DTLA: Fat Spoon Opens in Little Tokyo

 

Michael Cardenas is a busy man these days. Besides his other two restaurants in Little Tokyo; Aburiya Toranoko and neighborhood favorite, the Lazy Ox, he along with partner Chef Hiroyuki Fujita opened Fat Spoon earlier this month.

I dropped in for lunch yesterday anxious to try the curry. I am a big fan of Japanese curry. Although I wanted to try the pork katsu, I decided to go with seafood.

 

I must be one of the bloggers Midtown Lunch refers to as the one who’ll cover the sides and salad of Fat Spoon. As it is, the seafood curry is already over $10, his budget for lunch. In DTLA, it’s pretty damn hard to find a reasonably tasty lunch for $10 or less. I try to find a balance to my exorbitant pricey lunches with my usual $1-$1.25 tacos.

I love to add spinach and mushrooms to curry. Each were $2 a side. Plus, I ordered the mini salad- also $2. Now happy with veggies, my meal jumped from to $18.50. Oh, and yes, I had an iced green tea. So…okay, let’s not think about how much I spent on lunch.

My friend had the carbonara. I didn’t taste it but he seemed to enjoy it.

I had the seafood curry, now colorfully decorated with veggies.  I did not however notice they had condiments until way too late. I love the pickled stuff! Gah, next time. I am intrigued by the garlic oil. I guess that would go more for the pasta though.

Oh, how was the curry? Loved it. I actually detected some of the pickled flavor I love so much in the curry itself. It was very aromatic. However, some of the clams weren’t rinsed well so I had a somewhat sandy curry. Note to self- order pork next time.

 

A manager sent out dessert for us. The pudding with the burnt caramel sauce underneath was nice and light, probably a thicker consistency than flan. The chocolate parfait was more like a sundae with chocolate sauce. I noticed Chef Hiroyuki checking the parfait before it went out and asked for new banana slices to be used. That’s service. I thought it was very cute, very Japanese with the Pocky sticks and cookies.

 

Fat Spoon

329 E 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012 – (213) 621-7890