Teriyaki Box, which Suzuki family members opened in September in the space of their former Lake Forest restaurant, Seasoned, is a return to the siblings’ restaurant and cultural roots.
Teriyaki Box was the first family restaurant that Brandon, Brittany and Brook Suzuki worked at during its five-year run in Buffalo Grove a decade ago. This incarnation has evolved out of Seasoned, a tapas bistro, to focus on Japanese street food.
“We thought about who we are and the Japanese casual food that we grew up on,” said Brandon, general manager of Teriyaki Box. “It’s the food we enjoy and love to make, and so we brought it back.”
Brandon defines Japanese street food as “quick, easy and inexpensive. In Japan, it’s (typically) food that people (order from vendors), eat in under 10 minutes and go back to work, or that they can take back to their houses.”
However, he added, patrons are welcome to linger, too.
The menu is dominated by the two Bs; Bowls and complete meal Bento boxes.
The bowls contain white rice (brown can be substituted) covered in various toppings including teriyaki chicken ($5.95), teriyaki salmon (cut fresh at the restaurant for $9.95), panko shrimp ($7.95), Teriyaki skirt beef ($8.25) and stir-fry vegetables ($6.95).
The boxes, which start at $11.95, contain white rice, a fried vegetable gyoza, edamame, potato salad, choice of salad or soup and entree. Choices include salmon ($18.95), panko shrimp ($14.95), teriyaki skirt beef ($16.00) and panko chicken cutlet ($13.25).
A children’s version of the boxes, with either a mini burger, chicken fingers or chicken, meatballs or panko shrimp, are available for $6.95 each.
Also available for bowls or boxes is Dynamite Meatballs, one of Seasoned’s signature dishes.
More intricate Japanese dishes are available as daily specials. The most popular that has emerged since the restaurant opened, Brandon said, is the Saturday special, Okonomiyaki ($9), a Japanese pizza.
The menu also contains trio of sushi selections ($6)
Unlike at Seasoned, Teriyaki Box diners order at the counter and the food is brought to them.
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Displayed on the counter is what Brandon calls Teriyaki Box’s “mini-supermarket,” containing shrimp chips, gummy candies and other sweet snacks. “We’re Japanese, but we have American taste buds,” jokes Brandon, who, like his siblings, was born in Bannockburn.
Their father Seiji Suzuki is not involved in the running of Teriyaki Box. Brandon called him more of a consultant. “He’s the wise man we look up to,” he said. Seiji is the former owner of Sushi Kushi Toyo. The Orange Wine House, a Ho Chi Minh City wine bar he opened still is in operation.
“Now we can feed him,” Brandon said. “It’s paying him back for what he’s given us for 30 years.”
Donald Leibenson is a freelance reporter for the News Sun.
Teriyaki Box
Location: Teriyaki Box is at 840 S. Waukegan Road, Lake Forest
Information: Call 847-234-8797 or go to www.teriyaki-box.com
Hours: Monday through Friday: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.; 4:30 to 8:30 p.m.; Saturday: 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. Closed Sunday.