Poke Burgers opens at World Food Market this summer

After a year of pop-up drops that sold out instantly, Poke Burgers is moving into a permanent stall at World Food Market on Yonge Street this summer.

Co-founders Cesar Mandujano (from Mexico) and Julian Tangarife Munoz (from Colombia) created the concept after a heated dinner debate: burgers or poke? Their answer was both. They built poke burgers — sushi-grade fish (marinated or cooked shrimp, tuna, or salmon), crab salad, avocado, and sesame seeds sandwiched between two crispy deep-fried rice "buns." Three signature sauces round it out: cilantro, spicy mayo, and eel.

The duo launched on Uber Eats in July 2025 and amassed over 8,000 Instagram followers through social media alone, crowd-sourcing their strategy as they documented the entire process. "Newcomers lack resources for starting businesses in Canada," Tangarife said in a recent interview. "We didn't have any contacts in the city to help get the word out. So we used the resources we had—social media channels—to build a community around our idea."

World Food Market—a cosmopolitan street-food hub at Yonge and Gould—is the ideal anchor. The spot sits in the heart of downtown's food culture, surrounded by existing vendors and foot traffic that knows what it's after.

The menu will include customizable poke bowls and loaded fries topped with deep-fried shrimp, signature sauces, green onion, and shredded nori. "Our catchphrase is: welcome to the poke burger revolution," Tangarife said. "We want to revolutionize what people think can go between two buns."

This is fusion done right—not gimmick, but genuine invention born from real disagreement over lunch.