Now open: Jucci Lucci Poke Corner

It's pronounced 'Juicy Lucy': Puck's Alley has a new poke shop

October 30, 2018

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta,

Jucci Lucci’s back, but in a different location. Never heard of it? Here’s the backstory.

Up until last summer, Jucci Lucci was a standalone shack on Coyne Street in Moiliili. Parking was nearly impossible, so owner Lucie Kaanoi decided to regroup and hunt for a different spot for her business.

Jucci Lucci used to be in a small shack on Coyne Street. If you blinked, you would miss it.

Lucie didn’t have to look far. Her friends own Little Seoul II in Puck’s Alley, and they were cool with sharing the space. After all, Little Seoul II is open at night for dinner and karaoke, while Jucci Lucci would open for breakfast and lunch.

Jucci Lucci is now inside Little Seoul II. The signage isn’t big; it’s on the left when you walk in.

Lucie just reopened a few weeks ago. Most of her menu’s the same — poke bowls and poke hoagies at market price, fresh tuna salad tacos, organic tofu poke salad and housemade organic tart cherry lemonade.

Organic tart cherry lemonade is slightly puckering but refreshing on a hot day.

There’s one big difference. The menu, which is still evolving, is now based on fish, which Lucie gets fresh daily from connections at the Honolulu Fish Auction. Fish availability will determine the poke of the day and daily specials (more on that later).

So now the business is called Juccie Lucci Poke Corner. Why the odd spelling? Lucie says she wanted her business to have the same high-quality connotation as the luxury Gucci brand. “Lucci” is a play on her middle name, Lucia.

Plus, she says, “This name is hard for customers to forget.”

Poke bowls come with spicy ahi tuna poke, mixed greens, healthy rice (a mix of white, brown and wild black rice with organic quinoa) and kimchee.

Lucie’s penchant for fresh over frozen fish stems from when she and her husband, Lance, owned Hale I‘a, a poke shop in the Waimanalo Co-op. It’s no wonder the poke bowls are the best-sellers. They also come with a healthier, Korean twist: four-grain healthy rice topped it with fresh organic salad, a fresh tuna salad with a hint of turmeric, and kimchee. All bowls come with spicy ahi tuna poke and usually cost around $10.

If you don’t want a poke bowl, you can go for a poke hoagie (my personal favorite), organic tofu poke ($8), fresh tuna salad tacos ($8) or any of the daily specials.

I love the tumeric tuna salad in the hoagie. While the hoagies are stuffed, the wealth of veggies keeps you from feeling lethargic after inhaling the entire thing. At least, that’s what I tell myself.

Lucie says there will soon be specials like steamed opakapaka, fresh ahi katsu loco mocos and more. Her goal is to eventually have loco mocos featuring various fish.

The Jucci Pack bento ($4.99) has shrimp, fresh ahi katsu and spam over rice with furikake.

Also planned: a Lucci pack bento ($7) with all the Jucci Pack items plus two chicken wings, and a combo pack ($10) with meat jun, shrimp, Spam, chicken katsu and spicy chicken wings.

I’ll definitely be back for that loaded combo bento — it’ll be cheaper than a Zip Pac but with way more of the meaty things I like.

Jucci Lucci’s Poke Corner
Puck’s Alley
2600 S. King St. (in Little Seoul II)
373-6258
Mon-Fri 8 a.m.-2 p.m.
Free one-hour parking in Puck’s Alley with validation