Move aside, tacos: Poke bowls, ramen are taking over prominent Pismo Beach spot

A prime Pismo Beach restaurant location has made a sharp turn from tacos and other Mexican food to pan-Pacific specialties (think poke bowls and ramen).

Chowa Bowl Pismo Beach opened July 14 at 690 Dolliver St. The new eatery replaces Tito’s Red Tacos, which had opened in September 2023 in a space formerly filled by the Los Amigos Mexican Restaurant.

The 56-seat, 1,700-square-foot eatery also has a lot of patio seating and a real rarity in Pismo Beach — a dedicated parking lot.

Five of the lot’s seven spaces will provide one-hour parking, while the sixth will have a 15-minute time limit for customers picking up take-out orders and the seventh will retain its handicapped parking status.

Chef/owner Katie Bosken has a proven track record with her smash-hit Chowa Bowl eatery in Morro Bay.

Not only does it have a large contingent of local fans, in April 2024, Yelp proclaimed Chowa Bowl to be No. 30 on a list of the top 100 ramen restaurants in California. It was the only San Luis Obispo County restaurant to make the list.

As is the case in Morro Bay, the most popular entrees so far in Pismo Beach are the okie poke bowl and the ramen dishes, she said.

The poke entree includes cubed and seasoned ahi tuna nestled on warm, citrus-flavored rice topped with a schmear of lightly spicy mayonnaise. Served alongside the fish are matchstick-cut daikon and carrot, minced scallions and sliced avocado, plus vegetables — cucumber slices, red onions and ginger — that Bosken pickles herself, each with its own special marinade.

The ramen bowls come with chicken, pork belly or tofu, bok choy and corn cooked in a dashi-flavored broth. Each dish is topped with garnishes that include scallions, shallots, togarashi, house-made Fresno chili oil and a halved ajitama egg that’s soft-cooked and soy-marinated.

Other popular offerings include the bulgogi bowl, featuring charbroiled, skewered beef (change it up with shrimp, chicken or tofu, if you wish) in a signature tamari-gochujang glaze. The skewers are dished up atop herbed brown rice, then surrounded by piles of kimchi and veggies.

The skewers, which are also available as an appetizer, get their sweet, tart and spicy zing from the gastrique glaze created by Bosken and chef friend Daniel Selig. It’s a blend of brown sugar, rice vinegar and gochujang hot-pepper paste.

The restaurant also offers a veggie rice bowl and salads such as mixed greens topped with burrata cheese, roasted beets, butternut squash and fennel.

Owner says she may be ‘crazy,’ but she couldn’t resist Pismo Beach spot

Bosken knows she’s spreading herself thin with two eateries so far apart, but she has full confidence in her Morro Bay staffers, who have proven themselves to be invaluable since she opened there in January 2022 in a former walk-up hot-dog stand.

The two restaurants are a little more than 25 miles apart, and a lot of that route on Highway 101 is under construction.

“Yeah, I’m crazy,” she said. “But it’s such a great location. And the reason I’ve done so well in Morro Bay is our local following, how much so many people have supported me there. I’m so thankful for the loyalty of my staff and my community, and I’m hoping for the same in Pismo Beach.”

Bosken’s off to a good start with that, she said.

“Everybody’s been so kind already. We’ve gotten nothing but good vibes,” she said. “I’m so excited to be in this community, another amazing place.”

For now, she has two front-of-house employees in Pismo Beach, one out front and a manager.

“We’ll be hiring more soon for the front and back of the house,” she said.

Owner blends numerous influences, ship chef stints for new spot

It took a lot of paint and elbow grease to convert the eatery from tacos to elegant pan-Pacific cuisine, she said.

The light sand-colored paint is named “Inside Passage,” which ties in tidily with Bosken’s background.

She channels her gastronomic inspiration from Japan, Korea and China, sometimes blending pan-Pacific flavors to come up with her own creations.

Bosken graduated from Metropolitan State College in Denver, then spent six years living out of a backpack in Asian and South American countries.

She worked pro bono as a vegan chef on a three-month ocean mission aboard the Sea Shepherd in 2018, then was a charter chef in the Caribbean and Alaska.

She also fished commercially for salmon in Alaska.

When Bosken moved back to the Lower 48 in 2019, she fished for squid and crab along the West Coast, finally landing in Cayucos in July 2020, and from there to Chowa Bowl Morro Bay.

For more information

Chowa Bowl Pismo Beach currently is open seven days week from 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., “but we’ll extend those at some point,” Bosken said.

Diners can eat inside or on the patio, or take their orders to go. The new restaurant offers online ordering and by phone at 805-295-5050.

Chowa Bowl Pismo Beach is only online as a header bar at the website’s home page for now, but expanded social media presence is near the top of Bosken’s to do list for her new site.

Kathe Tanner

The Tribune

805-781-7904 (voicemails only)

Kathe Tanner has been writing about the people and places of SLO County’s North Coast since 1981, first as a columnist and then also as a reporter. Her career has included stints as a bakery owner, public relations director, radio host, trail guide and jewelry designer. She has been a resident of Cambria for more than four decades, and if it’s happening in town, Kathe knows about it.