Food Blog | The Pokemist by RSVP Bukit Indah (Poke Bowl Restaurant)

(14/10/20 Update: I’ve been told by a reader that Pokemist Bukit Indah is no longer operating - by taking a look around at their social media, it does seem that this particular outlet is closed)

Hello peeps! Got yet another restaurant review coming at you guys and this time it is The Pokemist by RSVP! This is a pretty popular chain selling poke bowls in Melaka, Muar, KL, etc. so I was pretty excited to try this restaurant out!

Context: Came here with my girlfriend for a lunch while she washed her car. We tried coming in to eat at around 11am, but they open quite strictly at 12pm, so we just walked about at Aeon Bukit Indah for a bit before heading back over to Pokemist.

Is it Halal?

I tried looking around for this information, but I couldn’t really find anything conclusive. But ultimately what I believe is the situation here is that they don’t have their halal certification but are using halal ingredients. On FoodPanda, they are listed as being non-halal, but they do actually hashtag a few of their posts with #halal (whether or not this can be used as certification is debatable). But as always, eat at your own discretion and ask if you’re concerned about this.

Where it Is?

There’s an interesting collaboration going on between The Pokemist Restaurant and Parc Hotel Bukit Indah. The restaurant itself is located in the hotel itself, literally opposite the reception (think hotel breakfast restaurants). It can be a little hard to find parking, but look around for a bit and you should be able to find some parking.

The area itself is notorious for police giving out samans, so do check the situation of where you’re parking and put coupons if appropriate.

Address: 23 & 25, Jalan Indah 15/3 Taman Bukit Indah Iskandar Puteri, 81200 Johor Bahru, Johor

What it Costs

Me and my girlfriend had a poke bowl each. My girlfriend went with their signature salmon alchemy bowl (you can zoom in on the picture on the menu to see what is in that particular poke bowl) - RM24.90, whilst I went with a bowl that I made myself (smoked duck as my protein, their specialty garlic sauce, an avocado add on for RM2.90 extra and edamame, tamago and roasted almonds for my sides - mine costs a total of RM17.80 with the avocado add on. That means that our meal totalled up to RM46.70 after adding 10% service charge.

Water is free here. XD

This is another one of those restaurants where you can pay using the payment app Favepay. If you read my blog, you’ll know I’m a big fan of using Favepay because you can save a lot by using it at places you eat often. Use my referral code I19YC and you can get RM5 off your first purchase on the app. Not a sponsored post, but I do gain that same RM5 benefit into my account when you sign up, so it’s a win-win!

Pokemist Smoked Duck Poke Bowl (RM17.80)

How it Tastes

My favourite among the two is clearly my “pick myself” poke bowl. Maybe a little bit of biasness, but I’ll share why I think that way. I feel as though the brown rice and smoked duck combination work SO WELL together. They’re legit so fragrant, which makes it a really yummy poke bowl.

The nuts and tamago are pretty good, but I feel like the avocado is a bit meh, especially considering it is a premium ingredient that I had to pay to add on. But in general, I really enjoyed my poke bowl!

I think one big reason why I didn’t like the salmon poke bowl THAT much is that I like it with fresh sashimi style salmon. (like Poke Twins or Top Catch Fisheries) Quite simply because you can appreciate the taste of the salmon better. The salmon here is a bit meh and I think not as worth other cuts of meat that you can get here.

The vegetables and the sauces are pretty good as well, but I feel like that dish is let down by the salmon. My girlfriend swears by Japanese food, so I wasn’t too surprised when she liked both equally - can’t stop the love for salmon, but what do you do?

I would say the poke bowls are a little bit on the smaller side (of course this is relative to Poke Twins and Top Catch Fisheries because those two are the easiest comparisons) but I guess it is just about enough to fill you up.

Star Rating

6.5/10. Pretty yummy poke bowls providing yet another great choice for a pleasant lunch at Bukit Indah. A little bit on the pricey side, but I think this is a really nice spot to come once in a while.