First look: Supa Bowl poke bowl restaurant opens in No Name Lane

Canberra now has a dedicated poke bowl restaurant.

In case you've been living under a food-trend resistance rock, poke (pronounced poh-kay) bowls originated in Hawaii and are healthy, rice-based dishes loaded up with raw fish and a whole range of fresh vegetables and ingredients.

Supa Bowl opened over the weekend facing Alinga Street in Civic, just off new food-hub No Name Lane, with a menu focussed on poke bowls.

Owner Vivian Chu and her family have always been big fans of sashimi - even her young kids. "We happened to find there was another way to eat sashimi as poke and we fell in love," she said.

"I did my research and found out it's super popular around the world. I said to myself, 'it would be nice if Canberra had its own poke place'."

When Vivian - who grew up in Hong Kong but moved to Canberra, first in 1985 to study, and then again in 2012 to raise her kids - saw a vacant space in the new No Name Lane precinct, she said she knew it was the right spot to open a poke bowl restaurant.

While poke bowls are a Hawaiian street food, their flavours have their roots in Japanese food, so Vivian hired a Japanese chef to create the menu, and all sauces are made from his own recipes.

"I'm very picky and quality is very important to me. We ensure all our ingredients are the freshest, and all our sauces on the menu are home-made, which we spent months experimenting with and inventing from scratch."

The menu has five signature poke bowls - salmon, tuna, chicken or tofu options, plus the 'supa bowl' with both salmon and tuna - or you can also completely build your own. For the base you can choose brown or white rice, or soba noodles or zucchini noodles.

To drink, Vivian has created a range of iced rooibos teas, caffiene-free, flavoured with high quality fruit powder and bursting with antioxidants, plus there are bottled cold-pressed juices.

But, because life is all about balance, they also have dessert in the form of the Insta-friendly egg puffle.

"I thought, 'I'm going to open a poke restaurant, what can go with it?' Since poke is street food, I thought of my childhood street food back in Hong Kong which is egg puffle."

Puffles are made fresh out of batter similar to waffle mix, but more fluffy. You can get them plain and served hot, or you can load them up with gelato and toppings.

"I love making them - it's like an art piece. And it's great to see the customer's reaction."

The venue is predominantly set up for takeaway, but there are some indoor stools, and even more outdoor seating.

Supa Bowl, Shop G23, Mayfair, 40 Marcus Clarke Street, Canberra. Open Mon to Fri 11.30am-8.30pm, Sat 12.30pm-8.30pm.