Fatty Crab
Categories: Seafood, Asian Fusion [Edit]
Neighborhood: Manhattan/West Village643 Hudson St
(between Gansevoort St & Horatio St)
New York, NY 10014 (212) 352-3590
13 reviews
Neighborhood: Manhattan/Financial District
"I am a huge fan of this area, Stone St. I kinda want to keep it my own secret but I feel like the more the merrier! The place is great,…" read more »
85 Reviews for Fatty Crab
Order the watermelon pickle & crispy pork as a starter.
Dungenes chili crab & toasty bread with sauce = HEAVEN. Don't forget to wash it down with Tiger Beer.
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Malaysian fusion American?
Its rare to have an American take on Asian cuisine (its usually an Asian take on what Americans consider as an Asian cuisine), but this is exactly what Fatty Crab is. Some dishes are well executed, like the Quail shooters (4 runny quail eggs in its shell with the top cut off and have some dry pork on top) and the Claypot chicken (clean tasting chicken with buttery flavor tofu) while other dishes are a rip off, like the Fatty Tea Sandwiches (1/2 a sandwich cut in thirds for $7) and the Jalan Alor Chicken Wings (3 for $7). From other Yelp reviews, no one really orders the crab, cuz its so freaking expensive (Its $42 on the day I went). No wonder why they call this place Fatty Crab. These crabs get well fed with everyone paying overprice for these dishes, at the same time, the crabs are spared cuz they are overtly expensive.
While the height of this place's popularity is most certainly behind it, Fatty Crab can always be counted on for reliably delicious, if a tad overpriced Malaysian food. Not much new to add here: the portions are small, but filling and flavorful. I started with the grilled calamari salad - which had quite a kick, and finished with the fish fry: three tender pieces of tillapia in a spicy tempura over rice. Yum. My dining buddy, a consummate west village foodie, went with the short rib, which he seemed to enjoy thoroughly despite it taking more than bit too long to come out. Neither of us were feeling the famous chili crab, but pledged to come back and try it one day.
Between the Yelp office being in the West Village and my friend living now living on Hudson, it's only a matter of time before we try everything on this bountiful street of eateries. Good to know this place is still up to snuff despite the hype.
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The restaurant isn't too big and no matter where you sit, you'll be next to someone. The bar area also isn't very big, so when there is a lot of people waiting, they will be spilling out everywhere in the restaurant. The restaurant is also pretty loud. I'm not sure if it was the amount of people in a small space or the iPod they had playing, but it was hard to talk to my brother without yelling.
The dishes are pretty small - well smaller then I would expect for the price. The dishes aren't expensive, but I guess I would expect more food since it was family style.
I strongly recommend the fatty duck. It was crispy and a little bit sweet. The only bad thing was you only get 3 pieces of duck on top of a bed of rice. The crab is also good. Really messy, so don't order this on a first date unless you are really confident or if your date doesn't mind getting messy. The crab really isn't anything special, but it's good Malaysian chili crab.
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Malaysian fusion hrmm...I don't see what the fuss about this place is about but there's been so much hype I had to check it out. Plus they were decent at the Choice Eats tasting @ the Puck Building a few months ago. There was a 30min wait for 5ppl on a Wed night, unless you wanted outdoor seating. They finally seated us inside with a table for 4 but the 5th person had no choice but to sit on the inside 'bench' area where there were 3 people total and 2 people in chairs opposite them...they were not flexible with any other arrangement for 5, esp any aisle seating.
Okay, it's the place 'to see and be seen' but let's face it, the food is par for the course. The portions are a bit small even. We passed on the 'market price' aka $32 18oz chili crab. I suppose these dishes are meant to be shared family style. The waiter recommended that we order 8 dishes for 5 people to share. During our eating we saw a waiter hit on a customer...very wierd to say the least. Anyway, here's what I tried:
- Fresh Watermelon - Kaffir Lime ($5) - I heard this was good, but it's in such a small glass with ice in it, how much juice is there really?
