Fat Rice

*COVID-19 CLEAR OUT THEIR FOOD STOCKS REVIEW!*

Process- quick and easy, it was before Shelter in place officially began but they were smart and cleared out their food stocks. They gave us enough food to make 3 delicious meals!

Meal 1: Chicken and veggies-- followed their instructions and it was just freaking delicious. I am so impressed that they could make a meal that could taste this good at home with me literally just dumping someone thing a tray and saying go for it. Spraying the cooked lemon over the top brought it all together.

Meal 2- rice and beans with veggies. So for this one, I cooked up some chicken thighs in harissa spices w/ some burst tomatoes and poured it over the top and again... seriously it complimented the flavors already there so well (totally a gamble up it paid off)

Meal 3- Tofu soup. I don't eat tofu for health reasons but my roommate loved it. She was licking her bowl at the end. Okay, I have one bite and that broth...really?! really... you better come back Fat Rice. I want more of that broth.

Random advice: When they reopen go for brunch and eat all the egg custard tart things. ALL OF THEM.

Overall: Fat Rice delivers unique flavors that can sometimes be hard to find in Chicago

The good: The majority of the meal was outstanding - the favas guisadas was spicy and the bread was incredible, fluffy on the inside crispy on the outside. The dumplings were out of this world good and paired well with the sauce they were pooled in. We didn't know what to expect with the minchi mosca but were pleasantly surprised with the flavor of the pork. Service was friendly and the atmosphere is unique and warm.

The not-so-good: It's rather expensive...$120 for two people seems a bit excessive. We expected to be blown away by the presunto appetizer (ham and honey), but it was very disappointing given it costs almost $20. Also, the restaurant was pretty cold on a winter night.

Food/drink: 8/10
Atmosphere: 8/10
Service: 8/10

We came last minute on a Thursday night without a reservation. You need one here but the hostess was so polite and accommodating; she found a way to squeeze the 3 of us in. The theme of this restaurant is an homage to Macauan food. If you're not familiar, it is Chinese with a heavy Portugeuse influence. Overall I'm just going to tell you that the flavors of all the dishes at this restaurant are big and bold, and they are fearless with spice/heat. You must eat here if you can. Moving on to the specific dishes we tried:

Vegetable samosas. Very nice profile of vegetables inside. The wraps are tight, multi-layered and crispy. It's more of a spring roll wrap double over. The tamarind sauce that comes with it is very powerful -- use it sparingly or it will drown out the flavor of the samosas entirely.

Pork and ginger dumplings. These are essentially a must-try. They are boiled and played with several spices over the top, some cooked in an oil with a hint of Szechuan pepper (if I'm not mistaken). There are sauteed wood ear mushrooms adorning, which really complete the dish.

Roasted cauliflower. Many good turmeric/west Indian flavors in this dish. Drizzled with a sour cream dressing. Very good side to the mains.

"Fat Rice" - this dish was the main event. A must order if you are visiting. It is $56 but will easily feed 3 or 4 people depending what else you are ordering. It's essentially a deconstructed paella with many different types of grilled or sauteed proteins atop the rice. The rice has fresh "raisin" grapes cooked into it to add acidity, as well as slices of Chinese sausage mixed in for salty sweetness. On top there is Portugeuse sausage, grilled chicken thighs, steamed prawns, pork belly with a sweet glaze, and grilled tri-tip or similar brisket. All with different flavor profiles. Wow. But it all comes together very nicely. The golden, fluffy, perfectly cooked sofrito rice is still the star of this dish despite all of the protein above it.

Yes, they were listed in Time Out's 50 best restaurants in the world. Yes, they won the James Beard award (2018). With all that said, they are a humble little restaurant kicking major ass in a tight corner of Logan Square. The staff from top to bottom were all fantastic. Our server's name was Andrew and he was perfect in terms of pacing, menu suggestions, and the perfect level of intrusion and politeness.

We will be going back for sure. Maybe with a reservation next time to allow ourselves more time for drinking. They have many Madeira's on the menu. To get you smashed and having fun, I suppose.

