Fatty Crab

[lambretta76]

Checked out Zak Pelaccio's new joint over on Hudson last night for an early dinner (or incredibly late lunch: they open at 6 pm).

Food is served family-style, as is par for the course in Manhattan eateries these days, but as it has been at many Asian joints for years.

Overall, I was very impressed with the wuality of the food, but feel that prices are a bit higher than necessary and the portions smaller.

Started with the Green Mango with Chili-Sugar-Salt ($3) eight sticks of mango with a dipping saucer full of hot, sweet, salt. NOthing out of the ordinary, but a nice starter.

Next up were the Fatty Tea Sandwiches ($7) - one each of braised lamb, pig belly, and sardine sandwiches. All were quite tasty, with the pork belly standing out among the three. All are served slightly chilled. The sardine sandwich started a pleasant mouth-burn that would continue throughout the meal.

The Watermelon Pickle and Crispy Pork Salad ($7) came out next - a smallish portion of pickled watermelon and nicely charred pork belly. Unpickled pieces of cucumber rounded out this dish, which was pleasant and quite enjoyable, but not as boldly flavored as the tea sandwiches had been. (Side note: I had a fantastic watermelon, potato, and pickled herring salad at Restaurant Sorrel in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, and I had hoped for this to be as good.)

Next were the Heritage Foods Slow Cooked Pork Ribs ($8) - two not-too-meaty ribs that did look quite fantastic, but I passed as I had just spent a week in Huntsville, AL, and had my fill of ribs. I opted for the Jalan Alor Chicken Wings ($6), two whole wings in an incredibly nuanced marinade that even my Lion Stout ($6) couldn't keep from burning all areas of my mouth.

The last dish ordered was the Nasi Lemak ($10) - an "airline-style" curried chicken breast over coconut rice served with a slow-poached egg. Again, I didn't sample it, but my friend wiped his plate clean.

Service was pleasant, but I think she overcharged on a beer (my friend had originally ordered a Rogue Ale that was $12, but they weren't cold, so he got a Tiger which was $6. I think we were still charged for the $12 beer, but that's out fault for not pointing it out.) The total came to $68 including tax, but not tip.

As they don't have cocktails, and, from what I understand, don't plan on getting a full license, I don't see this becoming the next Spice Market as far as trendiness goes. But the food is good, if small, and the room is nice (I didn't see the pornographic wallpeper in the bathrooms.), so I'm sure I'll be back.

Zak was in the kitchen last night and he's just a pleasure to watch cook. (He was smiling the entire time.) As it's a fairly open kitchen, it's also worth watching one of the other chefs with a massive tattoo running from his chest up the front of his neck. Mesmerizing.

Anyways, no hard reviews yet, but here's what Daily Candy had to say.

Anxiety melted at the first bite of Malaysian dishes like quail egg shooters, steamed pork buns, and tea sandwiches filled with lamb, pork, and sardines. Ditto slow-braised short ribs, crispy skate panggang, and Chinese broccoli with salted fish.

Fatty Crab

643 Hudson Street, between Horatio and Gansevoort Streets

(212-352-3590)

(No reservations, opens at 6 pm)

[Bond Girl]

Thanks for the report. I'm going Monday night, will tell you guys all about it.

[Pan]

[...]The last dish ordered was the Nasi Lemak ($10) - an "airline-style" curried chicken breast over coconut rice served with a slow-poached egg.[...]

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What do you mean by "airline style"?

[Carlovski]

And what on earth is a 'slow poached egg'?

[bpearis]

Thanks for the report. I'm going Monday night, will tell you guys all about it.

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As I found out last night... they're closed on Mondays.

[Laksa]

Thanks for the report Lambretta. So do they serve mainly Malaysian food? From the prices you posted, I gather they're more upscale than the Malaysian eateries in Chinatown? Would be interested to find out how they compare.

[Laksa]

the strong buzz on Fatty Crab

Scroll to the bottom of the page. Hmm...food sounds good!

[lambretta76]

Airline style is how I would refer to a boneless chicken breast that still has a wing bone (?) attached to it it. I've only ever seen them on airlines, but it came up in a google search as the name for this cut. (For more information - go to Tyson.com. They call it Airline Chicken Breast, too.)