- Quail Egg Shooters ($5) - you get 5 of these in the original quail egg shell with the top cut open..the egg is runny and warm with dried pork on top, the type you put on top of congee - very good!
- Fatty Tea Sandwiches Pork Belly, Sambal Aioli ($7) - the crusts have been sliced off the wonder bread, thin pieces of pork belly in between with various Malaysian spices, including a heavy cilantro taste - not bad, but Momofuku's still blows this out of the water - tasty but paltry portions. You get three 1" wide x 6" long finger sandwiches
- Jalan Alor Chicken Wings ($6) - 3 whole chicken wings, marinated in some type of dark soy sauce type marinade...served dry - it was OK..a bit on the salty side
- Chicken Claypot ginger, green chili, tofu ($14) - tasted bland but healthy, casserole type dish...nothing special, not too flavorful
- Fatty Duck steamed, fried, toasted tamake ($14) - the duck was good, moist with a crispy skin, served with 3 pieces including one leg, the rice tasted like honey was drizzled over it...overkill..way too sweet
- Malay Fish Fry turmeric tempura, crab curry, green chili, tamaki ($14) - you get 3 pieces of 6" fried fish that tastes like nothing special..all the spices are underneath and barely flavor the fish.
- Dessert (free) - looked like cornbread but tasted like a sweet yellow cake with a hint of tapioca in it
Total came out to $35/pp w/ everything.
I didn't see what all the hype was about. My friend took me here and I was so excited to eat crab. When we got there for some reason, none of us had crab. It's so freakin expensive and we were just there to eat lunch. I ended up with some noodles that they claim to be soup. It's such a thick sauce, I wouldn't consider it soup. Plus, it was too spicy for me and I gave it to someone else who loves spicy food. I don't even think what I ordered was meant to be spicy but who knows.
The first thing the water did was tell us that it was a family style restaurant and that everything would come out at different times. Um yeah. I get it. It's an "asian" restaurant - no need for explaining.
The bathroom (somehow I look at bathrooms to rate places) was a little scary. Could've been a cozy neat bathroom, but it was so dark and creepy I wanted to scream and jump off the toilet seat. Looks like a great hiding place for a rat to jump out at any moment. Just a warning. It wasn't dirty, but the looks of it scared the rats outta me.
Overall an overly-hyped, overly priced restaurant.
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Nice restaurant, my only complaint is that it is very small, and having been seated in the middle of the restaurant, I was constantly bumped by both waiters and patrons. The food was delicious and spicy with a little kick. The only dish I did not like were the sliders but then again, I probably should not have been ordering the sliders in an asian restaurant. The duck and the skate were both excellent dishes.
i dont get what is so special about this place.
the food was decent but the price was high considering the size of the portions.
the waiter told us it was family style so i would have expected it to be larger (thats what she said).
the place is small, noisey and dimly lit.
i don't think i would go back.
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I haven't been here in quite a while, but I do remember craving to go to Fatty Crab every time I made a trip out to NYC (please open one up in LA! I promise I'll go every week and I'll bring an entourage to keep you guys in business!)
The place is rather small (but isn't every other spot in the city?) and was packed every single time we went (no reservations), but we never waited too long. You gotta keep in mind that you come in here for the flavor - spices, sweets, sours - it's got plenty of them and it's pretty rich.
The dungeoness crab itself was good in terms of quality abd freshness, but what made it great was the chili sauce! (FedEx me some sauce please! I'll pay for shipping). The sauce didn't penetrate into the crab meat too much, but it was definitely tasty, and dipping the bread and everything else in it was a surefire bet. And despite what people said about the watermelon pickle and crispy pork, I thought the texture of the pork was interesting. The way they prepared it made it "fatty" enough not to make you say "gross, that's all fat". Normally, I don't like the fatty part, but the way they prepared made it tasty. And the watermelon was a great complement for the dish. It's been a while, but I just remember leaving feeling satisfied and happy I made another visit to Fatty Crab.
