Sons of Thunder

This place is a solid ⁵⁄₅.
The poke is exceptional and exceeded my expectations. The fish is fresh and they give you a decent amount. I loved the ahi tuna poke. However, the spicy mayo is a bit too spicy.
The service is wonderful.
There is a good amount of seating and the wait is not bad during lunch hours.
The price is also fair for the amount of fish they give you.

With the so many poké spots popping up all over the place in New York City, a group of friends and I decided to go on a poke tour. In one evening, we tried the following: Sons of Thunder, Pokéworks, and Wisefish. We know there are others but there was limited of time after work. I may not be a native Hawaiian but I had the poké almost every day while I was in Honolulu. I remember how light, fresh, and how perfectly marinated the fish pieces were. Will I find that same taste here in NYC? Let the poké wars begin!
I am pleased to announce that Sons of Thunder was the best poké spot during our tour! This was the first poké spot we started with and it was the best. My party got a taste of the Ahi Tuna and the Half and Half with Tako Octopus and Yuzu Ponzu Salmon Rice Bowls. Ahi Tuna was indeed the favorite amongst the crowd. Both fishes were very well marinated, so fresh, and so flavorful. We got the bowls with white rice, avocado, field greens, fish roe, seaweed, with shoyu or spicy marinade sauce, and garlic flakes on the side. Ahi Tuna was best paired with the shoyu sauce in my experience. White sushi rice was used and it just accompanied the pieces of fish very well in every mouthful.
Sons of Thunder is located at a very secluded street in Midtown East. Location may not be their strength but quality is what will keep me coming back! Not to mention, this is the most spacious and the one with more seating poké store to date here!

Healthy and delicious meal for under $ 15. The space in the back is big enough for a sit down dinner with a group of friends. They also serve draft beer which is another plus!

Verdict in: Poke champ of New York. Turns out, Poke is taking over New York. So a few friends and I decided to make an official Poke Crawl or Poke Tour depending who you ask in our group and quite honestly, there really was one clear winner and I am happy to say that Sons of Thunder was the top of the list. The other two locations we compared were Pokeworks and Wisefish Poke. Also, I thought the actual restaurant Sons of Thunder was the largest, had the most seating and was the most comfortable. The other restaurants were very narrow with very limited seating. Overall, I enjoyed the freshness of all the food items here and as unusual as it sounds, the one at Sons of Thunder really did taste the most Asian, I have yet to go to Hawaii and this was my first ever Poke bowl, but I will say this is what I would expect it to taste like in Hawaii. P. S. You can get all the sides like krispies and spicy mayo on the side.
The food:
Ahi Tuna Shoyu with Avocado with white rice– From what I saw on TV, this seems like the classic Poke dish to get and this was the best bowl out of all the Pokes we tried from the three restaurants. The Ahi Tuna had so much damn flavor, the marinade was perfect, not too sweet and not too salty. The tuna oddly reminded me of chunks of watermelon since it was so perfectly cut and it picked up the nice color of the marinade. I love avocado so that was an automatic add and the another big difference with the other Poke restaurants we compared was the rice. The rice at Sons of Thunder had a really excellent texture and they used a nice short grain rice that picked up flavor from the shoyu. The other places used a long grain rice that felt weird, it was also kinda tasteless, plain and boring. The addition of the salad and seaweed work with the bowls nicely.
Half Salmon/​Half Tako Octopus Shoyu with Avocado and white rice– The nice thing you can do here is mix and match flavors so we tried the salmon and tako. I thought the salmon was good, it had a nice clean flavor and had a good mouth feel but the tuna was the hands down winner. The tako was nice and tender but a tad too mild in flavor for me, I am normally just so so with tako anyway. The side of spicy mayo was good and had a good amount of heat but makes it feel too Americanized Japanese to me so I barely used it. The Krispies are fried garlic and had good flavor and added a nice crunch but makes your breath stink since the garlic flavor is pretty intense.

Yummmmm! This place is so good.
They give you generous amounts of poke for a reasonable price. The rice is soft, warm, and perfectly moist. The spicy sauce is on point!
The simple menu features tuna, salmon, or octopus poke, and you can choose half and half if you like variety or are indecisive like me. It comes with seaweed, greens, and tobiko. I chose the salmon and tuna, with garlic crisps and nori as my add-​ons. Both the salmon and tuna came in nice size able chunks, tasted super fresh, and went perfectly with the spicy sauce! The bowl is a perfect portion size for lunch or dinner, leaving me satisfied but not overly stuffed.
So glad this place opened up near me, I can definitely see myself becoming a regular. Next time I want to try one of their hot dogs or shakes!

