At the end of every year, I enjoy reading all the blogs list their favorite or top restaurant picks of the year. So when Eater's National Where to Eat in 2015 list came out I scoured the list to see how many I had been to. Sadly, that number was only 7 but since it is a National list, I guess that's not too bad. Luckily, after being to Fat Rice, I can now bump that number up to 8 and I can say that it's a well deserved mention on the list.
Fat Rice is located in the hot area of Logan Square and when we got there on a cold Saturday night they told us it would be over an hour wait. But they have a bar next door called "Happy Valley" where you could order drinks and wait. The "bar" is really just a waiting room and they just walk through the kitchen back to the restaurant to make a lot of their drinks. Luckily after only 20 minutes they called our names. We got a nice seat at the counter looking directly into the open kitchen. The menu is Macanese (from Maco) which is a blend of Chinese and Portuguese flavors. I had really wanted to try the arroz gordo which was a rice dish layered with every kind of yummy goodness you can think of: sausage, duck, chicken, prawns, clams, and pork. Unfortunately it was just me and Deanna so it wasn't something I was willing to tackle on my own, so instead I got the porco balichang tamarind o ($16), Deanna got the fat noodles ($14) and we split the small bites of sweet and sour eggplant, peanuts and beets (3 for $10). The 3 small bites are actually a lot of food and they were all fantastic. The beets were served cold and had this sweet coconut like flavor to it that made it irresistible to eat. The sweet and sour eggplant was delicious and was cooked to perfection where it was not too mushy and not too firm. The peanuts were kind of wet (I know that sounds gross but I promise still tasted great) and was flavored with lotus root, burdock and star anise. With the exception of the peanuts, I could see these all being expanded into their own appetizer or even entree sized dish and still tasting great.
On to the main entrees. The balichang is braised sweet and sour pork belly served with tamarind, pineapple and blocked of pressed crispy rice. Dear lord was this dish heavenly. The flavors really hit you in the face and the pork belly was cooked to perfection. There were definite bites of melt in your mouth fatty goodness but it was complimented with nice chunks of sweet meat. I wasn't sure of the pineapple pieces at first but it added a nice element of sweetness to it. I was also incredibly happy with the pressed rice blocks - I was going to order a side of coconut rice but the pressed rice added a unique and well appreciated crunchy texture to the dish. And now that I think about it, the coconut rice might have made the dish too sweet overall. There was definite heat to the dish as well so be prepared to sweat just a little bit. I had a bite of Deanna's fat noodle and it was wonderful as well - I love a good broad noodle dish and this one had the noodles hand rolled so that they weren't necessarily flat but the consistency was the same. It was served with mushroom and egg and it was a very solid noodle non-meat dish.
All in all, I loved everything about this place, even their caipirinhas! Don't be scared off by the wait because it's definitely worth it and well deserving to be on Eater's list. Total bill: $59/pp with tax, tip and drinks
Photo Credit: Yelp
1 comment:
Also the delicious dessert!
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