Service was always attentive and good, and the drinks weren't too shabby either. I do tend to get sick of seafood if I eat too much, but those sauces just make me crave another trip to the East Coast.
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Fatty Crab is one of the better Malaysian inspired joints in town. Cosy, friendly and a great place to sit out (when the weather is nice) and enjoy some delicious food family style over a Tiger beers.
Strictly speaking, food's not authentic Malaysian, but it is a well-executed take on it. The sliders are to die for, the fried fish is delicious and the rendang is slow cooked to perfection.
Delicious! Flavors were great and worked well together on pretty much every dish. Got there at around 11:30sih? on a Sat and it was pretty fulll, but there was a table available. Had chili crabs...mmm, some skate and buns and a bunch of other yummy and spicy and full of flavory goodness. I personally had a better time here than say Momofuku (although I was more drunk.) Also, we were not fans of the cocktails we ordered and wished I would have stuck with some Tigers.
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I liked the concept of this place: very traditional Vietnamese/Southeast Asian food in a tiny, simple restaurant with the traditional moving fans and bare light bulbs, but the reality was a bit lacking.
They have some cool cocktails and these great big Asian beers with owls on the label. The restaurant is tiny, loud and very warm - I felt pretty claustrophobic and it affected my dining experience. Service is fast and everyone who works there is white with New York accents (not sure where the authentic Asian-ness of the food comes from?).
The food: I was mixed on the food. The flavors are REALLY strong. Like lots of fish sauce and plum sauce and sauce in general. I loved the steamed buns - they were delicious with a nice cilantro salad that you put inside. Just writing about them makes me hungry. I loved the fatty duck - again, delicious and the salad was yummy. I didn't like the crispy pork and watermelon salad - it was mostly green onions. We also got the chicken clay pot (meh), a fishy soup that came with dried sardines (a bit weird), a noodle dish that was super greasy and very strongly flavored (again, meh).
Overall, I wasn't in love with fatty crab. It was just overwhelming with the small space, strong flavors, loudness, warmth, etc. Maybe better for takeout?
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The hottest thing about this restaurant was the fine-ass waiter. The second hottest thing was the fact that they let me put on my iPod so we got to eat dinner while listening to MIA. Oh and did I mention the food...
Yes, the food. Well the food is pretty good too but I've had better Malaysian in a mall-front restaurant in Milpitas, CA. I liked the smoky-and-sweet combination of the pork and watermelon salad and the coconut rice was quite delicious. The chili crab was not good - it was as if they forgot to clean the crab before serving it and after repeatedly eating pieces of grit along with minuscule pieces of crab meat soaked in what appeared to be Sriracha sauce I gave up.
There's quite a raucous atmosphere in Fatty Crab and the tables are really close to one another so you can get a good bit of your neighbor's conversation along with your own. Their wines are nice and the service is good too. Minus stars for the long wait and the "no reservations" policy but at least they're pretty accurate when they say "30-45 minutes."
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I had high, high expectations for Fatty Crab, especially after such fan fare. However, when I had dinner there a lot of the dishes were simply very average. They weren't bad yet, they didn't leave any cravings for more. Most of the dishes were over-sauced, I felt like I was eating oversauced versions of vegetables or meat. The two exceptions to that were the steamed pork buns which were excellent and the Chilli Crab which I would definitely go back for. Go there, have only those two and you won't be dissappointed
The chili crab is good... i also love the sauce with rice better than the crab itself... the other dishes are not impressive: crispy pork + watermelon salad is pretty disappointing. there was another fish entree, which came on banana leaf... the fish itself was ok enough.
as someone mentioned, I might one of deluded Asian girl to get all the attention, BUT I really enjoyed my food and time here..
WHY?? because...
boys - CHECK, of course!
girls - don't care.. but let me just say, CHECK
decor - dark + low key = CHECK
drink - ladish - coconutly sweet, CHECK
food - 1st time try hot spicy + salty Malaysian = CHECK
service - boys are already approved, so CHECK!
music - obviously Hip-Hop music at Malaysian restaurant? No! take off 1 star.
and.. with WHAT??
