Vegan Island: Al’s Aloha Kitchen

Situated on the south end of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, in the Circle Center on Pope Avenue is Al’s Aloha Kitchen, a Hawaiian restaurant that specializes in poke bowls and super fruit bowls. Poke – Hawaiian for “to slice” or “cut crosswise into pieces” – bowls are by definition traditionally cubed pieces of raw fish or other sea animals marinated in soy sauce and sesame oil and mixed with onions or other ingredients.

My vegan poke bowl today resembles a Buddha bowl which by definition is a vegetarian meal, served on a single bowl or high-rimmed plate, which consists of small portions of several foods, served cold. These may include whole grains such as quinoa or brown rice, plant proteins such as chickpeas or tofu, and vegetables. The portions are not mixed on the plate or in the bowl, but arranged in an “artful” way. You are soon to see that proves to be absolutely true with my meal today!

I arrived by bike, my favorite form of island transportation, and stepped inside to a cheerful, colorful, and welcoming space. There is ample seating indoors as well as a spacious porch where I have settled and from where I am typing this blog post. I ordered inside at the counter that you can see here. Look to the right on the yellow tile wall. Do you see the sliding window? On the other side of that window is the porch. If you walk up all sweaty from a bike ride or all sandy from the beach, you can order at the window or even pick up your called-in order at the window.

My poke bowl just arrived. I ordered the “make your own” option with the base half-and-half brown rice and mixed greens, tofu as my protein, cucumber, carrots, and pickled white onions as my three toppings with the dressing being a mix of two vegan options: ginger and lemon miso as recommended by owner Alexander “Alex aka Al” Marino Vitto who opened the Aloha Kitchen in July 2018. The bowl comes with pickled ginger and a generous sprinkling of black and white sesame seeds. It is a piece of edible art!

Alex was nice enough to give me a sample of his chickpea beet salad in which the chickpeas are so married to the beets that everything is the gorgeous deep pink color of the beets – a color that screams “healthful!”

The poke bowl arrived in a paper bowl with wooden chopsticks and a compostable fork. I truly appreciate these ecologically conscious decisions. So many places that use single-use tableware and to-go containers still use plastic and styrofoam which make me reluctant to patronize them because part of why I choose to live a vegan lifestyle is to reduce my negative impact on our shared environment. Here’s my bowl about half consumed so that you can see the ingredients deeper down.

Al’s Aloha Kitchen offers a variety of smoothies, shots, and juices as well as packaged products by renowned surfer Laird Hamilton and cold case beverages. You can see the full menu as well as order online on the Al’s Aloha website HERE. You can find the restaurant on Facebook, Yelp, TripAdvisor and HappyCow.

It’s getting a little warm sitting out here on the porch (it is July in South Carolina after all!) which fits nicely into my grand plan to enjoy a poke bowl and then a frozen super fruit bowl to round out my meal, round out this blog post, and to cool off. So I ordered the Banzai Bowl which is described as a yin yang of organic açai and pitaya sorbets with bananas, strawberries, blueberries, mango, pineapples, organic almond granola, drizzled with white chocolate coconut cream and (skipped….not vegan) raspberry sauce.

Attention local vegans who bemoan that there are not many vegan dinner options on the island, you are in luck! Al’s Aloha Kitchen is open Sunday 9am to 3pm and Monday through Saturday 9am to 8pm. Eat in, carry out, order online, or hire Al’s Aloha Kitchen for your next catered event.

Here’s me digging down deep into this bowl so that you can see the layers of açai and pitaya sorbets, granola, and fruit. At your service! Living the vegan lifestyle on Hilton Head Island is not only possible, it’s delicious! I’m glad that I can help you discover all the wonderful vegan options we have on our little 12 mile Atlantic island.