1st restaurant for 2 cousins will bring new poke & ramen spot to Warner Robins

First cousins Yazhen “Jenny” Dong and Bin Dong are opening their first restaurant from scratch in Warner Robins.

Robins Poke & Ramen at 840 Ga. 96, Suite 2800, is next to The Peach Cobbler Factory in the Century Market Plaza.

The 1,200-square-foot space is now being customized for the new restaurant, which is targeted to open in December.

“Things are going so well right now ... I’m so excited, and I’m so ready to open the door to everybody,” Jenny Dong said.

The restaurant will specialize in poke bowls, ramen bowls and bubble tea, also known as boba tea.

A pivotal drive around town

Dong, who lives in Warner Robins, is a real estate agent who also offers property management and has invested in and owns rental properties. Her father, Xuben Dong, operated a Chinese buffet restaurant for several years in Thomaston.

“I think I’m picking up the entrepreneurial spirit from him,” she said.

Bin Dong, who lives in Staten Island, a New York City borough, works at his friend’s Chinese-Japanese restaurant, Jenny Dong said. Bin Dong previously worked at his father’s construction company in New York City.

When Bin Dong was in Warner Robins for a visit a couple of months ago, the cousins were driving around town with Jenny Dong showing him some of the houses she helped her clients purchase.

As they were driving around, they also took note of new apartment complexes and new shopping plazas.

“He was like, ‘Let’s open a restaurant,’ and I was like, ‘OK,’ and then he says, ‘I think poke will be a good idea,’” Jenny Dong said.

“Initially, we were only doing a poke bowl because there’s no poke bowl restaurant in town.”

Agreeing it was a good idea to bring something new to the area, the cousins began looking for a space. They chose the Century Market Plaza because the area is growing, and it’s close to where Jenny Dong lives.

Both expect to be hands-on at the new restaurant, with Jenny Dong balancing the restaurant and her real estate career. Bin Dong expects to move his family to Warner Robins once the new restaurant stabilizes after opening, Jenny Dong said.

Not familiar with poke?

Poke is a Hawaiian dish generally made from raw fish but also with tofu and vegetarian options that’s served in a bowl.

“You can customize your bowl,” Dong said. “You can pick your base … some rice … some mixed vegetables and then you put protein on top.”

Diners can start with rice, or choose from all sorts of vegetables such as carrots, cucumber, onions and then add a protein from choices such as raw salmon, tuna and crab meat. The dish is then topped off with the restaurant’s signature poke sauce.

“It’s really good,” she said. “It’s healthy.”

Ramen options & more

Ramen is a noodle dish.

“For the people that don’t want raw food, we also serve hot soup-based ramen,” Dong said.

The restaurant will offer several different ramen options to choose from. But it’s not a customizable dish like the poke, though ingredients not desired may be left out.

The restaurant will also offer classic boba tea and pop boba.

Classic boba teas are made with a black tea base with milk and chewy tapioca pearls called bobas, Dong said. With pop boba, the spheres in the drink are generally filled with juice that “pop” when bitten into, she said. Pop bobas come in a variety of flavors.

More restaurants & businesses coming

Also opening or coming soon to the same shopping plaza are Bonaire Nutrition, Club Pilates Bonaire and CowPies Pizza Co.

Other businesses already established in the new plaza include Revitalize Aesthetics & Wellness, TouchDown Wings and a Verizon retailer.

Additional spaces are available for lease in the shopping plaza, a part of the Bonaire community that was annexed by the city of Warner Robins.

Robins Poke & Ramen will be able to accommodate about a dozen people for dine-in, Dong said. Takeout also will be available with third-party delivery options expected. Hours are to be determined.