Salmon & Bear, Newtown

Five min walk from Newtown Station lies the second home base for Salmon & Bear in Sydney. I've seen pictures of their poke bowls so I was eager to see what the hype was all about. Their original store is located in Zetlands, which requires too many public transport transfers to reach for my liking, so I decided to visit their store in Newtown instead.

Outside of Restaurant

Their name is a play on the instinctive nature of bears catching wild salmon and is emphasised by their vast displays on the wall, rustic wooden interiors with a cabin feel, and very dark lighting:

Wall Art

Since I had arrived for a late lunch, it was rather quiet inside but there were still a few occupied tables and customers that came in well after me. I ended up ordering their signature salmon poke bowl, which seems to be the go-to classic dish, at the bar:

Salmon Poke Bowl ($20) - Diced Salmon,Corn Salsa with Chargrilled Corn,
Capsicum, Tomato, Herbs, Coconut-infused Basmati Rice, and Avocado,
topped with a Soy-based Sauce.

Close-up of Poke Bowl

For those that have never encountered a poke bowl, it's basically a Hawaiian take on the Japanese chirashi dish, in which you marinate bite-size pieces of raw seafood (e.g. tuna, salmon, or octopus) and serve with rice, vegetables and other toppings.

I was very happy to see that the rice was cooked to an soft, edible texture - not too hard and not too soggy. The sauce was too salty for my taste (perhaps too much soy sauce?) but otherwise acceptable when mixed thoroughly with the other ingredients in the bowl. Overall, I was satisfied with this clean, fresh take on a rice bowl, which was ideal as a light lunch before my dessert escapade in Enmore.

The dish was good value in comparison to the poke bowl I tried from the Three Blue Ducks, which had good plating and potentially better quality ingredients but more expensive ($27) and significantly smaller (at least half the volume on the plate).

I'm up for visiting again to try their tuna poke bowl, which has comes with a different salad, or even their grilled fish.