O.M.G. SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY. This place is da bomb. A pretty spankin’ new poke spot near my office? I was completely blown away. I ordered the ahi tuna poke (didn’t go for half and half), spicy, white rice, with some avocado ($ 14 with tax). The spicy mayo is more on the spicy side — you’ve been warned. The place is very clean and the dining area is quite spacious — a perfect spot for a quick and filling lunch. According to the previous pictures, the bowls used to be a long cylinder type of plastic container. That has now changed — you are now going to be able to mix away like a champ! It’s now a biodegradable flat bowl.
Make sure you check-​in to get a free small fountain soda or a bottle of water (and it seems to be a repeated use type of voucher). There’s a water fountain with cups there, and it tasted fine, so perhaps just get the soda unless you’re taking out. They give you a buzzer, so keep that near and make sure your number matches up, since a lot of the bowls will obviously look the same. There’s a buncha extras you can add to your poke, so review the list carefully! I’m going to add EVERYTHING next time. The amount of avocado (for extra) was generous — I can’t wait to add edamame!
The fish and veggies were both very very very fresh, and sitting on a bed of warm white rice was an absolutely heavenly match. I wolfed it down, barely breathing while chomping away at the bowl. Why hello there new favorite lunch spot — I’ll be back for more very very soon ;)
I feel like a number of new poke spots are opening up all across Manhattan — well, I’m just glad that we were blessed with one so closeby. The place was pretty empty at 12:30pm today (Thursday), but I’m sure as word gets out, it’ll be a complete war zone for seats. Meh, won’t stop me! I know that some of the menu items are not yet available, so check their online menu to see prior to making the trip out there if you’re not going for the poke. The milkshakes were tempting but not enough to want to walk a couple blocks back to the office in 35 degree weather. Want to feel healthy? This is my alternative to getting a bara chirashi ;)

First poke experience here.
Was really intrigued by how good poke looked from pictures, so I Unilocaled and bookmarked several locations on where I can find it. This was the first place I checked, and it was a good first experience! There were a lot of ingredients in one bowl. I added avocado to my spicy salmon poke. A bit on the expensive side, but filling. It was also flavorful.
This was a spacious store with cafeteria-​like seating toward the back. Quite orderly and clean as well.
The only downside for me was that I actually took a while trying to locate the store. It took some getting lost for me to find the place, as it was some distance from the nearest train station I was able to take to get here. Though, once you get to the area, you won’t miss this place.

Hands down my new favorite spot for lunch in midtown. Actually writing this review as I eat my poke because that’s how obsessed I am with it. Of all the new west coast fads, poke is the best.
They are more than generous with the fish. This is a large lunch portion and a good value for your money. I do wish I would have gotten tuna instead of half and half. Its seasoned to perfection!

Great little hidden spot, and one of the few places I know that serves legit poke. With a name like sons of thunder, I don’t think anyone will forget! Similar to shake shack (which is nearby), it uses buzzers while you wait, and brown to go bags. There’s also bench table seating in the back.
I’ve been here a few times for lunch takeout since it’s near my work, and usually takes like 5 – 10 minutes to get your food (reasonable). I’ve ordered the half tuna and half salmon spicy poke with brown rice — delicious, filling, and healthy!
There are more menu items coming since this place is fairly new, can’t wait to see how this place grows, and hope they continue to serve good food. :)

Ever since my trip from Cali, been longing for a delicious poké spot on the east cost… Finally my prayers have been answered!
Ordered
— Spicy Ahi Tuna
— Spicy Salmon
— Half Ahi & Half Tako
All fresh as F! Was uneasy about the tako, but it turned out to be delicious!
You can definitely count me in as a regular

