I ordered three scoops of salmon, and this is how much I got. Over pricey and low-quality food it is read more

Poke Lab - Poke Near Me - Champaign, Illinois

Was going to go to another place and turned the corner and saw this place and decided I'd wanted to try it. I had the Eel Don, it was great. The eel tasted very good, it had a little too much cucumber. The place looked nice. You could see in the kitchen and see how they made your food which is always nice. read more

Fresh ingredients and sauces. Everything tastes good. However there is next to NO protein in these bowls. This is the second time I've ordered and it's almost entirely rice and sauce with hardly and fish. read more

I cannot even describe their untasty food in any other word I would use to describe one stars restaurant! genuinely, i would rate ZERO Star if such option exist. Try to avoid this restaurant if you are champaign but not knowing what you want to eat, a waste of money! Fish isn't fresh, sauce tastes unstable! read more

Came in at 1:00 for lunch on Wednesday and there were no other customers. I ordered a mix between brown and white rice and previous Yelpers are right when they say this place piles on the rice to make your bowl look fuller because they skimp out on meat and veggies. I ordered one scoop of crab ($1) and spicy tuna ($2.50) and was very upset to see that the spicy tuna is minced and creamy instead of chunky/diced like other places. When I ate the poke, the spicy tuna just got lost. I wonder if they do the same thing with the regular tuna ($3). The sauces were pretty good, I got wasabi, Hawaiian sweet, spicy mayo, and ponzu. The topping selection is decent but the scoop of avocado is pathetically tiny. I know other Yelpers have complained about this but they still haven't changed it. I liked the selection of dry toppings and really appreciated that they were complimentary. The fact that I had to pay $1 for a bottle of water because they don't have water cups/refill station is really weird. I don't know other restaurants like this. Lunch cost about $8 and did fill me up, but that's because it was mostly rice. I would probably come back here but would not get spicy tuna and would not rave about this place being the best poke ever because it really isn't. read more

Service was quick and the food was good. I got the three scoop create your own poke and thought the portion size was decent.

Pokelab was okay. I am not Hawaiian but I enjoyed my fair share of poke while visiting the islands. I got white rice, fresh salmon and spicy tuna on mine and assorted toppings. The rice wasn't fresh; the spicy tuna was not spicy. I asked for spicy mayo and it wasn't spicy; not even mildly. The service was quick, but it's hard to hear when the music speaker is close to the ordering area. Glad I tried it but I won't be coming back. read more

This is my favorite poke place in town--its a little further from my office than the others but it's worth the walk. The customization options are huge, and they have so many toppings and mix-ins available. It's easy to make a healthy meal, and you can switch it up a lot--they have more protein options than anywhere else in town. read more

Decent for the price. Staff was friendly. I had salmon and tuna in my bowl. It was good and fresh. They could use a few more sauce selections but other than that, I like it. read more

Good taste, great for a salmon lover. The boss is very nice!

Pokelab is a great place to go for a quick snack or for a meal! I love that they offer brown rIce and some more pricey proteins for the same cost! The staff is always friendly and it's a really cute place to eat at. read more

I've been waiting for a poke place forever to come to Champaign! This place did It right! I love the modern vibe and the selection. Price works for me and now I'm a regular. It's my new new choice for healthy food! read more

Since this place opened, I've been there at least 3 days a week. The staff is super friendly and amiable and the food is fresh and filling. Poke is usually quite expensive (around $13-15 a bowl), but this place lets you pick how much you want to pay by setting different prices for the proteins and add-ins. Also they do giveaways on insta so hop on that (@pokelabhiring)! They have a lot of variety in terms of protein (I recommend the salmon-- it's very fresh) and add-ins and toppings as well. They don't even charge extra for avocado! Definitely worth trying :) read more

Total rip-off. I've been coming here for about 3-4 months now and as of this week they have gone through three different pricing structures. As a vegetarian who works on campus I appreciated having a reasonably priced healthy-ish option that wasn't a sandwich. Can't say I'd ever come back now. When I first started going here, my order was around 6.5-7.50...then they changed some things and upped the price of tofu, and it ended up being around 8.50. Still fair enough, and they had a punch card that gave you a free bowl after awhile which was pretty nice. Now I tried going in there and with the new pricing structure, my order would've been $12.25 before tax. Are y'all crazy? No way that's worth it. Tofu now costs the same as any of the fish or chicken - they literally just open packages of cold tofu and cut it into cubes. They do it right in front so I've seen it. My co-worker, who eats chicken, had his order jump up $4-5 too. If the food was amazing or the portions were large I'd understand but it's nothing special by any means. Kind of fresh veggies and rice, maybe the fish is quality - I wouldn't know to be fair. Not a lot of food for $13. As competitive as the food on campus is, I can't see how anyone could justify coming here for those prices. I guess they got new management, which explains the extreme price hike. The old manager was nice but really slow and would pick at employees while they were working, so I understand the change, but I'd take her any day over this. Avoid this place. read more

