14 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
Coast Weekend’s local
restaurant review
Island-inspired eatery delivers new fl avors to Seaside
Review and photos by
MOUTH OF THE COLUMBIA
MOUTH@COASTWEEKEND.COM
L
Let the parade of new restaurants
continue!
This week it’s the Lilikoi Grill, a
Hawaiian-inspired joint in down-
town Seaside. It’s in the middle of
a block of Broadway that might as
well be known as McKeown’s Ave
— the family owns four eateries on
the block, including the neighboring
Irish Pub, Firehouse Grill and Non-
ni’s Italian Bistro.
The Lilikoi, which opened in
May, inhabits the back-half of what
used to be McKeowen’s. The fami-
ly’s former namesake restaurant was
paired down, and by simple virtue of
offering a different culinary inspira-
tion — colorful, fruity and loosely
island-based — the Lilikoi is a wel-
come change. It’s smaller than the
former fl agship with high ceilings
and a beach-y, if a tad cheesy, island
decor. There’s thatch, seashells and
green leaves in a building whose
seeming original inspiration was the
French Quarter. In design, Lilikoi
doesn’t go full tiki, but the bar does
offer a smattering of cocktails featur-
ing fruity nectars.
I began with the Rum Punch, a
pre-mixed, syrupy sweetener with
an umbrella skewering a cherry and
slice of pineapple. With hints of or-
ange, banana and pineapple, I found
it a fi ne value for only $5.
The Crispy Coconut Shrimp
with Papaya Mango Chutney ($13)
arrived shortly thereafter — four of
them, breaded with fried coconut,
butterfl ied and enormous, sprinkled
with green onions and a few more
fl ecks of raw coconut. These were
serious-sized crustaceans, but there
was quite a bit of breading too. The
fried coconut tempura batter had
a nice crunch and wasn’t too oily,
but I could’ve done with less. And
without the butterfl ying. The accom-
panying mango chutney was overly
sweet, smacking of corn syrup or
simple sugar. I wanted more pep.
But still: The shrimp and their coco-
nut crust hit the requisite marks.
The entrée, though, went beyond.
It was, in the end, the star of my
multiple trips to Lilikoi. I speak, of
course, of the Braised Glazed Pork
Shank ($17).
It came standing up, planted
in a pile of whipped red potatoes,
bones in, with a little crown of
micro greens. It was massive, the
diameter of a softball, full of meat,
well-cleaned and covered in a
lightly sweet veal demi-glacé. The
fl esh pulled easily from the bone,
hardly resisting, no knife required.
It was salty, tender, succulent and
multi-faceted. The outer-layer had
a crispy char while the center was
oh-so soft — braised, then seared.
The whipped red potatoes,
with skin, were light and
fl uffy, buttery and dotted
with cloves of roasted gar-
lic. The Brussels sprouts
too were well-roasted.
Sopping up the
demi-glacé, both melded
with the meat. Which,
again, there was so much
of. I peeled away the front
half and was satiated,
but kept going back. One
more bite. Another. One
more. As I fi nally put the
fork down, the shank was still stand-
ing, still with a reasonable amount
of meat on the bone. I sipped at the
Rum Punch, whose fruity sweet-
ness roller-coasted against the salty,
fatty, buttery main course. There, in
one of the thatch-covered booths, I
marinated, fully content — on both
the fl avor and presentation of that
delicious, still-standing pork shank,
and that it didn’t cost an arm and a
leg.
My second trip failed and didn’t
engender that same sense of peace
and serenity.
It was a Saturday night, and while
the Lilikoi wasn’t at capacity, it was
close. I took a seat at the bar and
wasn’t acknowledged again for the
next 10 minutes. As I sat beside a
pair of couples celebrating birthdays
and buzzed on fruity drinks, I felt
like the staff was short a server. The
bartender, who would regularly
LILIKOI GRILL
Rating:
714 Broadway, Seaside
lilikoigrill.com
503-738-5232
HOURS: 3 to 9 p.m. Thursday
through Monday.
PRICE: $$ – Entrees mostly in
the teens
SERVICE: Over-stretched on
a busy weekend
VEGETARIAN/VEGAN OP-
TIONS: A few odds and ends
for vegetarians
DRINKS: Full bar, soda, coff ee
Above: The Braised Glazed Pork
Shank, bone-in, came sanding up
with a crown of micro greens ac-
companied by whipped red pota-
toes and roasted Brussels sprouts.
Left: The Salmon with White Bean
Chorizo and Langostino Ragu was
an OK entree, but the ragu’s lack of
synergy fell fl at.
be called on to make complicated,
multi-ingredient, shaken cocktails,
also had to serve and buss numerous
tables, some on the other side of the
restaurant. While effi cient and ca-
pable, a few concurrent drink orders
could — and did — short circuit the
whole thing.
As such, my Lilikoi Margarita
($8) was made by a server instead
of the overburdened bartender, and
it suffered dramatically. What I got
was over-salted to the point of being
undrinkable. It was like a salt-lick
— and not just on the rim, but in
the glass. I couldn’t fi nish. I ordered
Clams “to start with,” and even
drew out the selection of my entrée.
But by the time I’d eaten about four
clams my main course — Salmon
with White Bean Chorizo and Lan-
gostino Ragu ($21) — had arrived.
The server made note of the pile up
but didn’t offer to keep it warm.
I tried sticking with the heaping
serving of clams, which weren’t too
gummy, and the buttery, white-wine,
garlic and coconut-tinged sauce.
But I couldn’t help thinking that
my entrée was just getting cold, so I
dove in. The fi sh’s outside was but-
tery and just the lightest bit crusted,
which I liked, but the center was
less inspired. Good and well-cooked
salmon should be irresistible, like a
buttery, lean-fat, hi-octane gold. This
wasn’t quite that. It was either a tad
over-cooked, of not the highest qual-
ity, or somewhere in the middle. The
white bean melange, with carrots
and onions, while hearty, was very
much the sum of its parts. Needing
more spice, the chorizo remarked:
“bacon.” A few shrimp were tossed
in too, but from the bowl a greater
synergy never arose.
I probably enjoyed the clams
more and dunking the crusty, white,
bleached garlic bread into the buttery
sauce. I took another sip of my salt-
KEY TO STAR RATING SYSTEM
Poor
Below average
Good
Excellent
Best in region
a-rita, and set the half-full cup back
down and wondered: Was Lilikoi a
high-variance restaurant? Or I had I
ordered the best thing on the menu
my fi rst trip?
I returned a few days later during
Happy Hour. I found a few good
deals and couldn’t help it if they
were less island-y. (Lilikoi does
fi sh and chips, after all.) The Kobe
Burger ($6.50) is, well, extra beefy
— hand-pressed and seasoned, a
whopping half-pound of it. Calling
the bun “brioche,” however, was
a stretch. With it I had a “baby”
Caesar salad ($4) that was robustly
adult-sized. And, with the bartender
securely at the helm, I gave the Li-
likoi Margarita ($1 off, 3 to 6 p.m.)
another shot. This time it was on
point, tart and stiff.
I left feeling... fi ne. Not marinating
in the afterglow like that fi rst trip, nor
questioning as I had the second. I felt
simply: that Lilikoi is an improve-
ment to McKeown’s Ave. And that
you should try the pork shank.