Grandma's Home 外婆家
Grandma's Home has cooked Hangzhou food in China since 1998. It runs more than two hundred restaurants there.2 56 West 22nd Street is its first American restaurant.2 Julia Zhu runs this room. She is the daughter of one of the founders.1
Why go
Hangzhou is the capital of Zhejiang, and the company has cooked that province's food from the start.3 That is the card: freshwater fish, pork worked slow, noodles dressed plainly, the Jiangnan repertoire.2 At home the chain is known for two things at once. The food is cheap and the lines are long.2
A whole crab dish was written for New York, and it arrives with two shell-on crabs and house-made rice cakes beside them.1 Shaved ice went on the dessert list for the summer.1 I have found no critic's verdict on any of it.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the green tea claypot chicken.1
- Order: the hong shao rou, pork belly braised in soy and sugar until it goes glossy.1
- Order: the soy-glazed crispy fish and the scallion oil noodles.1
- Avoid: the lunch set if you came for the region. Its proteins are chili pepper chicken, sweet-and-sour pork, mapo tofu and kung pao shrimp, none of them Hangzhou.1
What locals & experts say
- Christina Izzo, writing for Time Out New York on 28 May 2024, files the room's brief as spotlighting
flavors from the land of fish and rice.
1 - The company, on its own founding:
From the beginning of the brand's establishment, it has been based on Hangzhou cuisine, looking for local ingredients, constantly developing the tastes of Jiangnan, and allowing classics and current popular cuisine to coexist.
2
Good to know
- To drink: the cocktails are built low in alcohol and named for Chinese folktales, and Uncle Song's Sippy Cup runs sake vermouth and a second vermouth with ginger, honey and lime. The Red Foil Cap, which is yogurt with Young Hyson tea, lemon, lime and soda, has no alcohol in it at all.1
- On the walls: work by young Chinese artists, Peter Chan and Zhang Guang-yu among them.1
Verdict
could-visit — Book through Resy and bring four, because the card is written for a table to share.