BEST
Watermelon Pickle and Crispy Pork - best pick! u should try the melting on ur tongue pork belly chunk!
Malay Fish Fry - fried crispy fish tempura + green chili + curry rice = 1 bite together will lead you heaven!
Fatty Duck - crispy enough.. fatty enough.. with Tamaki rice
Steamed Pork Buns - soft like my skin, yummy like my lips! oops! TMI?
Short Rib Rendang - kindly tender without bone.. well.. least pick!
LEAST
when we ordered those, somehow I thought it's a lot.. 5 dishes for 2 people? well.. will see.. I usually distinguish myself as BIG Belly.. but I wasn't that kinda mood at that time.. had to cheer me up "U can do it, Jules!"
after for a while, I realized the portion wasn't that big just like other tapaz places, hence I could help my friend to clean up all the dishes.. I am THAT generous.. OK, it's my excuse.. just saying..
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The food hits all the salty-spicy-sweet spots. Intensely flavored soups are balanced with the sweet and crisp savoriness of the watermelon pickle and crispy pork salad. If you are too bashful to publicly maul a bowl of Singapore chili crab, then try the fried fatty duck. Surprisingly, brunch has not been as crowded as the dinner scene.
Unfortunately, anyone who gives this restaurant more than 2 stars is most likely as deluded as the Asian girl sitting at the bar last night who giggled far too aggressively at the li'l bartenders heterokes.
First and by far foremost, one must address the service. The wait staff at this locale is by far the most insufferable cabal of dudes you'll encounter since that Intro to Photography class you took in high school. They were loud, obnoxious and consistently interrupted our conversation with little hesitation.
Even worse was their Brohemian camaraderie. I felt like I inadvertently cameoed in the sitcom they undoubtedly star in in their heads. I wouldn't be surprised if they were all in the same art-rock-dance band named Pol Pot Luck Club.
Actually, I'm pretty sure I'm just jealous cause all the girls wanted to do them and I felt emasculated when their butts kept bumping my beer. The food, too, was mediocre.
Recommendations. Pork Bunz and that fish thing with the peppers and the rice.
Price: $40 per person for 4 dishes and 2 beers.
Worth it: I made spaghetti and meat balls 2 hours later.
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love the chilli crabs and pork steamed buns and best of all, they have SAN MIGUEL!!!!! man i haven't seen that since my days in hong knog!!!
anyway, back to the place, great friendly staff, our server was actually surprised and yet happy about me eating the cavity in the crab apparently most customers don't eat that ,what a waste. As for the food, great!!! Got nothing bad to say and I need to try out the rest next time I go
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I have to agree with many of my fellow Yelpers here, I was really not impressed with Fatty Crab, especially after hearing all the hype.
The portions are pretty small, the service comes with a healthy dose of attitude (the times I was there) and I've even been burned by delivery (having items missing and being forced to call back for delivery no. 2). I had heard so much about the watermelon pork but I don't see what the fuss was about.
I love Malay food and really wanted to like this place, but after a few experiences, I'm calling it quits.
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Fatty Crab, was good, despite some of the reviews, met up with some friends and had an enjoyable evening! food was delicious and the atmosphere was fun.. my only complain is the tight seating arrangements.. felt like i was crammed into a seat like sardines in a can. if you have a party of 4 ask for the table.. there is only one that can accommodate. the crab was good but a little messy for my liking..
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A tough reservation, as there is none. It's first come first serve for this quaint venue.
They offer...
1.) several delightful dishes seasoned the way I like:
Mussels
Skate
Ribs
Duck ~ cooked to perfection
Coconut Rice ~ a must have!
Bok Choy
2.) several dishes that were fun to try:
Quail Egg Shooters
and 3.) several dishes that I could have passed on:
Green Mango Salad ~ flavourless
Chili Crab ~ very sandy, as if they forgot to clean it out! ...hence the low score.
Price tag for 4 hungry 20+ was $240.
