Fatty Crab

[Fat Guy]

Part of the job in any service profession -- whether you're a waiter or a lawyer -- is putting up with a certain amount of rudeness from clients. That's why being nice to servers (and lawyers) can give you an advantage as a customer: because so many other people are rude. If every server reacted this way to rudeness, the streets of Manhattan would be littered with corpses. At good restaurants -- and even at Applebee's -- servers are trained to de-escalate conflict regardless of blame. This guy at Fatty Crab instead chose to escalate conflict, which is just stupid.

[weinoo]

That's why being nice to servers (and lawyers) can give you an advantage as a customer: because so many other people are rude.

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Totally agree with this, and it's the way we are (well, sometimes lawyers don't get our best) at all restaurants. Between this and lying, we usually get some damn good service .

[Nathan]

I don't recall seeing a printed page of specials here before...but there is now anyway.

and, fwiw, they seem to be suggesting to EVERYONE to use their fingers on the duck....and I'm a semi-regular.

[Rodalpho]

I went to fatty crab with a friend last night. After a forty-five minute wait at the incredibly crowded bar, getting pushed aside like bumper cars, we got a seat outside and ordered:

Green mango with chili/sugar/salt dipping powder. The powder was overwhelmingly sweet, with very little chili or salt. The mango itself was fine, although we only got four little slices, which was miserly for $5. It was tasty and refreshing, but I would not order this again.

Shrimp sambal salad. This consisted of a few pieces of boston lettuce, some sprouts, sliced scallions, sauteed leeks, and four decent sized shrimp. The waiter advised us to make little wraps, burrito-style. The shrimp were well-cooked but had very little flavor; with sambal in the name I was expecting something a bit picante. Overall the dish was bland, uninspired, and not a good value at $13.

Wonton Mee (large). This was the standout dish of the meal. Fatty crab has a fantastic stock, and this benefited from it. It was a simple dish of wontons stuffed with shrimp and pork in the broth with some fried noodles and various herbs, but it had intense flavor. Recommended, $15.

Singaporean Black Pepper Mussels. I believe this used the same stock base as the wonton mee, with a great deal of added black pepper. The mussels themselves were rather small and chewy, but again the stock made up for it. This came with four nice pieces of toast to soak up the juices. Quite good, $12.

Short Ribs Rendang. The short ribs were long braised in a slightly sweet sauce, then covered in dried coconut shreds. This also came with a scoop of coconut rice. The shortribs were cooked perfectly but I was expecting something more flavorful as it was described as "cooked with keffir lime, coconut, chilis". The coconut rice on the side was quite good. This dish was a disappointment. $22.

I wasn't impressed with Fatty Crab. Not only is it not a destination restaurant but frankly I wouldn't go back.

[djzouke]

We went to the Hudson St. location on Friday night at 6:30. We met another couple there for what we thought would be enjoyable dinner. From the time I set foot in the place I knew it was a mistake. We should have walked. The decibel level of the music was in the red zone. Plus the music was shitty. From the get go we were literally shoved into a table and the rush to get us out was on. The music was so loud that I couldn't listen to my own intuition. The waitress immediately pressured us to start ordering. When we told her that we hadn't even had time to look at the menu she retreated and returned less than five minutes later. Very annoying and obvious. When we did finally start ordering she told us it was family style. Family style to her translated into a very hurried, meagre, poorly prepared set of dishes. This is the not the same restaurant that does business on the UWS. Two separate beasts. The slidders here were dry and tasteless with gristle to boot. The fish fry was meagre and uninspired. The duck breast was mostly fat and bone. How Frank Bruni picked this as his favorite inexpensive restaurant beats me. Then again much of what the former NY Times critic said was questionable. The bill came to $155 before tip. The order included slidders, the fish fry, a duck breast and I believe some steamed pork buns plus four glasses of wine. Mr. Pelaccio best look into what is happening here. It's not good. It's shamefully poor. It's very unprofessional. This is a warning: STAY AWAY! unless all you want to do is drink and get lambasted with loud music. Very very disappointing and at such a high cost.