Custom salmon poke with extra shrimp near COEX Mall, Seoul: Ola Poke

Eating lunch around Samseong Station or COEX, picking a menu is honestly kind of a struggle.

There are tons of restaurants near the office, but eating something heavy every single time feels like too much, and if I just eat salad I end up starving again by the afternoon.

So this time, while looking for a good poke salad spot near Samseong Station, I went to Ola Poke Samseong Branch, near Samseong Station and COEX.

What kind of restaurant is Ola Poke Samseong Branch?

Ola Poke Samseong Branch specializes in poke and salad, and what I liked was that you're not stuck with a fixed set of ingredients — you can remove or add items based on your taste.

Especially for people picking lunch who feel like "salad is too light but a regular meal is too heavy," poke seems like the perfect middle-ground option.

Customizing the salmon poke: no seaweed or beans, three shrimp added

What I ordered was the salmon poke!

Instead of eating the default set, I tweaked it a bit to my taste. I chose rice as the base and picked the recommended soy sauce plus chili garlic sauce. I also removed the seaweed, chickpeas, and lentils, and added three shrimp instead.

I think this is exactly the advantage of a poke specialty restaurant. Even ordering the same salmon poke, depending on how you choose the rice, vegetables, toppings, and sauce, you can build it into your own style.

Especially since I usually end up leaving ingredients I don't like on the plate, it was nice being able to leave them out from the start.

How filling is the salmon poke with shrimp as one meal?

Adding shrimp to the salmon poke made it a pretty filling meal, more than I expected. I think I still left more than half the rice. The texture of the rice was great, too!

When you hear "poke," you might think at first, "isn't this basically the same as a salad?"

But with rice and protein toppings included, it definitely feels more like a real meal than just eating salad. With the soft texture of salmon plus the added shrimp, the protein toppings became more varied,

and having different textures throughout kept it from getting boring.

How did the soy sauce and chili garlic sauce combination taste?

The recommended soy sauce went well with the poke overall, no complaints there,

and choosing the chili garlic sauce alongside it added a slight spicy kick at the end, which personally made it even more delicious for me.

With just one sauce it can feel a bit plain, but pairing the soy-based one with chili garlic let me alternate between mild and spicy, and the combo worked well.

Why Ola Poke works for a weekday lunch near Samseong Station and COEX

Ola Poke Samseong Branch sits right in the heart of Samseong Station and COEX, making it a convenient lunch spot for people who work in the area.

Around Samseong Station, so many people are out looking for lunch every day that eating Korean food, stews, or noodles daily can feel like a lot.

On those days when you want a meal that's not too heavy, or want to get vegetables and protein together, this seems like a great choice. Best of all, since you can adjust the ingredients to your taste, even visiting the same restaurant multiple times, you can keep changing up the toppings and sauces — salmon, shrimp, whatever — and that's a real plus!

If you're looking for a good poke salad spot near Samseong Station, Ola Poke Samseong Branch, easily accessible from COEX, is worth adding to your lunch list. If you're like me — a plain salad feels a bit lacking, but a super heavy meal feels like too much — poke with rice, vegetables, and toppings like salmon could be a pretty good alternative.

Next time, I want to try a different combination by adding other toppings instead of the ones I left out this time :)