This place has been on my list of joints to check out for awhile. Unfortunately it didn't quite live up to my expectations. Tonight I sampled the fatty duck (meh. kinda dry and chewy. and salty), pork buns (definitely my favorite dish), rib entrees (also pretty yummy, kinda too salty), some noodle dish with shrimp and fish cakes (WAY too salty), broccoli with salty fish (SO SALTY), and the chili crab (I've never been a huge fan of dungeness crabs, and the sauce wasn't even thaaat great).
Yeah so basically, everything was far too salty. It was overwhelming. I mean I love flavor, but not if I feel like it's burning through my esophagus.
Service was good (and I think I saw the server jeremy g. wrote about... pimp on) and the bill came to about 50$/person with moderate drinks.
I probably won't be returning; I actually prefer Penang for Malaysian food.
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I love this place. My group of 4 waited an hour (from an estimate of 30 minutes) on a Sunday night. I think most tables are 3 or fewer. However, once seated outside on a beautiful summer night, I had no more complaints. The food came quickly and was delicious.
- watermelon and pork belly salad -- you have to enjoy fatty pork, but this is an amazing dish.
- short rib beef rendang: a bit too greasy (do they have to keep the fat sitting under the rice), but melts in your mouth with flavor.
-- spicy chicken wings: small serving, great flavor
-- chil crabs: way too much effort and mess, but I could eat the sauce over rice any day. Just the right amount of spiciness!
-- fatty duck: I like the crisy coconut-flavored rice with some kind of preserved cabbage. the duck itself was not as moist as I'd have expected, and it came with only 3 pieces, but overall, still very tasty.
I can't remember what else we got, but I was stuffed and so happy at the end of the meal. I also recommend the Porkslap beer. Light, sweet and refreshing!
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very friendly service. portions were enough for two people to share.
Watermelon Pickle and Crispy Pork- very refreshing. the pork was so juicy!
Nasi Lemak (coconut rice, chicken curry, slow poached egg)- good.
Assam Laksa (traditional spicy fish soup, laifun)- great flavor!
Fatty Duck (steamed, fried, toasted tamake)- the best duck i've ever had!
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I finally visited Fatty Crab last night after about a year of anticipation, and I was really underwhelmed. The tables against the banquette were so close together I could've easily touched elbows with the man on my left or the woman on my right, and avoiding their conversations was pretty much impossible, especially when woman to my right got on her cell phone.
The service was okay but uninspiring; we noticed that the(presumably heterosexual, moderately good-looking) waiter leaned into / up against women as he was taking their orders. Manipulative slut. He and the bartender were good at turning drink orders around but less good at clearing dishes once we'd finished (a problem, since the tables were small and new things kept arriving).
Only two of our dishes (the Lo Si Fun - short rice noodles with Chinese sausage and shiitake -- and the bok choy side) were really outstanding. The chili crab tasted good, but was served without nutcrackers and as noted by other reviewers, difficult to eat without making a colossal mess. I'd come directly from work, so this wasn't what I'd had in mind. I thought the waiter might have volunteered a caveat to this effect, especially after confirming that this was our first visit and the menu doesn't give any warning. The fatty tea sandwiches were rather clammy (a bit of sambal helped with this), while the fatty duck was just unremarkable. So too were the drinks; the watermelon juice with kaffir lime was refreshing, but I couldn't taste the lime.
I won't hurry back. 2.5 stars.
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Bring a napkin or 200 if you intend to eat the Chili Crab with chili sauce. If you're like anything like myself, then you'll get it everywhere on yourself. If you're anything like my sister then somehow you'll get it inside your camera bag sitting on the floor closed. (Still no idea how that happened)
The Crab was quite delicious, but could have been 50% more spicy. I'm not sure if its normally made for the american palette but i would have been much more expecting of a nice kick in the face.
We also had the Steamed Pork Buns to compare against Momofuku, but they fell a bit short with the excessive amount of fat on it.
The rest of the meal consisted of Green Mango with Chili-Sugar, Chicken Rice, and a noodle dish which i don't remember what it was called.
