Fatty Crab

I’d been aware of The Fatty Crab from photos posted on Twitter but had never seriously looked into going there. Even though the food looked seriously tasty, I usually had other places I viewed as a priority. But this trip was different because I wasn’t just looking for food for myself. Russell Norman, co-owner of Polpo, Spuntino, MIshkin’s and others, had been posting photos   on Twitter from New York so I asked about places he could recommend to take teens. He sent a link to a list that he regularly updates and this formed the basis for my research (Salt & Fat and Alder were already givens). The list included the Fatty Crab (the original one on Hudson) and it seemed an ideal fit for us.

Fatty Crab was established in 2005, a partnership between restaurateur Rick Camac and chef Zak Pelaccio who took inspiration from Malaysia for his menu. After partnering on 5 Ninth, their second opening was in a former launderette on Hudson Street and the small space was developed to be a Malaysian bistro and a New York legend was born.

The Fatty Crab name has grown to include locations in St John in the Virgin Islands and Hong Kong. The team has also opened locations in Williamsburg and the West Village under the Fatty Cue banner with a barbecue menu emphasising Southeast Asian flavours. More recently, plans are afoot to spread the Fatty Crab brand and the team is collaborating with restaurateur Stephen Starr to make that happen. The plans is to open in Washington DC and then move to eight additional locations including London.

Fatty Crab doesn’t take reservations so our plan was to head their early to be sure of getting a table. Things were complicated slightly by the arrival of my eldest son from Philadelphia to join us for the day. There are about 30 seats inside so our early arrival made sense but at least during the good weather there is additional outside seating available. The narrow restaurant has exposed brick walls down the side with a red painted back wall opening on to the small kitchen where everything happens. As mentioned before the space is small so the simply laid plain wooden tables are closely packed with bench seats on one side and red chairs on the other. The menu lists snacks, noodle/soups and specialities with items arriving as they’re cooked.

It might have been early but dammit I was on a long weekend break and went for the Far East Gimlet, a bracing mix of gin, lime cordial, cardamom and kaffir lime.

The menu is one of the best reading lists of dishes I’ve read for years. Everything sounded deliciously tempting and we were having problems narrowing down what to go for. Our choice wasn’t helped by the delicious scents that wafted over from other diners’ plates as they were shuttled through the restaurant building anticipation even more. Eventually we made a decision and not surprisingly the family fetish for wings kicked in and that was the first dish to arrive. The spicy flavour on the tandoori spiced chicken wings was excellent but there was little heat. Instead the accompanying yoghurt curry sauce contributed heat if you wanted it. The chicken was nicely tender and these rated a really good wings. The problem was in the portioning. With three of us eating we asked how many wings came in a portion and were told 5. As there were three of us we asked if we could have more and I would happily have paid more. The server mumbled something about portion size and moved off so we weren’t hopeful of an increased portion. What we got was four wings. For 12 dollars. I don’t often complain about price but four wings for 12 dollars is pathetic. The wings were good but they would have to be unbelievable to justify that price.

Next up was one of the low points of the meal. The tea sandwich with Belecan braised lamb. shallot raisin sambal, pickled green chillis and Vietnamese mint was never going to recover from the shoddy bread in the sandwich. It was also unexpected that the lamb was cold even though it tasted really lovely but it would have to be incredible/amazing/stunning to overcome the limp white bread outer shell. It wasn’t. The overall vote was two thumbs down from my sons although I was more forgiving, but I wouldn't rush to order them again.

Just as I was beginning to wonder if I'd made a poor restaurant choice, the watermelon pickle and crispy pork with fresh herbs and sweet ginger showed what the kitchen was capable of producing. This was a truly superb dish centred round delightfully tender pork that benefitted from having an appropriately crispy skin. The refreshing kick from the watermelon was incredibly moreish. The dressing on the spring onions added a nice heat to the dish, complimented by the sweet ginger. This dish alone justifies visiting the Fatty Crab.

The fatty sliders had a mixed reception but I loved them (mostly). They were based round mini spiced pork and beef burgers that were topped with pickled cucumber. The peppery meat blend was delicious and the pickled cucumber was nice light contrast. The sour hot dressing rounded the whole filling out really well. My only issue was with the buns – they really weren’t great but on balance I’d very happily eat these again.

And then the meal hit another weird low point. The wonton mee soup with shrimp & chicken wontons and crispy noodles sounded fantastic but the proportions seemed totally out of whack. The broth was delicious acquiring a nutty edge from the noodles but there wasn’t enough of it. The wontons were delicious but there weren’t many of them either. There were, however, tons of noodles and they overwhelmed everything else. 

All of these dishes had come out in quick succession and then it was a long wait for the Nasi Lemak. So long that we wondered if the order had been forgotten. The dish combined chicken curry with coconut rice, sambal ikan bilis and poached egg. The blend of the chicken poached egg and pickled green beans was delicious. The dried anchovy based side, although classic for this dish, didn’t work for me and the accompanying pickled cucumbers were not great in this mix either. Overall, though, this was a nice dish and a good way to end things.

Unfortunately, the Fatty Crab fell somewhat short for us. I honestly thought that this would be one of the highlights of the weekend but the flaws of a couple of the dishes and feeling short-changed on others left us rather nonplussed. Looking back on the weekend, those flaws meant that it came bottom of our ratings because other places delivered much more consistently. My eldest son’s comment was that if you chose the right dishes you could have a sensational meal but get it slightly wrong and your meal could totally suck. It was difficult to disagree with that.

Despite the poor dishes, I’d be happy to go back. Not least because the pork and watermelon dish was really superb. That one dish was so good, I find it difficult to believe that nothing else could match it.

Overall Rating – 2.5/5