Liki Restaurant: Japanese Cuisine Across French Creek

Adventure beckoned, but all we could afford was dinner. 

Since we didn’t have the funds to travel across the Pacific Ocean, Petals Harris and I crossed French Creek on Schuylkill Road (better known as Route 23) to experience Japanese cuisine at Liki.

The friendly and efficient waitress immediately brought us cups of green tea and set a platter of two complimentary spring rolls before us. The spring rolls were thin and crunchy with vegetables, but the dipping sauce was so hot we couldn’t identify any other ingredients. We finished the rest of our spring rolls without sauce!

Undeterred, Petals took a shot in the dark and ordered the Oshinko appetizer ($4.50) which was listed as “pickled vegetables” and arrived as yellow coins of salt-pickled daikon root arranged over fresh radish threads. I found the dish refreshingly foreign—these were not my grandmother’s cucumber dills—but Petals was nonplussed. 

We moved on to the Zaru Soba ($4.95), listed as cold noodles with sauce that turned out to be cold buckwheat noodles topped with sliced scallions and seaweed with a miso/soy dipping sauce and ringed with pickled daikon. The sauce, especially when Petals plopped the entire nugget of wasabi into it, made the dish, but it was difficult to eat with chopsticks. If you don’t know what you’re doing with chopsticks, make sure you ask for a fork for this dish so you don’t miss out.

The house appetizer special was a Japanese Scallion Pancake ($4.50) which neither of us had ever had before. It turned out to be thinner and more greasy than the Chinese scallion pancakes I’ve had, “but it’s good grease,” said Petals as she raced me to finish the last wedge, dipping it in also-new-to-us curry sauce.

As the reviewer, it fell to me to order a raw fish entrée. I chose the Orange Roll ($11.95) which was eel, smoked salmon, mango, seaweed salad and mango sauce cut into 8 pieces. It tasted as lovely as it looked with the sweet fruit playing off the salty salmon and seaweed. Petals encouraged me to add wasabi to the sushi and the interplay of sweet, salt and hot would have been interesting, but I liked the course as it was and declined.

Petals ordered the Beef Teriyaki ($15.95) which came with either soup or a salad. Petals chose the salad which was iceberg lettuce, cucumber and “the best miso dressing, ever,” said Petals. “I LOVE this dressing!” 

Suddenly, the door to the kitchen burst open and our waitress came running out and set an iron plate, piled high with beef and still sizzling from the broiler, before Petals. Her teriyaki platter included onion, broccoli, carrot and a savory, simple sauce of soy and meat juices. The bowl of white rice which accompanied the platter was too sticky to be fresh, but Petals felt it complimented her beef nicely.

We’re never too full for dessert, especially when on an adventure. Petals opted for the Green Tea Mochi ($3.50) which are half-moon shells of gelatinous sticky rice covering a scoop of green tea ice cream. It was a pleasant end to our meal. 

I ordered the Fried Green Tea Ice Cream ($3.50) which turned out to be scoops of green tea ice cream rolled in sweet tempura batter, fried and then topping with cool whip. It was completely unexpected, very Japanese and beyond fabulous! Petals and I devoured it (luckily, with spoons instead of chopsticks) and would not hesitate to order it again.

Service was efficient and very, very fast. We had lots of questions about what we were eating and our waitress, although puzzled, answered us completely. The restaurant appears to have a thriving take-out trade as well as eat-in customers for the hibachi, the sushi bar and the kitchen menu.

Stuffed with satisfying foods we’d never be able to make at home, Petals and I re-crossed French Creek for home in Phoenixville. While we’d love to go on an eating tour of Japan, we like being able to spend an evening at Liki. Adventure, after all, is doing something different, preferably with a good friend.

If You Go:

Location:  243 Schuylkill Road (Tarrytown Plaza), Phoenixville

Cost:   Appetizers: $3 - $5.50 , Entrees: $11 -$33, Desserts:  $3.50

Phone:  610-983-9960

Website:  http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Liki-Japanese-Restaurant/120637121282624

Hours:  Lunch:  Monday – Saturday:  11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

            Dinner:  Monday – Thursday:   4:30 pm to 10 p.m.

                          Friday – Saturday:     4:30 pm to 11 p.m.

                          Sunday:                    3 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Payments accepted: Credit Cards, Cash

Parking:  Free lot