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The four of us were a few drinks in by the time we turned up at Fatty Crab. This really means we were starving! We order a load of food. Listed below are my humble recommendations.
Do yourself a favor; get at least two orders of the sliders. You will not regret this.
Other items of note:
Jalan Alor Chicken Wings
Steamed Pork Buns
Watermelon Pickle and Crispy Pork
Short Rib Rendang
Kang Kong Belacan
Fatty Crab is sort of like taking a quick trip to Southeast Asia for dinner and should always include liberal amounts of beer!
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This is not what I would call a "seafood" restaurant. There are lots of other things but I would agree that there is an Asia flavor to all their food.
Recommendations:
1. Pork steamed buns (2 per order)
2. Short Rib Rendang - shouldn't be called short ribs because there are no bones. it's just delicious, juicy, melt-in-your-mouth meat.
3. Fatty Duck - very good but has a lot of fat
4. Sliders - very tasty snack with an Asian twist.
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I am loving YELP!!! You yelpers have inspired me to finally try a restaurant I've been curious about since it opened and I had a great experience. Went early and found the joint deserted. My companion had one of their specialty ginger-y cocktails in hand when I arrived and it was uniquely flavorful while packing a nice wallop. We split the sliders and the Chili Crab for dinner and I loved both of them. And our waiter was great. Maybe because it was so early and it was the middle of a biblical thunderstorm, but he was happy to see us, charming, and hot. Just what I like in a man.
And I was impressed that our bill only came to about $70. Sharing is the way to go if you're not a huge eater. I was plenty full and I'll be back.
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i'm glad i don't work near this restaurant anymore because i would have turned into a fatty ass if i'd continued to eat here, um daily. their food is so good, and affordable.
i love pickles. there, i said it. and when i was six i didn't drink pickle juice from the jar (lie). i love pickles sooooo much that as i typed the previous sentence, my mouth watered, and that stork from the Vlassic pickle commercials popped into my head.
fatty crab has an awesome pickle snack. Pickles Raja Chulan. Mmmmm. the veggie steamed buns and fatty tea sandwiches are also yummy. the have rice bowls and salads and the noodles, rices and soups are unbelievable.
i lived on the black pepper mussles and chili crab for about 2 weeks straight this past fall.
this place is getting reviewed left & right for the last 3 months or so. go before it's impossible to get a table.
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Wouldn't this be a funny name for a cat? If we ever get a cat I'm definitely going to name him Fatty Crab.
My friend Anthony recommended this place, so four of us hit it on Monday monday night. He advised us that some things on the menu that sound bad are actually good. I'm glad he did, because otherwise we never would have gotten the "sliders." These are fusiony Asian burgers, served on square hamburger rolls like White Castle burgers, but with deliciously spiced pork patties in place of the usual ground beef.
Also great was the crispy duck. I wolfed down an entire plate of it myself.
Skip the "skate," which was overly salty/sweet.
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rockstar true to form indonesian-fusiony cuisine. the pork belly salad with watermelon is one of the most delicious flavor combos i've put in my mouth
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Pelaccio does far better with reinventions of Malaysian styles than he does with traditional dishes like Nasi Lemak or Asam Laksa (though admittedly, the beef rendang is irresistibly flavorful). The watermelon and pork belly salad that everyone raves about is worth the trip. It's genius.
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Fatty Crab. Even the name sounds unhealthy, doesn't it? But for the most part, unhealthy equals delicious...and this place is delicious! I turn to this place (over Nonya or Penang) to get my South East Asian food fix.
I grew up in Singapore, so I know what the food is supposed to taste like (so there!). Granted, it's not completely authentic, but it sure is tasty!
I get delivery from this place about twice a week. Yeah, turning into a bit of a Fatty myself.
Note: No Reservations plus limited seating equals bad for groups. Oh yeah, and be prepared to listen to some Beastie Boys, Jurassic 5, and Talib Kweli while you eat your Jalan Alor Chicken Wings.
