Butterfish's third location at Palm and Herndon avenues opened for business on Wednesday. Photo by Frank Lopez

Fresno has another eating option for poke lovers after Butterfish opened its third Central Valley location in the city today.

The second Butterfish in Fresno is located at 7090 N. Palm Avenue, right off the northeast corner of Herndon Avenue. It joins another Fresno location. There is also a Butterfish restaurant in Clovis.

A traditional and common dish in Hawaii, poke (pronounced poh-kay) means “to section” or “to slice or cut”, referring to the chunks of raw fish — usually tuna — that are then tossed with rice, vegetables and umami-based sauces.

Wanting to develop their own “California Poke Bowl” and offer more than just raw fish, chicken, crab and shrimp have also been incorporated into the menu.

All Butterfish locations offer their signature Poke bowls, and customers have the option to make their own completely customizable bowls.

“We are ready to go,” said Butterfish Co-Owner Rema Koligian. “Our hope is that this will be just as successful as our other two locations. I think we will be able to grow it as we continue to educate people on poke who haven’t heard of us.”

Koligian continued by saying that being located on Palm and Herndon avenue, “a huge thoroughfare”, people who might not know about other Butterfish locations will see the new location and come in learn more about poke.

Butterfish will have 40 employees working at the new location and will be open everyday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Right after its doors opened at 11 a.m., customers were lining up at the food bar and eating in the open, modern styled dining area.

Carl Washington was one of the first customers to order from the new location. He visits Butterfish locations at least once a week. “Their food is some of the best in town. If you haven’t tried it you should definitely try it. I’ve never had a bad experience here.”

The other Butterfish restaurants are at 8482 N. Friant Road in Fresno and 1850 Herndon Ave. in Clovis.