NoodleBird — Restaurant in West Chicago Township

Takeaway: All-around great Chinese / Portuguese fusion with stand-out charcoal grilled proteins and an absolutely incredible egg tart (probably best in the city).

I also want to flag the negative notoriety that owner Abe Conlon had garnered due to his workplaces practices and insensitive handling of DEI issues (most notably the cultural appropriation baked into the walls of this place). I'm focusing mostly on my personal experience in this review, but want to echo and acknowledge the many employees that have had poor (at-best) experiences under his management.

Context: Dined in for dinner with two friends and did the meal for four. I haven't had a ton of Macau food before specifically (other than egg tarts), but have had plenty of Chinese food and a good amount of Portuguese.

What I Got:

Spicy Cucumbers (7.5/10) Cucumber salad (featuring wood ear mushrooms) tossed in a spicy sauce. I thought the sauce here was top-notch (and saved it the whole meal to mix with my rice later on), but the cucumbers themselves were perhaps a little bit disappointing. They were a bit too bitter for my taste and distracted from the overall great flavors (mushrooms were awesome though!)

Ginger Cabbage Salad (6.5/10) Name kind of describes it all. This probably tastes exactly how you imagine it. Certainly not bad and a decent complement to the richer flavors that come later on, but nothing special by itself.

Pork Dumplings (8/10) Thinly-wrapped ground pork dumplings served in a garlic & chili sauce - very reminiscent of a Sichuan-style chao shou with both the filling and the sauce. They did a great job at getting the perfect balance of savory and spicy with the sauce and you can really taste the quality of the pork they use. I could eat dozens of these.

Smoked Tofu Fried Rice (7/10) Coconut rice stir-fried with tofu, curry sauce, and an array of different vegetables. While not something that could carry a meal on its own (which is how I feel about the vast majority of fried rice), I thought this was a great complement to the rest of the meal, particularly with the char siu (who doesn't love meat and rice). Put some of their chili oil on it if you can!

Char Siu BBQ Berkshire Pork (8.5/10) Char siu over coconut rice with (uncooked?) scallions on the side. First of all, it's sort of weird that the scallions weren't better incorporated into the dish, but I'll just let it slide as decorative garnish I guess. The pork itself is great - tender in a way that is pretty different from most char siu I've had in the past. I don't know if I necessarily prefer it like this over the traditional way, but certainly appreciated the switch-up. Ultimately a pretty impressive char siu that doesn't stray too much from the classically sweet grilled pork that I've loved my whole life, while still being its own dish.

Half Charcoal Chicken (8/10) Perfectly charcoal grilled chicken in a lemon / garlic / chili sauce over a bed of coconut rice - what more could you want? This was a wonderfully cooked half-chicken - the breast was a bit dry, but that's how grilled chicken breast almost always turns out. This reminded me heavily of a refined peri-peri chicken - perhaps there is a Macau-equivalent here, but that's all I was thinking about while eating this. Not that that's a bad thing - I adore peri-peri chicken. There's an undercurrent of spice here that is balanced by the various sources of rice that were provided.

Egg Tart (9/10) Portuguese-style egg tarts, on-par with the best I've had in my life and certainly the top ones in Chicago. Perfectly flaky crust with a custard that's just the right balance of gooey and runny with a precise sweetness that will keep you craving...

Fat Rice was my first disappointing meal in Chicago. Interestingly, the restaurant receives the most acclaim of all the places we have dined. Reputedly, the kitchen puts out the cuisine of Macao, a Chinese gambling mecca a hour boat ride from Hong Kong, that was a Portuguese colony for several centuries. My food was decidedly more Portuguese than far Eastern.

We love the culinary tradition of Portugal, and have eaten at Portuguese restaurants in the States and Portugal. The star of Portuguese cooking in the United States is George Mendes at Aldea, supposedly a bud of the chef at Fat Rice. Yet, Fat Rice and Aldea are as different as Dim Sum and Foie Gras. Aldea is an amazing culinary experience. Fat Rice is more "hip" than culinary.

