Poke bowls haven’t really hit Grand Rapids as a popular food trend like they have out west, but Wikiwiki Poke Shop is leading the way in west Michigan. Poke (pronounced po-kay) is a Hawaiian dish traditionally made of raw fish diced up. Wikiwiki is also a Hawaiian word that means quick. Put that together and you’ll understand that the goal of Wikiwiki Poke is to serve raw fish bowls super fast to Grand Rapids.
You might be wondering how a raw fish place ended up on the Vegan Grand Rapids Guide. While there are a couple of reasons for vegans to visit Wikiwiki, the highlight is a plant-based alternative to raw tuna made by Ocean Hugger Foods called Ahimi. Ahimi is made from tomatoes but surprisingly doesn’t taste or have a mouthfeel of tomatoes at all.
The dish featuring the Ahimi is called the O.D.V (since the restaurant has an interesting R&B-Rap-Hip hop theme going on we’re gonna guess that stands for the “Old Dirty Vegan). With the Ahimi, avocado, seaweed salad, cucumber, edamame, and sesame seeds served over sushi rice and dressed with spicy mayo, the O.D.V is a solid choice.
Another plant-based bowl is the Frank Ocean. Order it and you’ll get sushi rice topped with root vegetables, beets, tofu, cucumber, crispy onion, edamame, seaweed salad, furikake, ginger, and avocado.
There’s also a vegetarian dish featuring kimchi, called the Bowl’d Up. Order it without the miso ranch sauce to make it vegan, or substitute it with the vegan mayo from the O.D.V. There are some side dishes you can order, mainly a seaweed salad or kimchi (sadly the miso soup is not vegan).
Ocean Hugger Foods is also developing Unami, an eggplant-based eel alternative, and Sakimi, a carrot-based salmon alternative. When we spoke to Wikiwiki’s owner, he said that’s he’s hoping to get these in and add them to the menu.
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