FatBoys Kitchen — Restaurant in Raleigh

TLDR: Tasty, affordable food, welcoming atmosphere, Black owned and operated. I would recommend and will be returning.

when I saw Fatboy's, I looked down at myself and said, "This may as well say Jermaine's Kitchen" because who am I kidding? I'm a big boy! the graphic on the wall made me very happy because I am all in for supporting locally owned Black owned businesses. The facility is modern, well furnished with comfortable, sturdy seating at two different heights. There is seating for 114 inside, and easily a dozen more outside. Lighting is adequate, even with the decor being largely grey on black.

There are eight large video displays, two of which are used to display the menu, the rest of which show a variety of items, including news, sports, and reality tv. Faux News wasn't showing. Overall, the atmosphere is welcoming, comfortable. The music was R&B from the '70s to the early '00s. The air is set, I'd imagine, perhaps 74℉ - 75℉; so it's comfortable, not cold. I sweat easily, and I'm not sweating, so that says something, especially considering the fact that it was easily 100℉ degrees here before the rain knocked it down to about 92℉.

But you probably aren't overly concerned about the atmosphere, you want to know how the food is. Well, first of all, it's reasonably priced. One can get a complete meal here right at about $10 if one arrives between 11am and 2pm, or between 4pm and 10pm. I had a fish, shrimp, and fry basket that was $12.99 before tax. The crinkle cut fries were crispy outside, light fluffy, and steaming inside. It's really easy to get fries wrong, so it was worth leading with them. The fried shrimp were small, but served in abundance.

They were well seasoned, properly cooked, and served fresh from the fryer, yet weren't oily. The whiting was fried "hard" as my father and uncle would say, but not overdone. It was light, flaky, and tender on the inside, with a pleasant crunch on the outside. I tend to prefer my fish a little less done by comparison, but I didn't request it, so this isn't at all a negative comment. More along the lines of, "Don't hesitate to tell them how you want it, they seem accommodating, but if you don't tell 'em, they won't know."

All in all, I enjoyed my experience. I've been seated here enjoying unlimited refills of their southern style iced tea, which was included in the meal. They have unsweetened tea in a pitcher, and a pitcher of ice water as well. I take my tea mixed, 'cause Southern style is a bit too much like drinking syrup for me. That having been said, there's wasn't stereotypically sweet, you won't catch the diabeetus just lookin' at it. It's also worth mentioning that their tea is properly brewed, not scorched, and has not been sitting out overly long. It's really easy to get it wrong, so know that they got it right.

All in all, gave them five stars for the level of dining one expects at this price point, which is a key point for me. My experience was superior to that which the price led...

Food was horrible food took over two hours to receive food they Were short staff , only one table in the house .The waitress was also host, buster, bartender,barback,runner and take out. Let’s get into this food.The crabs were cooked earlier in the day.we arrived around 5:45pm. The shell was extremely soft. The meat inside the shell was extremely dry. My shrimp were boiled in water With no flavoring. I wanted to post this food on my social media being I have a huge following an heard good things. But naw I’m good.Maybe I was too ambitious and bought numerous of things on the menu in hopes that I would be happy and satisfied.. to no avail.I can list the dishes I purchased here lemon Pepper corn on the cob, 2 macaroni and cheese, candy yams, lemon pepper, wings, half mild half lemon pepper with The crab boil half 1/2 lb shrimp 1/2 lb crab two extra eggs, strawberry, lemonade, mango peachade A slice of carrot cake, a slice of cheesecake and a cup of water.. water took over 30 mins to arrive Cheesecake was mediocre at best. It seems the graham cracker crust wasn’t baked off first.. The Baked mac & cheese was overcooked extremely greasy tasteless .The noodles were like mush ,instead of al dente. The candy yams were candied, but we’re not cook completely or fork tender and when I say not completely, I’m saying we’re getting a little crunch in the candy yams. Should be 86 (taken off menu). The lemon pepper corn on the cob was chicken grease and a sprinkle of lemon pepper. The carrot cake was burned at the bottom. The lemonade is giving concentrate. We love a good Kool-Aid, but let’s not act like it’s lemonade . I sent no food back. I have been in the food industry over 15 years im waitress and prep cook myself and I get we have mishaps or bad days but allllll the food is a TRASH is crazy. To be honest with you,I’m pretty sure I won’t be back. I drove 30 minutes and waited two hours. And paid $86 for mediocre food. Overall, The ambience nice ,music is nice ,it’s clean .The Drinks look good. Didn’t want to risk getting the drink and not be satisfied .unfortunately.if they put a little more People on the floor, a little more friendlier faster service and show a little love in their food instead of throwing things together . This concept will work.Also I don’t like seeing the staff Walking around eating and I’m sitting here still waiting for my...

PLEASE READ & go at your own risk!

this restaurant is the true reason why I don’t ever support black own business the way I was treated.

I stopped by on a Sunday afternoon with family. Light skin boy Joshua took my order super unprofessional, I was on a rush ordering since there was a family behind me. I was ordering a Philly cheesesteak with no mushrooms and Joshua mention everything on it? And I said yes no mushrooms okay we pay about $70 for everything I checked the tap to make sure the sodas were up there correctly because the boy was asking several questions about it.

As we sit I saw that my Philly cheese sandwich had lettuce, tomatoes and peppers, which I never ask!

I go up to the counter, and I asked a lady that i didn’t think if a Philly cheese came with tomatoes and lettuce and she confirmed that it didn’t. So I asked if they could please remove them because I didn’t want it.

She told some ghetto lady in the back kitchen to take them off and the lady in the kitchen was arguing back that she had made the sandwich, and at the point the lady on the counter told her to just take it off.

So the lady in the kitchen comes out of the kitchen and is investigating! She comes to to me, and says. “ I can’t take off the items it’s already made” so I told her that I didn’t want it to REMOVE IT. And she couldn’t give me the money if she was to remove the items because she’s wasting food. So I told her so you want me to waste my money so you won’t lose $1.50? And she was stuttering said that claiming to Joshua we checked everything before we paid and everything looked fine. So she couldn’t give me a refund. I looked at this lady idk who she was, but I told that there was no paper stating that anywhere the restaurant nowhere on the tickets or on the counters. She gave me brown...