SONS OF THUNDERRR! you automatically get 1 star for an awesome name and another 4 for being awesome in general.
Dropped by for lunch a few days ago and already knew I wanted to try the half and half poke ball (salmon, ahi tuna, brown rice and spicy sauce). They also honor the Unilocal check in for a free regular drink!
Ordering was fast and super easy, staff was totally competent and efficient and the wait time was about 7 minutes. They use a buzzer that vibrates when your order is ready to be picked up.
The only downside to my experience was they ran out of ahi tuna (which I heard is AMAAAZING) so I had to switch my order to all salmon. However, I immensely enjoyed my order and was pleasantly full by the time I finished eating (my friend on the other hand was just «satisfied” – so keep that in mind if you’re looking for a hefty meal!) To finish the meal my friend and I split a softer be ice cream that was absolutely delicious and the perfect end to the meal.
I highly recommend this place for anyone who doesn’t mind eating raw fish. I’m not a huge fan of sushi/​sashimi and would prefer to eat fish cooked, but don’t mind the occasional sushi outing. However, the combination with other food groups, marinating process and spicy sauce really pull this dish together and make it undeniably enjoyable. Extra plus-​plus: it’s healthy and doesn’t break the bank!
TLDR: This is one case where stepping out of your edible comfort zone is totally worth. GO FOR IT!

I noticed a sign recently for this place on 3^rd ave, and bookmarked it so I would remember to check it out sometime. I finally made it there last week for lunch with my mom. We were just picking up to take back to the office, but the space is really nice! When you walk in it seems pretty minimal. There’s a counter right away where you order, and then you walk back and there’s a large area for seating and even a skylight! I would definitely come back sometime and eat in.
They have hot dogs, milkshakes and ice cream, but I came for the poke. I’d actually never had it before, but it seemed like something I would enjoy. I went with the ahi tuna, the Shoyu (non-​spicy) sauce, and added some edamame to it. My mom ordered the half & half with tuna and salmon, got the spicy sauce and added garlic krispies. They gave us a buzzer and we stood by the seating area waiting for our food. It didn’t take too long, and it’s an open kitchen area, so you can see them preparing your food. Once it was ready we grabbed it, and went back to the office to eat.
It was a generous sized portion. There was rice (I got brown), cucumbers, greens, seaweed salad, tobiko, tuna and the edamame I got as extra. It was a little hard to mix everything together in the container, but it wasn’t too big of a deal for me. The fish and everything was really fresh. I tried my mom’s to see how spicy the spicy sauce was, but it wasn’t too bad. It would be like getting a spicy tuna roll or something when you get sushi. The whole thing was really good, and very filling.
This is a definitely a good, unique addition to the neighborhood. I definitely plan on going back!

I’d say they do a pretty good job of making you feel as though you’re having poke in Hawaii. It’s as close to it as it gets. I got the ahi tuna poke with nori on shoyu and brown rice. The tuna was fresh and the container size was perfect for a light dinner for one. I chose shoyu instead of spicy because I generally don’t like spicy flavored, but the tuna was still had some spiciness to it. My boyfriend ordered the salmon poke and that wasn’t spicy at all.
We also each tried the banh mi and Chicago hotdogs. Very tasty but not mindblowing. Definitely go here for the poke.
The staff is very friendly and will have a conversation with you! The dining area in the back is large with a skyroof; I bet it’s pretty during the day, too. They also have a shelf of toys and books to keep children entertained as well as two lovely framed photos of Hawaii.
The only things missing, I would say, are spam (pretty obvious?!) and Kona Ale (I’m biased).

Satisfying, reasonably-​priced poke.
Very impressed with SoT’s poke interpretation. Admittedly as a native Californian, I don’t know what constitutes «authentic» poke, but I assume it would resemble that served up by Honolulu’s Side Street Inn, or in various food courts. And quite close it is, with both salmon and ahi tuna varieties delivering the same cold, savory Hawaiian bite. This compares favorably to the offerings at Onomea (Brooklyn), where bites were saltier, less sweet, and a bit warmer.
Not sure if SoT’s practice of serving poke on a bed of salad and rice is canonical, but definitely stretches the $ 9 dish into a lunch-​sized meal without breaking the bank.
Only complaint is that there is no Spam musubi on the current or anticipated menu. For a Hawaiian joint, shame, shame, shame.

