Pineapple and chickpea salmon poke dinner in Gangnam: Ola Poke

Why the writer swapped bread and rice cakes for salad meals

I used to be someone who never really gained weight, but lately I get it when people say they gain weight just from drinking water — even a little overeating shows up on my body right away.

I think my constitution changed from eating so much bread and rice cakes, so these days I try to have salad for meals whenever I get the chance.

Gangnam Station poke salad, a diet-friendly poke restaurant: Ola Poke Gangnam

How to find Ola Poke Gangnam from Gangnam Station Exit 4

Ola Poke Gangnam is a poke salad paradise reachable in just 3 minutes from Exit 4 of Gangnam Station on the Sinbundang Line. I had a meeting near Gangnam Station and stopped by Ola Poke Gangnam for dinner on my way home. I searched for a good poke salad restaurant near Gangnam Station and got excited when I found one close to my meeting spot that was also said to have great vegetable quality.

The address is listed as basement level, but if you enter through the main building entrance, it's actually on the first floor. Going in through the back entrance means heading down to the basement, and the path can feel confusing, so I recommend using the main entrance.

If it's your first time, you might get a little lost inside, but following my directions should make it easy to find. Once you enter through the main entrance, turn left past the discount liquor mart on your left, and you'll find it right there.

Inside Ola Poke Gangnam: bar seats for solo diners

This is the interior of Ola Poke, a poke salad restaurant near Gangnam Station. Clean and no-frills, right? Everything was tidy overall, making it pleasant to eat there.

The wall-side bar table was the perfect spot for solo diners who want to eat comfortably without worrying about other people's stares.

There's a phone stand, so you can enjoy a movie or drama on Netflix or Coupang Play while eating your salad, and there's an outlet for charging your phone or laptop. There are a lot of companies but also many academies around Gangnam Station, so there's a big population of solo diners, and Ola Poke seems like it would be amazing for eating alone.

Salmon poke: a light bowl even for a late dinner

When you're hungry but it's late and you're debating whether to eat, this poke salad is exactly the kind of thing you can eat without guilt.

In particular, the salmon poke, generously loaded with salmon, is low in calories while giving you quality protein, so you can eat it with peace of mind even while dieting.

The vegetables at Ola Poke are clean with a crisp, lively texture — super fresh! The portion is generous too, so it's filling.

Why the sriracha mayo sauce works best in small amounts

Since I'm dieting, I only drizzled on the minimum amount of sauce. The spicy umami of the sriracha mayo sauce matched my taste perfectly, and I think it made the meal even more delicious.

How chickpeas and pineapple change the flavor of the bowl

The superfood chickpeas and sweet pineapple added a curveball of flavor to what could otherwise be a somewhat monotonous, clean-tasting poke salad.

Oat and barley mixed-grain rice: how it helped while dieting

The mixed-grain rice with oats and barley resolved over 80% of my carb cravings, so even though I was having salad for a meal, I didn't end up binge-eating later out of a sense of compensation.

Eating as little carbs as possible would probably be even better for dieting, but having a moderate amount of fiber-rich oat rice is good for gut health and helps prevent yo-yo weight gain, which is better in the long run.

The salad portion was generous and every single ingredient was fresh and full of life, making it a healthy meal at this poke salad restaurant near Gangnam Station — I'll definitely be back to Ola Poke!