Poke Bowls and Spam Musubi Coming to Downtown This Summer

A Hawaiian restaurant on Sainte-Catherine is the latest planned addition to the downtown restaurant mini-empire that includes the izakaya Biiru, Mexican taqueria Escondite, and forthcoming Cuban restaurant La Habanera, reveals principal Yann Levy.

Increasingly trendy poke (pronounced poh-kay) bowls — featuring raw fish and various additions — with "funky twists" will be the focus. Also on the menu: funky takes on the Hawaiian snack food favourite Spam musubi (grilled Spam on a block of rice, wrapped in seaweed) and fusions like a "Cuban-pressed Lau'Lau banh mi," plus pancakes and juices. They're shooting for an early July opening, and the name is still to be announced. Meanwhile, La Habanera will open at 1216 Avenue Union, just a few doors down from Escondite, by the beginning of May, says Levy.