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Frequent fliers with a taste for Hawaiian specialties have reason to rejoice, as Sam Choy’s Poke to the Max — a collection of Seattle food trucks and restaurants in Hillman City and Tacoma — is working on a “massive location” at Seattle-Tacoma Airport.
The restaurant’s founder, Max Heigh, says the Sea-Tac restaurant will be his first to offer an all-day dining experience, including a bar, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It’s expected to open with nearly 100 seats in Concourse D, in place of Seattle’s Best Coffee, in January 2019.
Named for the James Beard Award-winning “Godfather of Poke,” Hawaiian celebrity chef Sam Choy, Sam Choy’s Poke to the Max seems like a particularly good fit for the hustle and bustle of the airport. The fast-casual nature of modern poke shops means diners in a hurry should be able to easily grab a hearty and relatively healthy bowl of poke, a mix of marinated raw fish and toppings like seaweed salad, to go. Anyone with more time can sit and savor the company’s current restaurant menu, from loco moco to Spam musubi, plus a full cocktail menu and new breakfast items like Katsu chicken and waffles, pork belly hash, and a plate of Spam, eggs, and rice.
Sea-Tac’s ongoing overhaul of its dining options continues to amaze, from the impressive vegetarian restaurant, Floret, to many more exciting options on the way, like an expansion of Monica Dimas’ Sunset Fried Chicken Sandwiches.
This month, Sam Choy’s Poke to the Max is also opening its first California restaurant, just south of San Francisco. “The Bay has a lot of similarities to the Northwest, especially when it comes to the island community, so it’s been [on] my radar,” says Heigh. “But the Northwest is where I live and where my heart is, so we do plan to expand a bit more up here.”
To that end, Heigh says he’s also working on a deal to expand to Kirkland.
