New restaurant carves out unique niche in Warner Robins. Try a fresh poke bowl

Crystal Selby of Bonaire stopped in recently at the new Robins Poke & Ramen to order a poke bowl to go.

“I’ve been here like five times since they’ve opened,” said Selby of the restaurant that’s been in business for about two months. “I like them a lot.”

Selby’s customizable poke bowl included white rice, salmon, shrimp tempura, avocado, extra egg, red onion, corn, kimchi, tempura flakes, crispy garlic, the house poke sauce and spicy mayo.

“It’s fresh, and they give you a big portion,” Selby said. “It’s really good, so it’s worth coming here.”

She noted that she’s also “picky about my ramen, but their ramen here is really good.”

First-time restaurant owners

Nestled in the Century Market Plaza at 840 Ga. 96, Suite 2800, Robins Poke & Ramen is owned and operated by first cousins and first-time restaurant owners Yazhen “Jenny” Dong and Bin Dong.

Jenny Dong, who’s lived in Warner Robins for the past five years, 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.

Her main focus is on the restaurant. She’s also raising two boys.

Bin Dong, who was living in Staten Island, a New York City borough, left his job at his friend’s Chinese-Japanese restaurant for the venture. Bin Dong previously worked at his father’s construction company in New York City. His father, Rongdi Dong, provided financial backing to help the cousins get their new restaurant off the ground.

For Bin Dong, the new restaurant brings excitement in finally belonging to something he owns.

So just what is a poke bowl?

For those new to poke, the Hawaiian dish was originally made with raw fish and fresh vegetables, Jenny Dong said.

For the customizable poke bowls, Robins Poke & Ramen offers not only raw and cooked protein choices but also a wealth of ingredients.

“It’s a lot to choose from,” Denny Dong said. “I think we probably have the most selection — at least in this area. I mean, we don’t have a lot of poke bowl here.”

Diners can view the ingredients and watch their poke bowl being made according to their specifications.

How to customize your poke bowl

To make a poke bowl, diners start with choosing a base. Options at Robins Poke & Ramen include white rice, brown rice, mixed greens, white rice and greens, or brown rice and greens.

Next, diners may choose one, two or three proteins from raw salmon, crab sticks, cooked chicken, spicy crab salad, spicy raw salmon, raw tuna, spicy raw tuna, cooked shrimp, vegan tofu, cooked unagi (eel), cooked shrimp tempura and cooked beef.

Mix-ins come next with more than 25 choices, including red onion, white onion, carrots, cucumber, red cabbage, broccoli, avocado, kimchi, corn niblets, baby corn, edamame, seaweed salad, pineapple, mango and peach.

Other choices include masago (fish eggs), squid salad, takuan (pickled radish), half a boiled egg, cilantro, jalapeno, green onion, wasabi and ginger.

Diners next choose up to two sauces from a variety of options, including house poke, spicy mayo, ponzu, yuzu, wawza, eel, rainbow salsa, teriyaki, sesame peanut, yum yum, wasabi aioli, ginger dressing, soy sauce, and sriracha.

For the final touch, diners select from toppings of furikake, sesame, tempura flakes, nori strips, crispy onions, crispy garlic and dried mixed fruits.

With so many possible combinations to create a poke bowl, Dong was asked what she’d recommend.

Dong suggested trying her favorite poke bowl combination of white rice, mixed greens, carrots, raw salmon, cucumber, avocado, edamame, squid salad, green onions, the house poke sauce and spicy mayo.

Other menu options to choose from

The restaurant offers nine ramen bowl choices, with Dong recommending the miso ramen that’s made with panfried pork belly that’s “a little bit crispy.” She adds extra bean sprouts and bamboo shoots.

All ramen bowls come with noodles, broth, a half egg (except for the veggie ramen), green onion, fish cake, bamboo shoots, corn, bean sprouts, black fungus (mushroom) and seaweed. Diners can opt out of ingredients.

The restaurant also offers several appetizers, including takoyaki, a ball-shaped doughy appetizer filled with diced octopus (tako).

“A lot of people are like what is that” when asking about the takoyaki appetizer, Dong said. “And then when we tell them it’s octopus, they’re like, ‘ooh, I don’t want to try.

“And then I convince them to try, and they all like it.”

The wide variety of milk teas are customizable by ice amount, sugar level and toppings — including an upcharge for tapioca boba and a variety of popping boba.

Hours & other helpful info

Robins Poke & Ramen offers dine-in, takeout, online ordering for pick up and delivery through DoorDash and Uber Eats.

The restaurant recently updated its hours and is now open seven days a week from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday. The number is 478-359-3029.

The restaurant is located next to The Peach Cobbler Factory. Also opening soon or coming soon to the Century Market Plaza are Bonaire Nutrition and Club Pilates Bonaire. A second location of CowPies Pizza Co. also is expected. The plaza property within the Bonaire community was annexed by the city of Warner Robins.

This story was originally published February 24, 2026 at 11:58 AM.