As for slow poached egg, it was a runny poached egg, just on the verge of being cooked. When it was mixed with the rice, it pretty much cooked through in less than a minute - kind of like how you add a raw egg to bulgogi, except that this egg was almost entirely poached. That's just what the menu description was.

The menu is, for the most part, American (in Chef Pelaccio's take on American) adaptations of Malaysian dishes, although Sinagpore-stle chilil crabs are on the menu (and, at $28 for dungeoness, the most expensive item by far).

Edited October 4, 2005 by lambretta76 (log)

[Bond Girl]

Thanks for the report. I'm going Monday night, will tell you guys all about it.

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As I found out last night... they're closed on Mondays.

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Yeah, and they don't even bother to tell you that when you call them.

[Bond Girl]

Finally went there for dinner, after having stumbled on the press party. I love this place not because Zak is one of the nicest person I've met, but because he refuses to tone down the spiciness of the food and he wants you to eat the claypot chicken out of the pot. Last night, he gave a young woman the claypot with her take out (she promised to bring back the pot).

The Chili crab is a giant dungeoness crab that is bathed in a sweet spicy chili sauce. It was messy and difficult with lot of cracking and picking, but God was it good. The dish came with three thick slices of bread that you can use to mop up the chili sauce. The servers will provide plenty of napkins and handi-wipes. The watermelon salad has a fresh limey taste to it that provide the perfect starter. The wonton mee is a bit on the salty side but provided a good calming effect after the crab.

The shaved ice is a medley of peanuts, rose water, green jelly (don't ask) and shaved coconut. It makes me feel like a kid. The fried banana with ice cream is geared for the more mature minded among us but satisfying all the same.

Atomosphere is laid back and easy going with loud music playing. The bartender will offer you any advice on beer, wine or make you a mixed fruit juice to go with the food.

If you live near by, you can avoid the wait by ordering takeouts. There are plans for lunch service and delivery, and pretty soon, it'll even stay open until 4am on weekend.

[weinoo]

I love this place!! Our party of four tried probably 50 - 60% of the menu - chili-crab included....and downed it all with ease! Can't wait to go back...soon.

[greenwich st]

Funny, we live around the corner, so were excited about this place, but were really disappointed. We must be missing something. To be fair, we were put off to begin with by being crowded in at table barely big enough for two that definitely couldn't hold a meal for three. Plates had to be whisked away before they were finished so as to make room for the rest. Service, friendly but amateurish. Food...well after reading all these positive takes, as well as glowing reviews in the Times and New York, I wonder if the problem is that we're not attuned to Malaysian food. But there was nothing we ordered (short ribs rendang, the sous vide (?) chicken, a greens dish with fish sauce I barely remember, okay chewy noodles -- the only dish we actually enjoyed) that made us eager to return.

Edited October 30, 2005 by greenwich st (log)

[oakapple]

Fatty Crab (643 Hudson St, btwn Gansevoort and Horatio Sts) is chef Zak Pelaccio's casual Malaysian spinoff. His other restaurant, the more upscale and expensive 5 Ninth, is just steps away, in the center of the Meatpacking District.

Indeed, Fatty Crab is about as casual as it gets. The restaurant is tiny, and reservations aren't accepted. The bar serves beer and wine only. However, it has the foodie buzz, and if you get there much later than 6:30pm, you can expect to wait. A Fatty Crab meal isn't an epic-length event, and the tables seem to turn rapidly.

The restaurant follows the irritating contemporary trend of turning out plates as they're ready, regardless of whether you are ready for them. This can work well if you're intending to share (as my friend and I were), but I find it presumptuous when I am informed that this is what the kitchen means to do, like it or not. Isn't dining out meant to suit our convenience, rather than the restaurant's?

The menu comes as several printed sheets held together with a clip board. It offers the following categories: snacks ($4-8), salads ($7-13), noodles/soups ($10-12), vegetables ($7), rice bowls ($1-3), and specialities ($6-28). All of those specialties are $17 or less, except for the restaurant's signature dish, the chilli crab, which is $28. It was unavailable last night (worldwide shortage of dungeoness crab, we're told).

A salad of watermelon pickle and crispy pork ($7) was wonderful, offering a sharp contrast between the cool watermelon and the warm crunchy pork. I would have liked a bit more of the pork, but I shouldn't complain at that price. A sweet and sour fish broth with rice noodles ($10) was plenty of fun, but awfully difficult to eat.

