Family Recipe, a small and casual place in Lower Manhattan, is a great find and worth exploring. It serves unusual modern Japanese food.
Owner and chef Akiko Thurnauer creates exotic dishes that are surprisingly satisfying and beautiful. She is self-taught and grew up in a family with a great passion and obsession about food, hence the name Family Recipe.
Sometimes, she and her mother would open the refrigerator door and start cooking with whatever ingredients were there, and use the spices and herbs that her father brought back to Japan from his business travels.
Thunauer said it was the bento boxes she prepared for her husband to take to work that made her popular and encouraged her to start a successful catering business while working at Nobu’s kitchen in Tribeca and catering for Danny Meyer for two years while running her catering business.
What is most impressive about her cooking is that she is one of the few women Japanese cooks who dare to break rules in Japanese cooking. She uses Japanese ingredients as a base and masterfully mixes other ingredients from around the world, yielding unexpected surprises with intense and delicious flavors.
You’ll find seasonal and intricately created dishes on her menu, such as the unusual Lamb and Lotus Root Wontons with roasted rice vinegar, hot oil, and shiso Tzatsiki ($12), Roasted Shoyu Koji Mackerel Taco with red cabbage, kimchi and avocado, and sriracha mayo ($15) and the Bone Marrow with caper, bonito, and kabosu ($13).
Our meal started with refreshing and sour Ume Pickled Eggs ($5). The eggs in halves looked so dainty with a hint of sweetness. The Uni Ikura on Nori Tempura with Yuzu aioli, shoyu salt, lemon, and jalapeño pepper ($17) is one dish I noticed my Japanese friends were salivating over. They were waiting anxiously for it and looked as if they were about to race for it. It turned out to be a lot more delicate than we expected.
The colorful Octopus and Squid with Rice Cake, Chinese Bacon and Chinese Broccoli ($18) had a few hidden surprises. The tender and mild octopus is what you taste at first, but as you take another bite you are greeted with many other treasures. It felt as if the world’s bounty was served on this plate.
The Roasted Cauliflower and Kabocha Squash Steak is a vegetarian dish ($21). The delicate cauliflower and the caramelized kabocha squash with cinnamon and sugar sat on top of edamame purée and quinoa and was topped with crispy Brussels sprouts. This was a hit. We were treated to another amazing dish, the Steamed Whole Pompano ($23), which came with a sauce that was beyond fantastic.
The prices were very reasonable for such a wonderful meal.
You can enjoy sake from the carefully conceived sake and wine list.
The pumpkin cheesecake makes a perfect sweet ending.
Bento lunch boxes are available for delivery upon order.
Family Recipe
231 Eldridge St. (between Houston and Stanton streets)
212-529-3133
familyrecipeny.com
Dinner:
Monday–Wednesday 6 p.m.–11 p.m.
Thursday–Saturday, 6 p.m.–midnight
Sunday 5:30 p.m.–10 p.m.
Brunch:
Saturday & Sunday 10:30–3 p.m.
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