I have lived in Hawaii before moving to Illinois, so I know a good deal about how traditional poke is supposed to look and taste like. And coming to this area near Green Street and seeing that a place called Poke Lab opened, I was extremely excited to try it out. When I first walked in I noticed an employee cutting what looked like frozen blocks of tuna packaged in plastic. There was nothing else on the menu that looked of that color and size, so my educated guess is that they use frozen fish. This normally wouldn't be a problem for me, as I know a lot of restaurants have struggles with food costs, and raw fish that is safe to consume raw is especially expensive to obtain and maintain freshness for. However, my concern is that the menu clearly states that the fish is fresh - "Fresh Tuna", "Fresh Salmon", and "Fresh Crab Meat", etc. (one look and anyone can tell that the crab meat is imitation flakes) Putting a veil over customers' eyes is frankly disrespectful and cheap. When you first walk into Poke Lab, an employee greets you and asks what kind of base you want. The standard base costs $3 and you have the option of white or brown rice, a standard spring mix salad, or a mix of whatever you'd like. Next, they ask what sort of protein you would like. From what I can remember, they have salmon, tuna, shrimp, crab meat, crab salad, and spicy tuna, with tofu as an option for vegetarians or those who do not like fish. On first sight the crab and shrimp do not look appetizing (and those meats aren't commonly seen in traditional poke anyway) so I opted for a scoop of salmon. Afterwards they ask if you want any sauces - I tried the Hawaiian Sweet and it tasted like a pretty standard teriyaki sauce with a small fruity kick. Their spicy mayo also tasted pretty good. Next, you have a variety of mix-in toppings to add and mix with your fish before they add it to your bowl. These cost $0.25 cents each and were not bad, but the diced onion looked fairly browned and not too appetizing. Some other noticeable toppings include corn, edamame, cucumber, pickled radish, avocado (also $0.25, which is an excellent deal considering the fact that avocado almost always costs extra in any other establishment), seaweed salad, and masago. Overall, however, I was disappointed by the bowl. I understand that maybe the bowl is not the same kind of stuff I enjoyed back in Hawaii, but it tasted absolutely nothing of the childhood memories I thoroughly loved. The sauce was of fairly generic taste and was overly sweet, and fish did not taste or look fresh as it was slightly discolored and felt limp - it almost disintegrated, for lack of a better word, when I pressed down my fork down on it, a clear sign that the fish actually came in frozen, or was shipped fresh and then frozen/defrosted. To be honest, the bowl was not terrible. The avocado tasted fresh (if it was not fresh you would notice browning) and the sauce was not bad. After all, no one walks into a Chipotle to eat authentic, traditional Mexican cuisine. But I do find it disrespectful to advertise fresh seafood, and have customers pay higher prices for frozen fish that you cut right in front of the consumer. Because some customers will know what something is supposed to look/taste like. If you want better poke in the area I recommend Kung Fu Tea just a block away; though their poke is a bit overpriced, it is still of better quality than Pokelab. The staff at Pokelab, however, was extremely friendly and attentive. They were very kind and helped me through the process of ordering. read more

Awesome spot for grab and go poke. They have really affordable prices with quick service! build your own bowl is a must and I almost always size up read more

It was good but a little pricey because the scoops are small. We had to get double and triple of stuff to make the bowl look full. We ate all our food and it was fresh and tasty. read more

I've been once so far and it was really good! Love the way they do the pricing, it makes a cheaper options than other places that charge you one price and tell you up to many you can pick. I can't have all the ingredients so it was nice to just pay for what I'd eat. There was a good portion of rice and a decent portion of salmon. I had to do no sauce due to allergies but my lunchmate had sauce and said it was really good. I'll definitely be going back. Only negative I would say is that it's difficult to hear/be heard because I'm short and the glass is high but it's good the food is being protected. I wish EVERYTHING was fresh but again, it still tasted really good and the pricing is great. read more

I went there today and although the bowl came together very nicely with good flavors, the portions of the protein were way too little for the price. Overall, the price wasn't that bad, I ended up paying about 8.50 for two proteins (salmon & crab) and 4 toppings but I still think it was overpriced for the portions of protein compared to a chipotle bowl for example. You do get a substantial amount of rice but I would just prefer more protein. With the extremely small amount of protein, I felt like I had a rice bowl with some mayo sauce because I could barely taste the salmon I had ordered. With a poke bowl, the focus of the bowl should be the fish (as highlighted by their logo) but sadly, a tablespoon worth of fish in a bowl of rice does not cut it. Although, I enjoy the overall bowl's flavors and components and come repeatedly, I wish it was executed more thoughtfully. read more

Food was good, but the "scoop" of meat is the size of a small melon baller. Very small serving of protein with a huge pile of rice. Also, they provide absolutely no water unless you pay for a plastic bottle. A simple cup of water should be available at an eating establishment. read more