The dish of the evening was Short Rib Rendang ($17), which is braised with kaffir lime, coconut, and chili: tender, succulent, and flavorful. A dish called Chicken Claypot ($10) offered tender cubes of meat that had all of the flavor cooked out of them.

I suspect that Fatty Crab's menu will reward further exploration. At its wallet-friendly price, the trip will probably be well worth it.

Edited January 9, 2006 by oakapple (log)

[Pan]

Thanks for that report, oakapple. Can you compare the taste of the food to what's served at other Malaysian places around town?

[oakapple]

Thanks for that report, oakapple. Can you compare the taste of the food to what's served at other Malaysian places around town?

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I can't, as it's not a cuisine I have much experience with. I did get a sense that some of his dishes (e.g., the shortribs) might be riffs on Malaysian cuisine, and not entirely authentic.

[juuceman]

after a few meals here, i've figured out that i'm not a huge fan of this place.. food is, to my palate, fine, while the overall experience is somewhat underwhelming.. i find the entire thing overly done in a hipsterish, trying too hard kind of way, highly publicist touted, and pretty overpriced.. i'd rather go to momofuku where the cooking is honest and no one is trying to amke more of it is than it is.. all that said, its better than i expected given its locale..

[gaf]

Rubenesque New York City Entry #55

Some restaurants demand that diners deny themselves. They are islands of restraint. For the past forty years chefs have retreated from a cuisine of excess. Classic haute cuisine was based on the assumption that if you asked about the calories, you can't afford them.

If Fatty Crab is any indication, fat is back, and with a vengence. Regulars will inexorably be transformed from stark Giacometti fantasies to Rubenesque dreams. Super-duper models. Given that the night we ate at Fatty Crab most of our fellow diners were svelte-twenty-somethings - culikids - it seemed that they considered calories the way previous generations thought about tobacco. There will be years enough to quit. If this is hip, it is a heavy shank, indeed.

A comparison of Fatty Crab and Momofuku across town seems inevitable (walk due east from the former and you reach the latter). Both restaurants target the same audience (if they're under thirty, can you trust ‘em?), neither accepts reservations, both sit snugly on a knife's edge of asphyxiation, both present dishes according to the kitchen's whim, avoiding the quaint notion of courses. Add to this that both offer Crafty renditions of Asian street food, outposts of youngish celebrity chefs (FC's chef Zak Pelaccio also runs the neighboring, elegant 5 Ninth), and that a smart $50 buys a night of inventive cuisine.

For two restaurants that are so similar, they could hardly be more different. If restaurants can be divided into those that are ideational (Charlie Trotter, Alain Ducasse) and those that are sensate (Frontera Grill, Babbo), Momofuku is the former and Fatty Crab the latter. The former force diners to think about the food, the latter push them to dive in and indulge. Even the ambiance distinguishes the two. The deep red walls and wild decorations (standing fans on the ceiling) - and music - at FC contrasts with the stark oak walls and tables at Momofuku - just as the restrained noodles contrast with the rich cuts at Fatty Crab. Fatty Crab is intense energy - in decor and in cuisine. Even the staff hail from different corners of Our Youth: the scrubbed earnestness of our East Village servers contrasted with charming scrubbly and dyed staff in the Meatpacking District. Nothing was more symptomatic at Fatty Crab than the absence of knifes (forks and chopsticks were available); these were dishes where Sumo diners wrestled with cuts of meat (a knife is available on request).

We began with Green Mango with Chili Sugar Salt, a dish that would have been most welcome as a palate cleanser in the midst of the dinner. Slices of sour mango were paired with a bowl of Asian Pixy Stick Powder. The sweet heat of the powder took the edge off the puckery sour mango. If it was not ideal as a starter, it would have provided a heartfelt break from the main courses.

Soon after arrived fat salad: Watermelon Pickle and Crispy Pork. The chunks of Crispy Pork might better be characterized as crispy belly held together by the merest floss of meat. Was it ever luxurious. The cool and sexy watermelon pickles kept the plate from pure decadence but it was as close as might be found outside Crobar. This was a dish for the Book of Days.

Short Rib Rendang, braised with kaffir lime, coconut and chili matched the salad in indulgence. The muscle was swaddled in a fluffly blanket of fat. The flavors of Malaysia cried out that the dish was exotic, but it really was the fat that captured and fixed these flavors, as fat always does. Although the dish had considerable heat, it was cooled by the solidity of the rib.

