Little Fatty

I’m surprised how much I love my experience at Little Fatty. It’s a Taiwanese restaurant but it made me feel so American inside. However the drinks and food are amazing! You MUST order the Chinese Pork BBQ, it’s the highlight of the night. Their cocktails are so delicious as well. Gratefully, street parking was easy for us. And you definitely should make a reservation ahead of time.

I ❤️ Taiwan 🇹🇼. Being Taiwanese, yet raised here in WestLA, I appreciated their Taiwanese-Chinese fusion dishes. Definitely not my mom's or grandma's Taiwanese dishes, but a modern and fun spin on traditional dishes. They recently opened a full bar and the place was packed Saturday night (90 min wait without reservations) at 7pm. The drinks were creative and fun. For me, I ❤️ the Taiwan Lager. My fav.

4 stars for the food: I visited Little Fatty the first time in Oct 2021, and every dish my friend and I had was nearly perfect (some were a bit salty). I was especially impressed with XO Fatty Noodles—rolled chow fun was crispy outside yet tender—and General Tso’s Cauliflower—sweet-sour coating was crispy and flavor was spot on. Before my friend and I visited Little Fatty again in 2023, my friend said she had visited the restaurant 7 times during this period and the food quality, especially the Fatty Noodles, has been inconsistent. So this time we didn’t get Fatty Noodles, but still had General Tso’s Cauliflower along with Walnut Shrimp and two noodle dishes. Cauliflower’s coating was indeed unevenly crispy. Walnut shrimp was crispy, sweet, and tender—my favorite dish of the night. Noodles in Taiwanese Sunday gravy was chewy and tender. Mocktails here have been one of my favorites—creative and flavorful. Despite the inconsistencies in food, Little Fatty is a magical Taiwanese restaurant. The food here is a combination of everyday street food and dishes that are less common yet with the Taiwanese flavor we are familiar with, all with different levels of fusion twist. With a bar inside the restaurant, Little Fatty has an amazing vibe—trendy, stylish, energetic—and is perfect for occasions where you want to have a lively chat and good laugh with family and friends at night. The diversity of customers in Little Fatty is unseen in other Taiwanese restaurant, perhaps except for Ding Tai Feng. It’s always an awe for me to see how seemingly local Taiwanese food is so welcomed by people from different cultures.

Where do I begin? 830 reservation- as we approached the host/mgr, has her head down so we had to greet her, not the best first impression for first time diners. Great space and lively guests. QR menus are annoying, but that's a personal thing. We were greeted with silently delivered water and notified that our server would be with us. Our server arrives about 2 minutes later and is very underwhelming. No warmth, welcome or recommendations. I think her greeting was, " did y'all have time to look over the menu." We received no guidance or help from our server. We ordered 4 items, definitely too much given the size of them. The server never checked on us during 1st course, and then checked before we even took the 1st bite of the second course. Support staff prebussed the table and offered a change of plates. I look over and the bartender is taking lemondrop shots with his patrons, no surprise given the lack of leadership and poor execution throughout our dining experience. The food was all amazing. The kitchen and support staff are clearly what keeps this place open. Quail is a steal at that price and super crisp. Scallion pancake on beef roll is a 2 for 1 special! Fatty noodles surprise you when you receive them and understand the name and zest on the orange chicken in to die for! Both myself and the table to my left are looking for our server to leave and she's engaged in side conversations with the host/mgr at the POS terminal. (No surprise) I finally get my check, place the cash on the table and box my food. The server never picked up the money before we left (server rule #1- get the payment), or thanks us.....oh but she wrote thank you on the check. I'll never return, but I'll order take out. Extremely poor execution from the top down. Hire a leader that sets the standard for the shift and desires to create a warm, welcoming dining experience, not just feed people. Everyone I spoke to raved about this place , but they're clearly resting on their laurels.