Ionut Asiei, the founder and owner of Poke & Roll in Aalborg, is behind the counter, peeling and cutting mangos when I arrive. His small but lovely restaurant immediately feels like an Asian home to me. I notice the bamboo wallpapers and wood from Romania—from his home country—used for shelves and the wood on the counter (one of the most expensive on the planet), Japanese sake on the shelf, and a passageway decorated with a small curtain, which is also very Japanese in style. Ionut has more than a decade of experience with making and rolling sushi. Originally from Romania, he has worked in restaurants across Cyprus, eventually ending up in Denmark. His journey made him a sushi chef who is not only passionate about making Japanese food but also tasting and eating it himself. Denmark is genuinely not known for great quality, fresh sushi, but Poke & Roll is exactly that in Denmark. Crazy, isn’t it?
“Everything here, we did ourselves,” Asiei tells me. “This place really was not in good shape at all when we decided that we would make it ours.” Ionut met his wife in Denmark and also has a three-year-old son. “My son tried sushi for the first time when he was 10 months old,” he says. “Recently, he had 12 pieces of sushi, and I was just so proud of him that he could eat so much at such a young age!
Ionut’s son isn’t the only family member he has introduced to sushi: “My wife’s Danish family had never tried it! Now they eat it. I made them try it, and they love it. I know many people that have never tried it before, but after they tasted my sushi, they loved it.”
Ionut started his career as a chef in Cyprus, having followed his brother, who was working at a restaurant there: “I was 20 at the time,” he says. “I had studied hotel and restaurant management in Romania for two years and dropped out of university thinking I knew enough for the world. Now I think I was wrong. However, I now know that you can also get a lot smarter yourself. I could not really speak English back then, so I had to learn it by myself!”
Learning more about his career before Poke & Roll, you don’t doubt him! Ionut started out as a cook in Cyprus at a cafe that his brother worked in: “Becoming a chef or cook was never my dream job. In the process and progress of working there, I discovered how cool cooking can be. You can create something out of a huge box of ingredients and put it together.” Afterwards he worked at one of the best restaurants in Cyprus at that time, called Little Buddha Bar, where during the eight months he worked there, he discovered that the most popular dishes were the ones he prepared.
He went on to work in several other restaurants in Cyprus, gradually building his skills and experience as a chef. In one—Ocean Basket—he discovered his passion for sushi. As a chief cook, his dishes were again the most popular ones. “Here, I learned how to make sushi from a Chinese person called Shaun,” Ionut remembers. “He taught me everything. We had to touch the boiler, and as it got hot, we would move our hands away as fast as we could. He told us, ‘This is how fast you need to be in terms of rolling and reaction time. You need to be as fast as lightning considering that we were not wearing gloves while doing the sushi, but only a pinch of water on our hands.’”.
He worked at several branches of the Cypriot/South African chain in Paphos, Nicosia, and Limassol, and as his talents became more and more evident to his employers, he was placed in charge of establishing new branches of the company. And, obviously, training the staff in the art of sushi-making.
In 2013, Ionut arrived in Denmark, working for SushiSushi Take-away, SushiSushi Restaurant, and Sushi Mania, where he worked in many of their locations.
After 4 years working with SushiSushi and Sushi Mania, he started working with Sushi Daily as a sous chef and quickly as a head chef, where he also quickly got the opportunity to be in charge together with his partner Sorin for operating two of their branches—one in Aalborg and the other in Vejle, where they were the franchise owners for five years. After this, he founded his own sushi restaurant with Sorin, whom he met in Denmark while working for Kelly Deli. Sorin worked at KellyDeli as a sous chef and kiosk manager. Together, they brought Sushi Fusion, now Poke & Roll, to life in August 2021. Besides the Aalborg branch, they also have a branch in Iaşi, Romania.
So what are Ionut’s top tips to enjoy the Japanese dish for the first time? “I would normally go for sushi with some tempura in it. People complain about the fish being raw, but you do eat it with wasabi and soy sauce. Besides, there is also sushi with fried or cooked fish. That is why I would go for one of these. But even with raw fish, it is the combination with soy sauce and wasabi as well as ginger that makes it really good sushi. I personally could and do eat sushi every day. I don’t really have favorites: I’ll eat any type!
Ionut is very knowledgeable about the history of Japanese cookery: “The first ever sushi sold on the streets of Japan was just a pile of rice with fish. Filling the rice and rolling it only started happening after some time. It was a slow progress.” Inspired by an Italian restaurant he once visited, he would like to provide books on sushi in his take-away on the counter to give his customers the opportunity to learn for themselves about the history of the food they are eating: “This way, people may read about sushi while actually waiting for their sushi to be prepared.”
You immediately sense that Ionut knows his craft: he explains what the best fish, avocados, and so on have to look and feel like. “We cut salmon a bit diagonally because it looks better this way,” he says. “You can see the patterns more clearly.” I also get a real understanding of the care he takes with his customers. “Ah, you like sashimi? Let me make you sashimi that you will never forget, hm?” he says, and he’s right. It was the best sushi I’ve had in my life.
Ionut and Sorin are very focused on the words “fresh” and “quality” when it comes to their food: “There are many places that make sushi an hour before you come to buy it, and then if you take it home to eat, that’s at least 1.5 hours between preparation and eating. Also, many buy fish that is already cut and prepared, so they only have to roll it with rice. Here, I will prepare the sushi with fresh fish from Norway that comes as a whole piece and doesn’t have parasites. I cut the fish myself and keep it fresh. I will prepare the order the moment somebody enters my restaurant and places it.” He states that the interaction between people is what drives him and that he just likes to talk to people: “You need to adapt to people. Be on the same level.” Ionut chose Vejgård Torv for Poke Roll’s location because of the people. The area is busy, and our interview is interrupted several times by customers.
I ask Ionut what advice he would give to someone thinking of opening their own restaurant or food business. Knowing your own strengths and finding a business partner who can complement that, if you need or want to, is important, he says. “Sorin does all the paperwork. He enjoys doing that. I am more of a creative person, so I took care of that side of the business.” He thinks bravery is important for any entrepreneur: “People just need to take risks. Sometimes there are heavy risks that you need to take in order to realize your dreams. You have to be willing to do that, and some people are not.”
Ionut has lots of future plans to expand the business. “I would like an Omakase place,” he says. “That’s basically a restaurant where customers sit around you and can freely observe you preparing their order. I like people watching me do what I am doing. We will also keep improving our menu. The only thing with sushi in Denmark is that Denmark is not as advanced as other countries in terms of getting super fresh fish for sushi. Over time, everything in our small place here is getting better and better.”
However, he doesn’t want to lose the small, intimate feel of the business or take on too much: “I don’t want too many branches. Probably only one more like PokeandRoll in the city of Vejle. I have a family now and want to spend time with my wife and child. There is a perfect saying for what I want to express: ‘Work smarter, not harder.’ I also want to go to Japan. I and my partner Sorin planned on going there last year, but we had to cancel our plans. This year, or maybe next year, we will hopefully be able to go to Japan. I want to not only taste sushi in Japan but also talk and cook together with the master chefs there and see a real Omakase place straight to the roots.”
Poke & Roll is on Vejgård Torv in Aalborg. The restaurant is open from Tuesday through Friday from 11 AM until 8 PM and Saturdays and Sundays from 4 PM to 8 PM.
Visit their website here: Frisk Sushi, Poké Bowls & Autentisk Asiatisk Mad | Poke & Roll | Aalborg