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something was misaligned in the universe or something because my three friends and i turned up at fatty crab at 8pm on a friday and though were initially told that the wait would be at least an hour they offered to rearrange some tables and miraculously we were seated immediately. can you believe that? manhattan on a friday night. the rest of the service too was impeccable.
the food was delicious, in particular-- the quail egg shooters. chili crab was good but sort of on the dry side. also, the fatty duck was delicious but while everything else we were served came out in denominations of four, the duck (the least easily dividable food item) came out in three pieces.
as the whole place is family style my only recommendation is that if you are a meticulously slow crab eater like i am, do not go with three large, fast-eating, hungry guy friends.
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I really like the Fatty Crab. I am NOT a big fan of most restaurants in / around the meat-packing district. It's over-priced mediocre food a lot of the time. But this joint is different.
It's very small, and a bit noisy. This means on a Friday night you are probably going to have to wait about 35-45 minutes. Seems to be the average on the weekend about 9:00pm. . .. Done it 3 times. As far as noise, it's to be expected in this type of place (cramped, music turned up a bit - good tunes as well i may add - diverse).
Now for the food. I really like the Jalan Alor Chicken Wings. They are tender and delicious. For my entree, i ordered the chicken claypot. I love this dish. it has chunks of chicken & tofu in a broth that is flavored with ginger and green chili. i actually ordered 2 the first time i went because i didn't have an appetizer :)
The wine list is not very extensive, but there are several good bottles on there. we had the Barbera d'Alba. was a very good wine.
As far as the service, it was very prompt and very friendly.
Most of the entrees and wine are very reasonably priced, you don't need to break the bank to have a good time here.
I think the food is really good, and i really like the atmosphere in this place. It may not be for everyone, but try it out and see.....
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So I finally checked this place out. Sadly enough I think its some of the first Malaysian style food I've eaten since my days in Amsterdam. While its certainly on the trendier end of the Malaysian food spectrum, I have to say I was very pleased the dishes I tried. For starters, we went with steamed pork buns and the Watermelon pickle and Crispy Pork Salad. The pork buns were tasty and very momofukish. Or perhaps Momofuku's are very fatty crabish, nonetheless I scarfed it down quickly. And the watermelon pork concoction was also really yummy. Here the pork was a perfect balance of crispy and fatty. And the salad was dressed with a slight kick to it. Next came the fatty duck, my only complaint here, was that it was a pretty small portion, but the chunks of duck were super tasty and was on top of toasted tamaki rice. After the duck, came the Malay fish fry. This was a tempura'd tilapia over curry rice with green chiles. This too was was tasty and the portion was much more generous. Finally, we ordered the Short Rib Rendang. This came with a coconut rice. This was probably my least favorite of all the dishes, but still the short rib was tender and the portion size was ample. It was good, but I really was into his crispy pork and the duck. Overall it was a nice experience and the service was friendly. Perhaps for malaysian the price was a bit steep, but you pay for the West Village/Meatpacking locale. Next up I wanna get down and dirty with some more authentic style malaysian grub.......................
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I completely second the review by Joshua H. - fatty crab is just alright. We'd read a ton of great reviews and were excited to eat here, but left disappointed. The sliders were delicious, the skate was okay and the curry bowl was interesting. However, the service was terrible. There were probably 6 guys lined up against the tiny wall next to the tables, but none of them were doing anything. I left feeling like I could have had a better meal in Chinatown for a fourth of the price. Don't believe the hype.
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Very mediocre. Yes, this place has its moments but for the most part, nothing is so inspiring that it makes me want to go back. For instance, the waitstaff here are just fabulously funny and "unpretentious," as one other Yelper also noted. But the waitstaff couldn't seem to keep the utensils from falling off plates. Some dishes were excellent and others seemed to be just more fat meat with spicy sauce.
Everything was spicy, as my table noted. Odd but somewhat true. Get some variation in flavor, please!
Real Malaysian food can be had elsewhere but here, it is nicely packaged and fed to you...
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