Hikari

Dinner with good friends on Tuesday at Hikari on liberties walk. This is our go-to sushi spot, mostly because it's convenient, but the rolls are always good and it's reasonably priced as long as you don't go all out on the special rolls. Hikari is not the best sushi in the city, but I've paid much more for equivalent or even worse at other joints. It's a family owned and run place, with the front of the house run by Hana - the daughter of the owner who is always attentive and friendly when we stop in. There is a small sushi bar with seating where you can watch the action in the tiny kitchen, and on warmer days there are plenty of tables for outside seating in the walk.

Started off with edamame (a bit over salted) and the veggie gyoza, which were steamed perfectly but served with a dipping sauce that lacked any kind of punch to enhance the dumplings. Our friends had the miso soup, which was served with some unexpected but welcome enoki mushrooms floating on top. The soup was gone before I could get a taste, so I'm assuming it was tasty.

We splurged a bit on the rolls since we had a gift card and got a few extra of the special rolls.  The Sweet Potato maki, Sprunchy, Rainbow, Philly & Pink Lady all made appearances at the table, along with some Hamachi sashimi.  The Sweet Potato roll is a new addition to the menu, and was my favorite of the night.  Japanese yam tempura, wrapped with an almost neon green soy paper is not found on your average sushi bar menu.  The yam had an almost silky texture, and the switch from the normal seaweed wrap was a nice change of scenery.

The rainbow & philly rolls are almost required orders now.  Hard to mess them up but always good.  A sprunchy roll is always on our table at Hikari, and I think they do this better than almost anyone in the city.  A spicy tuna roll topped with avocado, tobiko, spicy sauce and panko for a little crunch.  The Pink Lady is another new item on the menu, yellow tail dressed with a spicy sauce and wrapped in pink soy paper and topped with lightly seared tuna (that's them in the middle in the picture above).  I loved these little guys - the seared tuna getting a great kick from the spicy sauce.

New to me, but not to the menu, was the Spiker maki with deep fried soft shell crab, asparagus, cucumber and masago roe.  The roll was good, but the presentation is great with the crab shooting out of the ends of the last rolls. You can see them below towards the back of the plate, apparently giving me the middle finger before they meet their demise.

The Matrix and  Sakura maki, ches' specials for the day, were works of art and well executed.  Unfortunately  I don't recall exactly what went in them - I'll have to get back to you on that.  Do order them if you go, you can thank me later.





















I give this meal a Twins rating on the Food Baby scale - more on that later.
-T. Kaso








Hikari
1040 N. American st # 701 
Philadelphia, PA 19123
215.923.2654

Business Hours
Mon- Thur; 11:30am-3:00 pm
Break Time
Dinner; 4:30-10:00 pm
Fri-Sat; 11am-11:00 pm
Sunday: 4:00pm-10:00pm

Free Parking, Free Delivery ($20 Min), B.Y.O.B