
For my toppings, I went with green onions, edamame, seaweed salad, jalapeños, cucumbers, Kimchi, crab salad and pickles veggies. For texture toppings, I went for crispy garlic, toasted sesame seeds and nori seaweed flakes. For sauces, I went for sriracha aioli (another good keto option is wasabi mayo) and sesame oil, which are all available on the tables too if you want more while you eat. If you don’t mind paying a little extra, you can also have avocado or masago (little red fish eggs).
It was love at first bite. It hit all the right emotional places that I had come to associate with sushi. I quietly (and sometimes not-so-quietly) moaned through each delicious bite. There’s a lot going on in your mouth when you eat poke with it’s unique blend of squishy raw fish, fresh veggies, flavourful pickles and salads, savoury sauces and crunchy toppers.
The Ultimate Multi-Diet Fast Food Experience
Say you want to go for lunch with 3 friends but one is vegan, one hates seafood, and the other is a regular carboholic and you are on the keto diet. It would be almost impossible to find a place where you can all eat. Well, the menu at Daddy’s Kitchen has got you covered! They have standard sushi, poké bowls with rice (or even quinoa!), even pokeritos, a wrap made with rice and seaweed. They have a vegan menu with 7 items. The fish-hater is the one with the least options, but even they can help themselves to a tofu or beef teriyaki poké bowl/pokerito or the beef teriyaki, egg, or a variety of veggie rolls.
So if you’re looking for a delicious keto replacement for sushi or you want to get a meal with the most diverse diet crowd you can imagine, check out Daddy’s Kitchen on Commercial Drive in Vancouver. Get out there and try it. You won’t be disappointed!
