03.30.09
Review of Fat Hippo, Saturday February 2009
71 Clinton & Rivington Sts., 212-228-0994 – I think they’ve closed, though.
Great for: sharing among piglets, comfort food until 4am (Friday & Saturday, else 2am)
[I shattered my clavicle snowboarding two weeks ago. I just had surgery - Dominique v2.0, now part titanium! - and am recovering fairly well, but I have to work on my little brother's frustrating MacBook. The good news is, there's not much else I can focus on through the pain and Percocets so I'll probably get caught up with reviews this week. If I say something odd, blame the meds.]
After a long day of snowboarding with my friends M, V and A (and a late night of partying beforehand) I still wasn’t ready to call it quits. M and some of his friends decided upon dinner here and I was happy to stumble the few blocks over to join them. It’s a good thing Fat Hippo’s byob policy included bottles of vodka – our Stoli kept us reasonably happy as we waited for our table. And waited. And waited some more. The host told N, who lives across the street, that she could put her name down and come back in 30 to 40 minutes. When we all showed up 30 minutes later, we were told one of us should have stayed and it’d be another 20 minutes. Ultimately we waited about an hour and a half from the time we all got there. It was unenjoyable foreplay, but as it turned out, well worth it for the quality (and wonderfully low price) of the food.
It’s great if you have several people so you can try most of the menu. We were absolutely starving – it was 10pm and the five of us had polished off most of the vodka, not to mention M and I had been riding all day – and ordered whatever caught our eyes. We ended up with one app, five entrées and four sides, which was just about the perfect amount. Our lone app, bite-size mozzarella balls with herb-roasted tomatoes and baby arugula, was well-executed.
We enjoyed the Maryland crab cake with mac and cheese, corn and succotash with roasted garlic caper sauce. It was crisp outside and tender inside with just enough breading. The accompanying vegetables were lovely and crunchy. We had to load up on two of the burger fondue after reading its description, and that turned out to be a wise decision. The dish itself reminds me of deconstructionist art. You get six dollar coin-sized sliders per order; buns bracketing meat, lettuce and tomato, with bacon bits and diced pickles on the side. The centerpiece is a small, generous cauldron of cheese. We found the best system was to get some cheese on a bun, sprinkle things to taste and then put it all together. The sliders are surprisingly filling despite their tiny size. The slender french fries were terrific too, both crunchy and chewy. We were oddly delighted by the trailer park chicken sampler with sautéed collard greens, raisin sauce and corn bread. We really liked the beer can-roasted breast and Southern fried drumstick, and then the smoked thigh meat which we discovered after some knifework. All the meat was tender and I even liked the sauce. The pork chop was the best of all the dishes. Stuffed with pulled pork, it also came with bacon, sautéed brussels sprouts and maple jalapeño mustard sauce. We fought over it a little bit.
The two sides of mac and cheese were definitely not overkill. They had lovely crunchy spirals with just enough cheese and cream. The green bean casserole, while not exactly what I was expecting because of the giant mushrooms, was still pretty good. I liked the sauce. The green tomato gratin is nice if you like tomatoes. I didn’t detest it despite my lifelong hatred of non-smushed-up tomatoes.
Fat Hippo now has a liquor license, so no more drinking from – I mean, bringing your own bottle. It won’t be quite as cheap any more but the food at least is really worth it. They were a bit slow about getting things out when we went, though that’s excusable since they’d officially been open only two weeks. Our waitress wasn’t the friendliest I’ve ever met – in fact, she seemed to willfully mishear us quite often – but she eventually got the job done. I liked the stripped-down décor. There was some weird off-putting artwork but it was made up for by the tasteful and unobtrusive strip of mirror and the comfy chairs and banquettes. I’m excited to come back here soon and try the rest of the menu.
Rating: 8.5 / 10 – lost .5 for waiting but gained back for cheap goodness
Our cost: $115 for 5 people! (1 app, 5 entrees, 4 sides)
Noise level: loud
Chance of walking in: haha. Put your name down and check every 5 minutes and make sure one person is there holding your party’s place.
