It all started a few years ago when owner Angela Wong and her partner traveled to Hawaii. They stumbled upon this humble poke shack and experienced the best poke of their lives, which later paved the way into bringing Edmonton its first poke quick service restaurant.

After deciding to endeavour into opening a poke restaurant, Angela and her partner decided to take a research trip to the island of Maui. During this trip, fate brought them to a stand on the side of the road selling the most incredible woodwork. After hours of meaningful conversation with the artisan, they’d convinced him to create two custom and unique surf board signs for the restaurant.

The artisan and his brother are both fifth-generation wood carvers. They decided they would each carve one surf board, which was quite fitting with SPLASH POKE’s concept of building custom poke bowls. After sun tanning and discussing traditional poke recipes, the surf boards turned out better than ever imagined. The artisan then surprised them with a handcrafted wooden turtle and carved SPLASH POKE on the bottom. He told them the values the turtle holds in Hawaiian culture and gifted it to them for the start of their poke adventure. This was how our Splash, our guardian turtle, was born.

The Polynesians believe turtles are good luck, navigating them to their islands. We believe in being navigators in what we do: to create fun fresh fish bowls for everyone to enjoy. We look to Splash to lead our adventure, and look forward to enjoying the journey with you.