san diego food blog
the quest for edible food in sd
top ten eateries
bottom ten eateries
by food type:
american
burgers
chinese
japanese
greek
indian
mexican
middle eastern
thai
pizza
about this site
site terms of use
Pokez - Great, Fresh & Cheap
Pokez is unassuming in its presence on the corner of E Street and 10th on the walk to Petco Park (and thus very crowded on game days with Padres©®™ sports fans in all of their corporate logo glory competing with the tattooed vegan hipsters just looking for a potato flauta fix). It's kind of an out of the way place with creepy looking people lurking in bushes near apartment buildings (and San Diego's public library), but hey, it's home!
Inside you will find the cheapest, freshest, and some of the best Mexican food in San Diego.
It is often hard to find all three elements in one place. Usually grease joints like filibertos, alibertos, megabertos, runnyraybertos, et. al. have the un-freshest food you eat but are cheap and sometimes good.
Mega tourist "Mexi" places have $20 enchilada plates and $15 specialty margaritas that are worse than Mexican food I've had in Bahrain. (Please avoid "historic" Old Town San Diego, anyone who is reading this, avoid it with all the power you can muster, particularly since one ugly mega-corporate company bought and runs the whole place.)
But I digress.
We are talking good here, Pokez, Pokez, Pokez.
And speaking of big mega corporate, there aren't too many restaurants with giant paintings of Zapata and Martin Luther King Jr. (even though the whole country takes his birthday off.)
Pokez is decorated like your son's shared squat/loft after his sixth year in that expensive art college he's been bilking you on. It has "art" everywhere, red walls, a small area for buying zines, and the coolest looking waiters and waitresses in the city. They are young, small built, tattooed and usually dress in black anarchist green day garb.
They are also some of the nicest waiters in San Diego, when they get to your table.
You see, Pokez has a service problem. We haven't been able to figure out whether this problem is a deliberate attempt to be cool, whether they are just overworked, or whether they are trying to combat corporate sensibility by stamping out things like timeliness or attentiveness.
I heard some street rumor that Pokez employees work on some sort of pro bono tips only situation. I also heard some girl tell gushingly about her friend who went out with one of the Pokez guys for like five years. But who knows.
The place can be off putting, especially when it's crowded. You will see a crowd of hipsters mulling around a sign saying "wait to be seated" while several tables are unoccupied and unbussed (glasses and the like).
Whatever you do don't sit down on your own accord, like we did our first time. We waited about 20 minutes before a waiter showed up and said "you should not sit down because we don't see you if we don't seat you."
Once you are seated, be prepared to order, just grab the waiter and hold on and tell them what you want before they leave. They have a habit of disappearing for 20-30 minute stretches.
When you do talk to them you'll find very friendly, polite, and interested people who are more than happy to tell you what's good (any maybe push the vegan chorizo a little too hard).
One aside/pure Pokez moment: a purely detarded individual in his twenties taking one long last drag on a cigarette moments before walking in Pokez' front door and then tossing the butt on the street and exhaling the smoke inside had his calves tattooed on the back: one said read "vegan" and one said "power" (in old English lettering) : please, sir, while your politics are interesting, please keep your butts off the curb, your smoke in your house (or just quit and save mother earth and yourself), and your politics consistent, and those stretched out ear rings that Masai tribes in Kenya wear are not cool at all, they are hilarious, and a Masai warrior would spear you if he saw your dumbass in Kenya asking for tofutti. Vegan cigarettes, just what we need.
In Pokez they have a bar next door with beer on tap too, which goes nicely with their food. We get a pitcher of Yellowtail usually, which is like $7 or something very cheap.
flautas
The food:
Free chips and homemade salsa, the salsa is one of the best free salsas I've had in a restaurant, and is usually spicy (a welcome change in SD), very tomatoey with fresh onions and cilantro and peppers.
Their plates are mammoth proportions, be warned, and don't be fooled by the prices (most are under $5), they are incredibly huge, especially the burritos which are about the size of a football. They also serve many vegan and vegetarian options and cook these in a separate area from the meat ones.
Some favorites:
Chimichanga with carne asada: This thing is incredible, huge, and somehow the addition of some pico de gallo on top (cilantro, onion and tomato) adds to the experience like that certain something. This is a deep fried burrito chock full of fresh carne asada (not that chewy stringy stuff they give you at pinchebertos), tomatoes, cheese, onions, cilantro and other assorted friends. All of their produce is incredibly fresh and fresh tasting. Though I think something is a little too salty.
With the pico on top of the chimi is a welcome "wet" glob of homemade sour cream and guacamole, both of which are great, fresh, tasty, any other adjective you want to use.
Flautas: Though I usually eschew veggie options, the beef and chicken flautas are a bit dry here and don't taste that great, the potato ones, however, are fantastic and you should get them immediately. The flautas are fried, rolled, and about a foot long each. They are the same consistency as the chimichanga: not crunchy deep fried (like a white person ortega taco shell), but rather slightly crunchy fried with a fluffy exterior that is delicious. The potatoes in the flautas are (I assume) pan fried with some spices beforehand and then rolled up and fried again.
Whoever said frying was so bad. Hey vegans and vegetarians: just because it's vegan doesn't mean that it's healthy, in fact it's pretty bad for you.
But it tastes so damn good.
Fish Tacos: Some of the best, using fresh mahi mahi you can get these grilled or battered and fried, slap on some white sauce and salsa and you are good to go.
Shrimp Cocktail: One of the freshest cocktails I've ever had, and at $8.50 the most expensive thing on their menu.
As a main course it's not as filling as their other fare, but it is a very good cocktail with tons and tons of shrimp, served in one of those giant globular ice cream thingys with crackers and hot sauce on the side. The cocktail has a bunch of cilantro, onions, and avocado slices as well.
For me, the freshest, but really it could have used a little more spice and a little less water, but I still recommend it.
Veggie Burrito: Beans, rice, cilantro, onion, wet sauce on top = good stuff. A friend had one and couldn't finish it so it was a welcome delicious lunch the next day (she flew home) for me.
Listen, maybe it's a little on the "white person" Mexican side (ie chimichanga, burrito, taco), but it's pretty damn good.
Like I said most entrees are under $5 and usually come with a healthy portion of rice and beans (both veggie made and delicious still).
Eat at Pokez, it's good for you, I suggest going during an off-hour to avoid the rush of art students in their twenties who all gather here like a cult.
They are open all day, and take credit cards (another important note: when you are finished eating and want to go, go up to the counter and pay for your bill, otherwise you will sit there for hours).
M-F open 10am-9pm, SAT: 9am-7pm, SUN: 9am-7pm
947 E Street (at 10th), downtown
San Diego CA
619 702 7160
info @ sandiegofoodblog.com
all pictures and content Copyright ©2006-2007 sandiegofoodblog.com and may not be used without written permission