Fatty Crab (UWS) - Review

Intro
Fatty Crab - Not recommended
2170 Broadway, New York 10024
At 77th St
Phone: (212) 496-2722

Some friends came into town, so we decided it was a good excuse to checkout the Fatty Crab on the upper west side - made sense since one of our friends was Malaysian. We loved the original Fatty Crab in the west village, but for some reason this one just had a lotta little things wrong with it. Still a good time though. Overall I give the restaurant a 68/100.

Our Menu
1) Veggie Steamed Buns *
2) Nasi Lemak *
3) Steamed Branzino (special) **
4) Short Rib Rendang *
5) Chili Crab *
6) Kang Kong Belacan *
7) Watermelon Juice
8) Coconut Panna Cotta and Gelatinous Cake **

Rating System
--- What the F - in a bad way * Good ** Great *** What the F – in a good way

Dish Comments
1) Basically steamed buns with shitake mushrooms and cilantro and topped with hoison / srichacha sauce. Solid dish and quite fun.
2) Fun dish. Basically coconut rice, a very tender chicken curry, poached egg, and some pickled veg. Not great by any means, but it hit the spot.
3) The best dish of the night. Never had branzino prepared asian style before, but it really worked. Fish was fresh and very flavorful and went great with the dipping sauces - chili and a soy/ginger.
4) The short ribs was pretty inconsistent. Some parts were insanely tender and flavorful (slightly sweet with a little spice) and some parts were a little dry. Overall, it was a fun dish to eat though.
5) This was the reason I wanted to go. The chili crab at Fatty Crab downtown is usually quite good, but this one not so much. It was definitely not that fresh and on top of that the crab was room temperature. If you let the crab sit in the sauce, it warms up and gets better though. Still a good dish, but very disappointed compared to the one downtown.
6) Watercress sauteed with a fermented shrimp paste and some chilis. The strong taste of shrimp paste maybe hard for most people to enjoy, but I dug it. Went well with the still crunchy veg.
7) Watermelon juice mixed with loads of lime. An OK drink, but a tad too acidic for me on that day.
8) A very tasty coconut panna cotta topped with raisins and nuts. The gelatinous tea cake made for a perfect combo.

Overall Restaurant Experience (68/100)

• Food 7.5/10 – Nothing spectacular here, but the dishes were overall good and pretty fun. For some reason, my memories of the one downtown were much better though.
  
• Service 8/10 – Hostess and servers were extremely nice and they let us sit down before all our guests arrived. Server was very accommodating and the food came out very quick. Our server was pushing a lot of dishes though, but the ones he picked were pretty good.
  
• Atmosphere 6/10 – There's enough tables indoors and outdoors to maybe seat 50-60 people comfortably...way larger than the one downtown which you get squeezed next to other people like sardines. The only problem with the UWS location is the friggin music - so loud you really couldn't have a conversation at all unless you got in close and screamed. Massive minus points. The crowd was a strange mix of young groups or families with their kids...loads of kids at the place. Got there Friday at 8pm and had no wait for seating even though it was relatively full. Around 9pm there was a long wait though.
  
• Price 5.0/10 – You think it's relatively cheap as no dish is over $25, but all the dishes are relatively small and when you add it all together it's hella expensive. The friggin veggie buns ($9 for two buns which are about 4 bites) are a good example. Our total bill was $180 with no alcohol...WTF!!!
  

Closing Comments
I would maybe think about checking out the Fatty Crab downtown again (haven't been in about 3-4 years), but I would never visit this location for a full meal - maybe a quick snack only. I guess I could expect this place to be overpriced as these are the same guys that opened the way too expensive and pretty subpar Cabrito.