Restaurant: Little Fatty
Location: 3809 Grand View Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90066. (310) 574-7610
Date: April 16 & May, 2017
Cuisine: Modern Taiwanese
Rating: Really tasty
I love me some Chinese food and am certainly willing to try any promising westside Chinese.
It’s not far from the Mitsuwa market in Mar Vista and used to be “Status Kuo”. Both are the creations of Chef/Owner David Kuo.
Decor is cute and the kitchen right out there in front of the single row of tables. Over to the left, sort of next door, is “Accomplice” a bar owned by the same group.
The small menu.
Old Fashioned. You can order from Accomplice. Solid Old Fashioned.
Wontons. Shrimp, pork, chili vinaigrette. More or less a version of the classic “numb taste wontons”. Sweet and sour flavor, quite nice, if not as good as a really good version of the classic.
General Tso Cauliflower. Rice flour, jalepenos, sesame seeds. Almost makes me love vegetables. Really great dish, and so Tso it hardly mattered it was Cauliflower (which I actually like).
Duck Pizza. Hoisin sauce, parmesan, pickled chilies. Fabulous. A bit like the long lost CPK duck pizza.
Mapo Tofu. Pork, meiji tofu, chili bean paste. Not nearly as spicy or numbing as a “real” version of Mapo, but it was good in it’s own way. More meaty than most.
Beef and Broccoli. yu choy, Chinese BBQ sauce, red vinegar. I normally would never order B&B but this version was actually really good with a bit of heat and a fish sauce thing that made it a bit like a panang.
Taiwanese Sunday Gravy. 3 cuts of pork, shiitake mushrooms, house pasta. Unusual, slightly funky, hybrid east/west and pretty delicious.
Zha Jiang Mian. Pork, black bean paste, fresh noodles.
Decent, but not as great as a great dan dan mien.
Walnut Shrimp. Mayo sauce, watermelon radish, candied walnuts. A bit more fried and not as much “light” mayo as the classic. Certainly tasty, and good quality shrimp, but I like the traditional a hair better (when it’s good).
Pork chop. With takuan pickles. Great fried snitzel.
Braised pork belly. Chinese preserved vegetables, soy, rock sugar. Solid, if very fatty (as it should be).
Fried rice. Chinese sausage, egg, pickled carrots. Nice fried rice. I always love the sweet Chinese sausage.
Taro ice cream. Fried sesame balls, coconut, thai basil. I didn’t think I would like this, given that I detest taro, but it was actually pretty great. Sesame balls had a nice texture contrast with the ice cream.
Overall, Little Fatty was pretty great. I like the slightly modern updated Chinese sensibility and it maintains much of what I love about Chinese flavor. I’ve already been 3 times and will go again. Wish they didn’t use MSG though (I can feel a bit of CRS afterward).