We ordered the Fat Rice (Sofrito rice in a clay bowl with beef, sausage, char siu pork, chili prawns, an egg, olives, and cornichons), dumplings, and green beans. The green beans were my favorite. The rice and some of the proteins were very good and other proteins were average. We also had three drinks (Purple Bandit, Peanut Milk, and Mango Dreamsicle). I really liked the Purple Bandit. The Peanut Milk was like drinking thin peanut butter.

Service was friendly but leisurely. We were there for a weekday lunch and if I had to go back to work I would have been worried about the service.

Like many other reviewers, I thought this place was good, but not good enough to be worth the price point. If money is not an issue than I would recommend coming here, but otherwise you'd be better off spending your money elsewhere.

We decided to splurge for the $56 "Fat Rice" since that's what they're known for, and we're from out of town so we probably wouldn't be back any time soon. This bowl was huge and full of different meats, so it's very filling and definitely big enough to share between 2 people. The prawns are spicy, so if you can't handle spice very well, I'd recommend wiping off the sauce on top. Overall I thought the bowl was delicious, but again it wasn't worth $56. I think based on the size and ingredients, I'd pay maybe $30-35 max.

We also ordered the pork and ginger dumplings as an appetizer, which we later realized wasn't needed since the Fat Rice was so filling. The dumplings were good, but at $12, they were also overpriced.

Lastly for dessert we ordered the Portuguese Egg Tarts. These were super tasty, and even though $3.25 is also expensive for an egg tart, I'd still recommend getting these.

The restaurant can get very crowded and most of the seating is shared at larger tables. If you have a party if 2 you'll most likely be seated right next to someone else at the same table. This is just something to keep in mind; this place probably wouldn't be best for a first date or anything similar.

Lastly, they do charge 4% on your bill for employee wellness and health. While I do appreciate that they provide this to the employees, I don't think it should be taken out of the customers' wallets. Everything here is so overpriced that the employer can surely afford to cover those costs themselves.

Overall, I did enjoy my food and experience here. However, because of the ridiculous prices, I wouldn't ever come back if I were in the area again. For such high prices I would expect more of a finer dining type experience.

We visited the Ladies Room/Bakery of Fat Rice which was a few doors down from the restaurant. We were seated in the back room which was really cute and intimate. There's alot of vintage asian pinup girl type photos so that was different but not distasteful at all. So this is where the compliments of this place ends.

I don't get the hype of the place. The food was decent so nowhere near great. And it didn't help the service was terrible. Our server acted like he'd rather be anywhere else... and I wish he was.

We started off with the Cold Tea which is a bourbon drink for two. It was very good. As far as food, we ordered this cheese appetizer with pineapple jam as well as pork dumplings with mushrooms. The dumplings were pretty bland, but the cheese was good.

For our main course, we ordered the asparagus and their signature dish - the Fat Rice. It was good but not something I would go back for. Heck, I'm not going back all. I can think of a few other asian fusion places in the city that are alot better and worth the $.

I enjoyed my meal but felt a little overpriced. We decided to try multiple things instead of getting the fat rice dish. Cute atmosphere. Service was not great, our server rarely checked on us and we waited a long time and at one point another server came and had to check on us because she noticed nothing was progressing. She boxed our food and took our dessert order even.

We started with the sardines dish (Sardinhas furosos) which was fun to build your own and also tasty. This actually was our favorite dish of the night. I recommend getting this for sure as a fun start.

We then got the lacassa, the green papaya curry, and minchi mosca, and the bread (Papo seco). The lacassa was good, we enjoyed the noodles. It was good but china town has better similar styled noodles for cheaper. The green papaya curry was decent, I feel like I wanted more curry flavor though. The minchi mosca was good but I feel like instead of serving the hard noodles as one block, they could instead crumble it on the dish to make for easier eating and sharing.

We finished with the bacon from heaven cake (by we didn't add bacon) which was awesome. I recommend getting this for dessert. Was unique in my opinion.

Next time I'll try their name sake fat rice dish. But solid enough to go back even if just slightly overpriced. I like this place but just clean up the service and the small things about the food and it will be 5 stars!

As many others have said, the food is good but the prices are a bit ridiculous for what you get. Come only if you're ready to drop like $50 per person.

The BF and I got the octopus (polvo amoda de açores, $25), the arroz gordo ($56!!), and a single Portuguese egg tart to share ($3). Each dish was really good, not gonna lie.

