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Good news for seafood-loving Denverites. QuickFish Poke Bar opened for business yesterday morning on the upper level of Avanti Food & Beverage, replacing Bamboo Sushi (which is owned by the same Portland-based Sustainable Restaurant Group). QuickFish’s poke bowls are made with the same responsibly-sourced fish that Bamboo touts, as well as with some of Bamboo’s signature sauces, such as the popular, creamy Green Machine. (More good news: Bamboo is opening a stand-alone brick-and-mortar location in November just blocks away from Avanti.)
Regardless of how you feel about Denver’s poke invasion, it’s hard not to find something to like on QuickFish’s menu, which spans eight signature bowls and four sides; there’s also a build-your-own bowl option. The Scallop Bowl is a nice starting point: four ounces of sweet raw bay scallops, cucumber, avocado, sweet onion, habanero masago (a.k.a. capelin roe, this version infused with spicy heat), crispy shallots, and a bold yuzu vinaigrette over properly cooked sushi rice. Other standouts include the raw sockeye salmon Fire Bowl and the bigeye tuna Island Bowl.
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If you’re craving something heartier than raw fish on a cold Denver day, go for the Not Fish Bowl, developed with the Mile High City’s colder climate in mind (it’s also been added to the menu of the Portland location). It features warm, umami-rich braised Angus beef, marinated kale, a generous heap of kimchi, and Korean chile sauce. For added healthfulness, order it over “medicine rice,” a healthy, 15-grain blend touting buckwheat, millet, amaranth, barley, and more. For a fun twist, you can even create poke nachos by opting for a base of tortilla chips.
What really sets these bowls apart is QuickFish’s commitment to “100 percent sustainable fish,” as Sustainable Restaurant Group creative director Cory Schisler says. He cites the restaurants’ combined buying power as the reason QuickFish is able to offer such high quality seafood bowls for around $13 a pop.
Avanti Food & Beverage, 3200 N. Pecos St., 720-269-4778
