Poke Thai Kitchen

Good Time Rating: 1 out of 5 undercooked ingredients 

Accessibility Rating: -1 out of 5 front steps

6/12/25

Poke Thai Kitchen

Buffalo, NY

Still swimming upstream

The thing with having chronic pain is I can't do a lot in one day. Or shouldn't. Shouldn't is the right word. Because of all the people in my life, the person least likely to act with respect for my limitations is me.

Case in point, on Thursday after spending all day working on my computer, I then went out to see my daughter's elementary school production of Annie Jr (she played Tessie, and she was wonderful). And then went to the school carnival after. And then went out to eat.

Yeah...

Suffice to say, by the time we arrived at Poke Thai Kitchen at the irresponsible hour of 9pm I was exhausted. I was less looking for a fun night out with friends and family and more looking to shovel poke into my mouth as quickly as possible. The Great and Powerful Google told us Poke Thai Kitchen was nearby and notably, still open. We drove over, I hopped in my power wheelchair and... got this text from my friend who had already arrived.

She didn't mince words

A wiser person than me might have then chosen a new restaurant. But we were hungry. And I'm obnoxious. So I rolled up to the front door anyway.

Wheelchair users beware, the step to get in is about five inches tall. If you're a manual chair user and have better balance than I do (I don't wanna talk about it) you could pop a wheelie and make it up there. Otherwise if you're not ambulatory, you're not getting in.

But I have good news! You don't want to eat there anyway!

Our meal was already off to a rough start, and it continued to disappoint. We got five menus for a table of six, and all five menus were special and unique. As in, they all had various missing menu pages. This led to a confused sequence of trading menus and periodically shouting things like, "Oh, this is the one with the poke!" and "Does anyone have the appetizer page?" Their selection was almost as chaotic as their menu pages, with the expected Hawaiian and Thai food alongside Japanese, Chinese, and Vietnamese fusion. They also served red velvet cake because why the hell not? The picture-heavy menu appeared to be mostly, if not all, stock photos. That left some disconnect between what was pictured and what was stated, like there were jalapeños in the picture of the poke bowl, but none listed in the ingredients (fun fact! I'm allergic to jalapeños!). Prices were a little on the high side, with entrees ranging from $10-20.

Note the Mango Curry with Bbby corn

We ordered some bubble teas and sodas and we waited. And we waited. And we waited. I finally got my mango milk tea (I ordered lavender) and it was okay. I prefer places that flavor their boba pearls.

The table was too tall for my chair

The hour grew later and the children grew restless as we waited for our food to arrive. Then when it did come it came 1-2 dishes at a time, while the rest of us waited longer still. I got a poke bowl and let me tell you, it was... actually, really good. Kinda small for a $15 poke bowl, but tasty. The tuna was firm and delicious, and I liked the sweet, sriracha mayo it was drizzled with.

Accidentally stirred before photographing. I fail at blogging.

Mine was not the experience for the rest of the table.

Good thing he likes raw fish

The small blonde child's wanton mi soup had a weak, watery broth lacking in flavor. She was doing better than my friend and my husband, who were served raw fish. True there was raw fish to be had on the menu. Trouble was, that's not what they ordered. Hubby got the sweet and sour fish, which was supposed to be deep fried catfish and stir fried veggies. They were out of the catfish and offered salmon. It arrived so raw it was still trying to find Nemo. The theme continued along to the seriously undercooked peppers, onions, and broccoli.

When my friend's miso salmon hit the table I heard generations of Japanese grandmothers cry out from the grave. An undercooked fillet, served alongside cold, unseasoned edamame and crunchy, unseasoned broccoli. While my hubby ate his raw salmon, my friend elected to send hers back. It returned fully cooked but without a bit of color on it, like it had been steamed instead of pan fried.

This dish cost $20

To round things out, the vegetables were also undercooked on the Thai Seafood and the mango chicken. I get the feeling the only reason my poke bowl was good is that they didn't have to cook anything.

The bathroom was big enough for my chair but barricaded by a mop bucket. All of the portions were tiny. It took the server two tries to get the check right. The whole meal took an hour and a half.

It's okay. I love obstacle courses when I have to pee.

On the way out, our server helpfully held the door while my husband muscled my chair back out onto the sidewalk. What would actually have been helpful, is if they invested $80 in a removable ramp. Seriously, that's all they cost. We spent more than that on this shitty dinner.

I attempted to contact them the next day, but email came back undelivered, no one answers the phone and the voicemail isn't set up yet. I resorted to hitting them up on Facebook messenger, but as of today they have declined to answer back.

Towards the end of our meal, the small blonde child looked at her father in earnest and asked, "Can we never come here again?" I don't think we'll be giving them a second chance.