I was craving poke out of no where and decided to use my trusty little Unilocal app. Sons of Thunder is a relatively new place with little but high rating. It was kind of quiet, but better for us since the wait time was less. We both ordered the same thing — half tuna and half salmon with white rice. One bowl with Shoyu (pretty much soy sauce) and one bowl with Spicy sauce (which is spicy mayo).
We really enjoyed the tuna and think it was marinated very well without overpowering the fish. Probably one of the best tuna poke we had. The salmon was fresh but it was lacking marinade. It just tasted like salmon– but good salmon. The bowl itself was very delicately constructed and the flavors worked really well together. I love seaweed, masago and avocado combination. If they topped it off with some dried seaweed, I think i would have fallen deeper in love. The bowl had a good ratio of fish to topping to rice. What seemed a bit out of place was the salad. But either way we savored our bowl to the last bit.
After finishing our bowls, we were still kind of hungry so we ordered a banh mi dog which came with homemade pâté and the usual daikon radish and carrots. It was tasty, but I’m not sure it works well since the dog itself overpowers the whole bahn mi part. Secondly it was $ 4.50, yikes.
Sons of Thunder reminds me of LA, from décor to menu to poke. At a reasonable and affordable price for the bowls, I’m going to have to say I’m a happy customer and will be back! FYI, if you check in on Unilocal,you get a bottle of water.

For those of you who have been to California, you’d know that poke is a West Coast thing. Therefore, I was super excited when a poke shop finally opened in the East Coast!
First off, this establishment just recently opened, so the menu is pretty limited. However, I’m not complaining because it makes choosing what to order a whole lot easier!
I went with the half and half of tuna and salmon with the spicy sauce, accompanied with brown rice. Love that they don’t charge you extra for brown rice! As for taste, it tastes exactly as I remember from California except the difference is that Sons of Thunder adds salad into the mix.
If you love sushi, try this take on raw fish! And don’t forget to check in for a free bottle of water or fountain soda!

Came here when I heard poke had finally hit the East Coast!
Because the restaurant is still so new, half of the menu is still upcoming (burgers and fried goods). Fine by me, as I came here to just try the poke.
They offer ahi tuna, salmon, tako, and tofu poke bowls. It either comes with rice (warm — white or brown) or tortilla chips, seaweed salad and green salad. You get a choice of shoyu (soy sauce) or spicy mayo. I’d recommend getting a half/​half with tuna/​salmon and spicy mayo.
The portion is on the smaller size, but it’s pretty filling. The cubes of fish are quite large. However, I found the quality of fish to be incomparable to the ones I’ve had on the west coast and just don’t see myself coming back. For $ 10 and average fish, this place didn’t blow me away.

Aloha and mahalo Sons Of Thunder! Thank you for finally bringing this piece of Hawaiian heaven to Manhattan! Boy, did we need it!
You can’t go wrong with the poke bowls here! Perfect proportions of everything — fish, rice, seaweed salad and green salad! I recommend adding avocado for that extra perfect bite.
Prepare to see me almost every day!
PS kid friendly too! They have children’s books to the side!

The day I saw that a poke place had finally opened up in New York, I had to come right away. Poke is a Hawaiian dish made of marinated cubes of raw fish (usually yellowfin/​ahi tuna or salmon) served over rice or salad and topped with garnishes like sesame seeds, onions, and seaweed. If you like sushi with raw fish or sashimi, then you should try poke.
I ordered the ahi tuna poke bowl over brown rice with spicy sauce to go. While it tasted notably different from my favorite poke place, Poke-​Poke in Venice, my bowl was still pretty good, with plenty of tuna and toppings. One thing I would like to see is the option to add avocado to the bowl. Price-​wise, it was about the same as you would find in California, which was a plus.
The cashier who took my order was incredibly sweet, and the minimalist décor and peaceful atmosphere were reminiscent of a beachside restaurant. There is a large seating area in the back that even has shelves of children’s books for the young families who frequent the area. The kitchen is working on adding burgers to the menu, and I look forward to trying those as well!

Versatile newcomer to the neighborhood, offering everything from Hawaiian poke to hot dogs to shakes and ice cream. This place is quite new, so they’re still working out some minor kinks, i.e. the burger and chicken menu options aren’t available just yet. Soon!
Salmon/​tuna combination poke over rice was awesome. VERY fresh and tasty, with seaweed, sliced cucumber, fish eggs and a mayo sauce to add extra taste and texture. I cut right through the fish with a plastic fork like it was soft butter.