Fatty Crab

This restaurant is closed. Don’t bother.

We think this is the best restaurant on the island. Been visiting SJ for over 20 years and eaten everywhere, many times. The food is creatively prepared, fresh and absolutely flavorful and delicious. I can’t stop thinking about that Chupacabra cocktail with a bit of heat to it, such a great way to start a meal. We shared several small plates of food. We loved the fish fry sliders, the chicken curry dish with smoked pineapple and coconut rice, the brussel spouts with bacon, and the yummy green papaya salad with crushed peanut topping. These are just a few examples of the imaginative and original dishes that this chef creates.
The staff are knowledgeable, attentive and engaging, from start to finish. The vibe is upbeat and relaxed.
Don’t miss this place, you won’t forget your meal and will want to return. The Fatty Crab is kind of addictive!

2^nd time here, wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt but still was a disappointment. The service was just ok, the food is mediocre and the view is nothing to write home about. There are just so many other great places on the island don’t waist one of you meals at this one.

Great place. Asian food… def give this place a go! Easy to find if you just keep walking past Woody’s. If you are staying on St. John you most certainly know where Woody’s is.

One of the best places on the island. Fun with a touch of NYC. If you’re with kids then go early to avoid the crowd and slight rowdiness of Cruz bay; the food is still superb and the servers have more time with you.
At first glance the menu looks familiar and maybe predictable but everything has an interesting mix of ingredients or preparation in order to make it special. Even the dark & stormy is unique and delicious. Other reviewers may praise the standard menu items and I must say that I dream about the pork belly & watermelon when I’m back home in the middle of winter but the specials deserve your attention so listen up! Parking available next door for the laughably low rate of $ ⁶⁄₂ hours.

Really really overrated and disappointing. We had the papaya salad, which was decent; the crispy pork and watermelon, which I found completely inedible and disgusting; and some sort of fish/​noodle dish, which was also just ok. I basically just ate the noodles for my dinner. Can’t imagine why this place is so highly rated when there are so many restaurants in Cruz Bay that are 100 times better.

After several days in town, checking out the local scene and asking around, I would say that my experience at Fatty Crab was by far the most underrated by recommendations and the best culinary experience on the island. As far as the menu goes, they seem to mix it up (probably by the availability of good proteins and such on top of the chefs desire to create), my only suggestion is to seriously consider the specials. Anyone who loves a good Brussel will be blown away by the Brussels ‘N Bacon! If you don’t normally enjoy the Brussel sprout, the fact that it says bacon should be enough for you to check this out.

This really would’ve been a five star review if not for an issue at time of seating. I won’t go into detail but at the end they addressed the problem.
We had a group of 6 for NYE dinner and tried just about every dish here. They were all fabulous. The flavors were really unique and unbelievable tasty. I’m still thinking about the fried rice which was by far the best I have ever had (and definitely the most flavorful).
We really enjoyed the ambiance, food, flavors, drinks and service. Outstanding meal!

Special lobster tempura roll was awesome! The crispy pork with watermelon had amazing flavor. Very interesting. The duck confit egg rolls were ok. A little bready for my taste. The Malay michelada was just ok too. Not spicy enough. Enjoyed the tempura banana for dessert.

Echoing what’s said below, the pickled watermelon rind + watermelon + crispy pork belly is divine. We also got the mango chicken entrée and kimchi appetizer, both were good but not wet-​dream-​worthy like the pork belly. And we’re not normally PBR drinkers, but the Recession Special was delicious AND paired perfectly with our meal. Good experience overall.

Ramen and more awesomeness. This place was stupid great for getting off the ferry, first night in town and getting ready to hit our villa… casual, lazy and the staff was pretty damn chill.
Loved it, can’t say I’ll forget dinner here.

Every single thing about this place is perfection… a big miss if you don’t come here while in St. John
They deserved their mixology honors, Brandon was making drinks that hold their own in any venue this side of the equator…
Food was ridiculous, fatty sliders were perfectly cooked and tasty. I normally HATE tartar sauce but theirs was something to write home about, complimented by the Brussels and bacon side dish was an appetizer session I won’t soon forget. To finish it off, got the fried pork belly over pickled watermelon… my words cannot do that dish justice, absolutely incredible… thank you, thank you, thank you Brandon for being a great bartender and an entertaining epicurean islander… see you in Austin buddy…

The first time we went to Fatty Crab we LOVED it, it had recently opened and it was a delicious treat compared to our normal island fare… it is now clear though after visiting a second time that we may have been 1) very hungry or 2) very intoxicated because nothing we were served met the memories we had in our mind.
First off everything is fried… no really, everything, well except the salads.
I started with a Love City cocktail made with grey goose vodka instead of the rail liquor, yum, I should have exited stage left after this.
We ordered for the table:
Josephine’s Green’s: A little rough, but interesting, overall B+
Chicken Satay: Not edible, at all, just yuck
Salt N Pepper Squid: Big, tough, rough, no flavor
Crispy Shrimp: No Flavor, but edible, quality of the shrimp was good as was the special tartar sauce, this and the salad were the best things we ordered.
Fried Chicken: Greasy, nasty chicken thighs, so disappointing.
all at a total of close to $ 200.00 for food we barely touch, I will not make this mistake again, goodbye Fatty Crab.