On entrance I was disappointed immediately. I HATE COMMUNAL DINING! Should I say that again. I HATE COMMUNAL DINING! Am I back in school where I was forced to find a group to sit with and eventually carve out our territory? If I'm spending lots of money on dining at a restaurant,why should I be forced to sit intimately with strangers I know nothing about? A table isn't a bar stool, which allows protective sight lines and a way to create space. Communal dining forces an intimacy with strangers that most often leads to discomfort and an uncomfortable feeling. Last night, sitting close to my left, was a blond, plebeian couple who looked at me with complete, haughty disgust every time I made my usual irreverent comments. Neither of us should be forced to endure each other when expecting a pleasant, night out. I HATE COMMUNAL DINING!

Service at Fat Rice was perfunctory. There was no warmth, and dishes were explained and described robotically, with recitation, like the voice on a GPS. Communal sitting lends itself to depersonalization, as several servers attended us. We were unable to develop a relationship with our server, an integral part of good dining. This technology era depersonalizes us enough. I don't want a restaurant to do the same thing.

I enjoyed the sardines, the Baccala Marcacito, and the home made bread. The several other dishes we tried were forgettable, as evidenced by the large amount of food left on the table no one wanted to take home. With all the great restaurants in Chicago, I feel bad I wasted a night on Fat Rice.

Sadly, it's the modest, caring restaurants who try to improve by reading these reviews. The establishments that need to heed criticism the most, never bother with ratings and reviews. They're too taken with themselves. The proprietor of Fat Rice will never read this, but hopefully other diners will and perhaps the loss of customers will...

CONCEPT: Love the combination of influences from Macau and Portugal (each dish says what region inspired the dish, or if it is a Fat Rice original). The diversity of flavors at this place is amazing...as my friend said you may think you know what you are getting when you order it but you will be surprised.

WAIT TIME: Came here last night with 2 friends and it was BUSY for a Tuesday night...even though we had a reservation, we still had to wait a few minutes, but nothing unreasonable.

AMBIANCE/SEATING: Not too big of a restaurant but most seating is at long wooden tables so you will be elbow to elbow with strangers. That said, it adds to the lively atmosphere...you get to check out what they are ordering (and maybe even let them influence your own ordering experience).

SERVICE: Both the hostess and the servers were friendly and professional. Our waitress was attentive but not overbearing, a perfect combination. Each time a dish was brought out (often by a different server), they describe the dish which just gets you excited to eat it!

FOOD: As I talked about in the CONCEPT section, the flavors here are so diverse and not stuff you will find anywhere else. The food is meant to share so we ordered a bunch of dishes. The menu did have "November 2018" at the top so it likely changes and you may not be able to find the below dishes in the future.

Fava Escabeche: Pickled fava beans which were a great pallate cleanser for the rest of the meal

Bacalhau de vovo: Salted cod spread over Portuguese bread...delicious! Reminded me of hummus.

Pork + Ginger Dumplings: Similar to dumplings you'll find elsewhere but with woodear mushrooms (yum!)

"Cereal" Spaghetti Squash: Spaghetti Squash in a coconut milk broth topped with corn flakes. This was so good this had me saying that I would eat corn flakes in coconut milk as a snack...and now I'm craving that.

Raba Raba: Perhaps my favorite dish...stir-fried mixed greens in an amazing sauce...I wish I could make greens like this at home.

Lacassa: Rice noodle stir fry which reminded me of really good street food I found in Southeast Asia. Add some of the Diablo sauce on top for an extra kick!

Kari Kapitan: Spicy Chili Chicken with Chinese Bacon. We ordered rice just to let it soak in this sauce.

VALUE: Definitely on the pricier side for the portion size but I am happy to pay for a great meal.

OVERALL: Loved my meal here and would definitely come back (I hear they have a good...