A poke shop born on Oahu's North Shore and made famous on Netflix is opening its first Bay Area location on Thursday, setting up a grab-and-go counter inside a downtown Mountain View grocery store. Ry's Poke Shack will serve bowls of fresh ahi tossed with ponzu, fried garlic and furikake over rice from inside Ava's Downtown Market & Deli at 340 Castro St., marking the brand's first outpost ever housed inside a grocery mart.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, founder Ryan Ching decided to target the Bay Area in response to demand from his social media followers, and he saw an opportunity to reach Mountain View's dense tech-worker customer base. Ching told the paper he is working with Hawaiian vendors to stock locally made products alongside the poke, and he framed the expansion with a bit of hometown pride: “How can one local boy from the east side of Oahu make it big in business?” he said, per the Chronicle. He also put it more simply: “How far can we go?”
Ry's Poke Shack has now expanded to five locations across Hawaii and Southern California, a rapid build-out that began when Ryan and Khannie Ching opened the original shop on Oahu's North Shore in 2020. The Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship notes that Ching left behind a doctorate in architecture from the University of Hawaiʻi to build the business during the pandemic, and the venture grossed over $500,000 in its first year, according to the Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship.
From Oahu Cult Following to Netflix Fame
The shop first drew national attention after being featured in a 2022 Oahu episode of Netflix's “Street Food: USA,” and the Chronicle describes it today as an Oahu-based poke shop with a cult following built on that exposure. The brand added to its résumé in August, announcing on Facebook that it had been named “Best Poke in Hawaiʻi for 2026.” Its expansion trail since then has moved fast: the first mainland location opened in Huntington Beach in 2025, per the Chronicle, followed by a Pasadena shop in January 2026 and an Ala Moana location back on Oahu in May 2026, according to Aloha State Daily's account of the brand's growth. Notably, Ching has not opened a location in San Francisco itself, with the Chronicle citing high costs and other barriers to entry in the city as a factor.
Fresh Fish Flown In as Hawaii Cracks Down on Labeling
Time Out reported in July that Ry's flies fresh fish directly from Hawaii five days a week to supply its California stores, emphasizing made-to-order poke over the pre-frozen bases used by many mainland chains. That sourcing pitch lands at a pointed moment: Hawaii's Act 238, which took effect July 1, now requires retail stores selling raw processed ahi to label the country where the fish was landed, a transparency measure the Hawaii Department of Agriculture & Biosecurity says responds to findings that a substantial share of retail poke in the islands had quietly relied on imported, carbon monoxide-treated tuna. Ching has publicly supported the law as a way to distinguish fresh local catch from those imported alternatives.
Even with that emphasis on fresh fish elsewhere in the chain, the Mountain View counter itself will lean on speed. The Chronicle reports the shop will use a pre-marinated fish format and serve pre-marinated fish at a grab-and-go counter, letting customers build custom bowls from salmon and tuna while keeping lines moving for the lunch rush. Ching is known for a fresh toss style in which fish is cut and mixed to order with sauces and garnishes, and the Mountain View menu is expected to include unagi toro bowls, sushi bake with seasoned rice and crab salad, and smoked ahi dip.
A Menu Built on Hawaiian and Southeast Asian Flavors
Beyond the classic shoyu blend of soy sauce, sesame oil and green onion, Time Out notes that Ry's has built out specialty options like Lao-style poke made with garlic, fish sauce and Thai chili pepper, plus a firecracker version loaded with Hawaiian chili flakes, spicy mayo, tobiko and unagi sauce. Standard bowls come over rice with crab surimi salad and pickled ginger, and other Ry's locations carry snacks like pickled mango and lychee, ube mochi and taro chips. John Oh will help operate the Mountain View location alongside Ching, according to the Chronicle.
Filling a Space Left by a National Chain
The Castro Street counter previously belonged to Poké Bar, a fast-casual chain that grew out of Northridge sushi roots in 2015 and eventually served poke across 14 states and Canada, as Hoodline reported when that shop operated inside Ava's Market. Ava's Downtown Market & Deli, voted “Best Small Grocery Store” in Mountain View in 2024, regularly hosts curated food pop-ups and vendor counters, making it a familiar backdrop for the changeover from a national chain to an independent, Hawaii-born operation. The shift also tracks a broader pattern: U.S. Census data cited by Hoodline's earlier South Bay poke coverage found California has four times as many Pacific Islander residents as any other continental U.S. state, helping explain the steady demand for Hawaiian food across Silicon Valley.