Super casual, good meal in St. John. Not sure if it was just because I essentially came straight from the airport and was famished, but the food was great, and everyone in my party seemed to enjoy it. Some highlights: pad thai (really good!), vegetable tempura, curried chicken, crispy potatoes.
Definitely a great place to go for a beer and some good food after a long day on the beach (when you don’t feel like getting all dressed up and fancy after).

We’ve eaten at the fatty crab four times. Twice it’s been super. Twice it has not been. Tonight we were served things that had eyes on them. I had to pick them out of the bowl and put them away on another plate.
Tonight’s meal is the kind where you push your rice around and try to find a hole to hide the rest of your dinner so you can just move on to dessert.
We had the green papaya and mango salad which was delicious as usual. Then we tried the pad Thai starring marine creatures with large eyeballs in it. I ordered the green curry chicken and what I got was not what I was expecting. It was a bowl of fried rice, A quivering poached egg, and a fatty chicken leg quarter with the skin still on. This was all then mixed together. If this sounds disgusting, you would be right.
We finished with the coconut Panacotta– yum.
A note on our wait service and the ambience: Our waiter was surly and unattentive and I had to remind him that we had ordered drinks. They were playing jam band panic music REALLY loud even though they were toddlers and elderly dining. It was so loud we couldn’t talk-​not the best ambience tonight

We loved the cocktails, salt and pepper squid, Brussels and bacon, yellow curry chicken, and the coconut pannacotta for dessert. The pork ribs were two large fatty ribs with «fish palm?», I’m not sure what that is. We do not recommend the pork ribs.
The Fatty Crab is one of best restaurants on the island. Don’t pay attention to the prices because if you want to save a buck you’ll end up with mediocre bar food. Spend money on food here.

My husband and I have been wanting to go to the fatty crab in manhattan for years now, so when Saturday came around and we had enough of the local joints we ended up here — and were not disappointed. We typically share meals and this place is perfect for that; they actually encourage it. The papaya salad was perfectly refreshing and spicy with peanuts, chilies, cilantro, and green beans. The smashed potatoes with a Carribean spice mixture was a bit intense but the aoli balances it out perfectly. Pad Thai was the only special we ordered and I just hope for your sake it is on special when you go because it was awesome. Although only three shrimp were buried inside, they were colossal and very tender.
If you want to get away from he tourist joints in town head a little up prince street to fatty crab! Hopefully you will enjoy your meal as much as we did!

We were surprised this place was empty on a Friday night given the delicious food and awesome service.
Fun menu items like the Recession Special — a Schaeffer and whiskey pickleback — shot keep this place interesting. Our pad thai was great but buyer beware: it’s spicey. Best dish by far was the brisket.
Chili infusion does not belong everywhere however — skip the whipped cream please, chef.

Had a so-​so meal here. A mix of good and decidedly awful foods.
The good: pulled pork. Really great flavor, some spice. This was by far the best thing we had. We also had a duck entrée that was flavorful, albeit a bit dry.
The bad: it’s not on their site, so I don’t recall the name. But it was some sort of fried crab appetizer. They didn’t taste bad, but seemed old. Like they’d been recooked a few times until they were really dry. The yellow curry chicken was just plain awful, and smelled significantly worse than it tasted. Yeesh.
Service was a plus. Our waitress was fantastic, and it’s not her fault the food was mediocre. For what we paid, it was disappointing.
Rhumb Lines does a similar offering of south Asian/​Pacific Islander cuisine, but they do it much more effectively.

PEANUT ALLERGY ALERT!
They fry their peanuts in the same fryer oil…
Hence I couldn’t try anything fried and I had to forego on the favored pickled watermelon and crispy pork.
We had the local sauteed veggies to start followed by the whole snapper. Our fish came out surprisingly… whole? I’m talking about them taking a fish, gutting it then prepping it straight up– head and bones intact. For the less adventurous foodie, I could imagine this becoming an overwhelming sight. Luckily the boy and I were both accustomed to whole fish as per what we used to eat growing up. The fish wasn’t nearly the fresh factor of tank-​to-​table I’d expect from it being served whole, it was a little dry. But it was flavorful, including the spicy sauce generously rubbed on our snapper. The recommended side of coconut rice was a good complement to our meal. This place was fun and worth a go. For those without peanut allergies, you might have better time with the menu.