Fatty Crab Restaurant UWS

October 22, 2009

The Fatty Crab restaurant and the Upper West Side: it’s not an obvious fit. After all, Zak Pelaccio’s West Village Fatty Crab has been a scenester / foodie mainstay for a few years now, wowing the downtown crowd with its big, messy meals (don’t order the signature Chili Crab on a first date–it’s a smash and suck affair–but by all means, DO order it sometime); its bold, funky Malaysian-influenced flavors; and its party-time vibe, thanks to tight tables, a sexy staff, and loud music with a decidedly indie-rock bent. So when Pelaccio chose 76th and Broadway for a second Fatty Crab, we had to wonder: how would it all play in the heart of the family-friendly Upper West Side?

The answer: Fatty Crab and the Upper West Side seem to play very well together, indeed. We went to the large, dark, rockin’, Upper West Side Fatty Crab at 6:00 on a Saturday night, and the place was jumping. This Malaysian restaurant’s long bar in the back was lively, the booths and tables in the main room filled with all manner of Upper West Sider (including several tables with kids), the second, communal-table “special side room” loud with revelers of some sort. Clearly, the neighborhood is more than a little ready to have some fun.

Fatty Crab Review of the Food

And the Upper West Side’s Fatty Crab food? Just as lively, fresh, inspired and uncompromising as the original Malaysian Restaurant in NYC downtown. We had our go-to starter, the Watermelon Pickle and Crispy Pork salad, and, if anything, it was even better than we remembered, the wonderfully thick, fatty, crunchy and spicy pork belly beautifully paired with juicy, cooling, sweet and vinegary hunks of watermelon. A Fatty Crab classic, not to be missed. Then came the heavily-hyped Fatty Crab fried Heritage Chicken, a special that night (and most nights), and it was extraordinary. Chef Corwin Kave takes a gorgeous Plymouth Rock Chicken, brines the bird for 24 hours, then quarters and slow-cooks the pieces over a bed of herb roots (including Vietnamese mint, three kinds of basil and cilantro), then fries until crispy, THEN and finally, right before it arrives at your table, throws the chicken into a hot wok with a palm sugar glaze, ginger, garlic and Thai chili. The result is a gloriously sticky and spicy, deliriously delicious fried chicken masterpiece.

Fatty Crab Upper West Side details

The Fatty Crab on the Upper West Side is located on Broadway between 76th and 77th Streets, and is open for lunch on Monday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and dinner on Monday through Saturday from 5:00 p.m. until 12:00 midnight. On Saturdays the UWS Fatty Crab serves brunch from 11:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m.; Sundays is brunch all day and night, from 1:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. For complete menus and such–and there are so many good dishes we didn’t mention here–visit the Fatty Crab website here.