Hawaiian favorites come to UTC

For Joe Jiang, falling in love with sushi has been a family affair.

He first tried a sushi poke — sushi atop a pile of rice with vegetables and sauce — at his cousin Jie Jiang’s poke restaurant in New York.

“When I tasted my cousin’s food, I loved it. I could not forget it,” Joe Jiang said. “It’s a little bit of magic to me. I didn’t ever like sushi before.”

Now, he and his relatives Yuan Sheng Wang and Tao Li have opened Smilefin Poke at 8196 Tourist Center Drive in the UTC shopping district, just west of Cattlemen Road north of University Parkway. It’s a Hawaiian poke and hibachi grill restaurant.

Poke is a Hawaiian word referring to chunks of raw, marinated fish. It’s tossed over rice or salad and topped with vegetables and sauces.

Smilefin offers poke “signature” combinations like Joe Jiang’s favorite, the Hawaiian — a combination of salmon, crab stick, mango, cucumber, avocado, house sauce, Sriracha aioli, sesame seeds and green onion. The most popular is the “Crazy Tuna,” — spicy tuna, sesame seed, masago, cucumber and sweet onion atop seaweed salad.

There’s also a hibachi grill from which guests can order.

“I eat here five days a week and I still love it,” Joe Jiang said. “This is a new concept. It’s fresh. It’s healthy. It’s a brand new way to get your meal.”

In addition to pre-suggested poke combinations, guests also can create their own poke bowls, mixing the flavors to their liking. Each poke starts with a base of either rice or salad, adds toppings such as edamame, cucumber or red cabbage and then a choice of sushi, whether salmon, tuna or eel. There’s also chicken, shrimp and tofu options.

Ingredients are displayed for guests to see.

“We want people to see how we prepare, how food is made,” Joe Jiang said. “It’s more better than sushi. That’s my opinion.”

Joe Jiang and his nephew, Wang, who has a background in the sushi restaurant business, already own Icesmile, an Asian-inspired ice cream shop with a location in Tampa and in The Mall at University Town Center.

When they decided to pursue the poke restaurant concept, they initially looked for a location in Tampa, but could not find a suitable location. The spot in the UTC corridor proved to be a good fit.