Octopus -- The octopus was braised perfectly. It was so tender than I could cut the pieces just with my spoon.

Arroz gordo -- The arroz gordo is a big bowl of rice and meats. It's a big dish, definitely enough to feed 2, maybe 3. Standouts of the arroz gordo were the chili prawns (you only get 2 per bowl though), the curried chicken thighs, and the char siu pork. I wish they took out the beef, which was kind of tough and chewy, and replaced it with more chili prawns. The linguica sausage wasn't anything special in my opinion. The rice itself was also seasoned well but subtle enough not to overpower the meats. Overall though, I don't see how the arroz gordo could be worth $56. Maybe $35-40 max. It's not like the ingredients were super duper premium. I don't feel as if the dish exhibited any particular culinary talent either. For $56 I feel like I should be getting higher quality and a greater proportion of beef or seafood, not a rice bowl filled with chicken and pork sausage.

Portuguese egg tart -- This was one of the best egg tarts I've tried. The crust was croissant like (very crisp, flaky, buttery) and the custard was hot and fresh. But again, this thing was pretty small.

As others have mentioned, there's also a 4% "employee wellness" surcharge on top of tax and tip. I don't understand how they can't afford to pay their employees properly when their prices are already so damn high lol.

In conclusion, I'm glad I tried Fat Rice given all the hype. The food was delicious but very incongruent with the pricing. Come at your own financial risk. It'll be a while before I would want to visit again.

Met up with some friends for a birthday brunch for my hubby this weekend. The staff were super friendly and the the place had a very laid back and open atmosphere. Our party ordered pretty much one of everything on the brunch menu except for the Fat Rice. The dishes were simple yet extremely flavorful. I was eying the Fat Rice that the next table was having which we definitely will be back to try. My favorite dishes by far were Peri Peri chicken and Singapore omelette.

We stopped by the bakery to score some Portuguese egg tarts and assortments of sweet buns to take home and devour.

This is my new favorite brunch place in the city and definitely see myself frequenting here with friends

Was very intrigued after watching an episode of Chicago's Best which featured Fat Rice. We dined for dinner on a weekday so reservations were not hard to book. Upon arrival to the restaurant, we were greeted and checked in and was told we would be sitting in the Ladies Room which was located inside the Bakery around the back room. The Bakery at Fat Rice was located 5 doors down from the main restaurant. Very interesting decor and the ambiance was more intimate than the main dining room in Fat Rice. The music was not as lively in the Ladies Room. We also was shown a cocktail menu only served in the Ladies Room but we didn't try any of the drinks bc we were there to eat and go since it was a weeknight.

We decided to try their signature dish Arroz Gordo "Fat Rice". Our server recommended that the Fat Rice dish and another entree or an appetizer would be enough because the rice is very filling. We were a party of 3 and we took leftovers home. The rice took about 25 minutes which the server warned us ahead of time that that dish does take longer. The bowl was filled with char siu pork, 3 large prawns and eggs and a bunch of other goodies in a piping hot casserole bowl. It looked small but it's so filling. It really was enough for 2-3 people. The rice was infused with a lot flavor so it wasn't just plain white rice. But what makes the dish so tasty was the variety of toppings you get like the shrimp and the the bbq pork. Even the Portuguese sausage was tasty. There was also curry chicken and five spiced hard boiled egg. Everything in the Arroz Gordo was delicious.

We also ordered the pork and ginger dumplings and wow they are absolutely delicious. The garlic chili oil has just the right amount of spice and the flavors all came through in the dumpling. I also loved the texture of the dough which was a but thicker than a normal wonton wrapper. It complimented so well with the sauce and wood-ear mushrooms. Honestly I could order 2 orders of just the dumplings as an entree and I would be happy. We didn't get to try the egg custard tarts as they sold out by the time we got there for dinner.

Our bill was about $90 for the Fat Rice and an order of dumplings and the beet soda. Overall yes it's pricey like what others have wrote but I think the food was fantastic and I don't know of any other restaurants that serve such a dish like Arroz Gordo. I would definitely come dine again and hopefully try the egg custard tart! This place did not disappoint and I would be interested to try other dishes!