By the time that Fatty Crab's Fatty Duck was brought to the table, we were beginning to get the point. Served alone, this vastly hedonist dish would have been (almost) as satisfying as the rib (although the wild gaminess of the duck was lost as brined and fried). I could appreciate how this dish could have been a fine entree when served with the green mango as a side, but in a temple of fat there were other Gods to worship.

Black Grouper Masak Lemak with a sauce of chilies and potatoes, poached in coconut broth with bok choy and jalapeno was libertine as well. Even fish can have zaftig heft. I admired the mix of coconut broth and fish, glad that the fat did not smother the fish, even if by no magic could it pass weight watchers muster.

Our final dish, the least successful, was a Sous Vide Chicken Breast (the technique of preparing meat by boiling in a vacuum bag) with rice, sweet soy, and chili-ginger sauce. By this time in the evening we appreciated just how much flavor fat can capture, and a lean dish seemed out of place. The dish was inoffensive, and the accompaniments attempted to jazz this austere poultry, but it seemed like cosmetic surgery: the least Crabby moment of the evening.

To dine at Fatty Crab is to indulge in an intense, sweaty, and ardent cuisine. For those frolicking in middle age, Fatty Crab is like passion, not to be missed, but not every night if you please.

Fatty Crab

643 Hudson Street (at Gansevoort Street)

Manhattan (Meatpacking District)

212-352-3590

My Webpage: Vealcheeks

Edited January 12, 2006 by gaf (log)

[Sneakeater]

Reading that, I realize that the reason I like 5 Ninth so out of proportion to any objective notion of its quality is that Zak Pellacio REALLY understands the appeal of fat as a component of taste and texture. To a fault.

[Pan]

One nitpicky correction, gaf:

"Black Grouper with Masak Lemak" should be "Black Grouper Masak Lemak." "Masak lemak" means "cooked (with) fat." Which goes along with the point you made about the place.

[Adam P.]

Has anyone been to this restaurant yet? I've only seen a few editorial reviews heaping praise on this place, but nothing in this forum.

[oakapple]

Has anyone been to this restaurant yet? I've only seen a few editorial reviews heaping praise on this place, but nothing in this forum.

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Read the posts upthread from yours. There have been several reviews posted on this forum.

[Adam P.]

Oops. I forgot to put double quotes around my phrase while searching for this topic.

(My topic got moved to this thread)

This restaurant seems like my type of place. I've been searching for a Malaysian restaurant that would serve up some of those dishes that had me salivating after watching the Malaysian episode on "No Reservations". This seems to take the cake.

After reading the reviews upthread, I think I'm going to make a visit very soon...

[ned]

Adding a few more words of praise for Fatty Crab: That pickled watermelon, pork belly salad is out-of-f---ing-sight. Green mango with the dry chili dip is sharp and primes the pump. The dungeness crab reminded me as always why this native Seattleite prefers lobsters (less work, more reward) but was worth the effort--"Keep those napkins comin!!!". I might tune the bread service with that dish a little. By the time we were done with the crab the toast had cooled and because of its thickness was pretty tough. Luckily we were requirous of another serving to mop up all that delicious sauce. With fresh toast, quite perfect. The wings, delicious.

It's loud with what I found to be great music, small and very informal. The tone of the place felt just right. I was there at lunch yesterday and will be back to sample more widely for a late dinner tonight.

[ASM NY]

Was there recently, noticed some changes in the menu. They had a squid salad that was very good, which is no longer there. They also took off the "Chicken Sous-Vide" given the crackdown on sous vide in NYC. They did have another chicken that seemed to be slow cooked as well, but in our case, it came undercooked and we had to send it back. The crab is still outstanding.

[ckkgourmet]

When I had the namesake crab dish, I literally used 5 napkins to clean myself up, excusing myself from my table (as did others) to "wash up" in the bathroom.

The sauce with the crab is glorious. If I were a pig (to follow the fat theme) I would like to wallow in it.

I'd second the recommendations on the mango salad and the pork.

I will say, having made four visits, that the quality of preparation is inconcistent. Sometimes, I want to swoon, the place is so good. Other times, I've been a bit embarassed (having spoken so highly of Fatty Crab to friends who I'd brought along).