Salt & Fat
“The scallop was by far the most unique in flavor and my favorite, with its crispy exterior and chewy soft center.”
“The fried chicken is definitely a favorite and the popcorn, amazing!!!”
“For dessert, we couldn't resist getting the Rice Krispies & Marshmallow ice cream (didn't even know that was humanly possibly) – pure heaven.”
Salt & Fat
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
PokéStop Nearby: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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Visited Salt & Fat today and it definitely lived up to the hype. If you're worried about a wait, just head there a bit early. My party of three was seated immediately at 7:15pm on a Tuesday, but the restaurant did fill up while we were eating.
The server recommended that we ordered about five dishes, but we were a bit hungry, so we went with six. We went for the burrata, Korean barbecue, scallops, uni toast, bao buns, and duck breast. Our drinks came out pretty quickly, as did the complimentary popcorn (so yummy and salty!).
Not long after our drinks showed up (they've got a decent selection of beers and a small selection of wine), so did our small plates!
The burrata was great. It's a pretty big portion and paired really nicely with the figs and peaches. Perfect summer dish and just right for sharing.
The scallops were on the smaller size, but they were cooked perfectly, not too chewy, and paired with a light corn salad that I loved. Normally I feel like places go heavy on the truffle oil, but they balanced the flavors in this dish nicely.
Skip the uni toast. I really wasn't impressed by it, but then again, I'm rarely impressed by uni…so maybe don't listen to me. The portion seemed kind of small for the price ($15) and the plate isn't ideal for sharing (although we were able to cut it into three pieces).
Okay, now for my favorites: the bao buns, duck breast, and Korean barbecue were all dope. My pals really loved the bao buns. And while I enjoyed the crispiness of the pork, I felt like it was balanced with enough fattiness. Also could have used some sauce or something to bind everything together. The Korean barbecue was so good. Not to salty, but I wish the meat portion had been a bit bigger. Or maybe we should have just ordered two portions of this instead of the uni toast. 🙂 And last but not least, loved the duck. It was paired with warm lychee fruit, which I've never had in a savory dish. We did wait a while (maybe 15 minutes) for our main dish (the duck) after having all of our small dishes, but as I mentioned, the restaurant did get quite busy during our visit…which also meant no refills on water or anything. Womp womp.
Dessert was the perfect balance of sweet and salty. We went with a banana dish that came with ice cream and caramel sauce. Again, great for sharing.
If you're in the neighborhood, definitely check out Salt & Fat. Can't believe it took me so long to visit, but glad that I did!
Walking by this place and being reminded of it everytime I am passing left me no choice but to review!
Came here a few months ago with my mom just to check it out since it was the hype of our neighborhood.
Its weird to have a high-class restaurant in the sunnyside area in my opinion, since every other restaurant is not as quite expensive as this one.
Definitely your typical HIGH PRICE – SMALL PORTION type of restaurant.
Ambiance is very peaceful and servers were young and going beyond to ensure customer satisfaction.
My mom had some kind of pasta, portion was VERY average noodles were well cooked and sauce was creamy which was a good thing. My mom enjoyed her food.
I had the roast duck which was one of the more expensive items on the menu, it came as HUGE surprise how LITTLE they gave me. It was supported by some mushrooms and veggies which didnt trick me into thinking its pretty nor bigger.
When I order roast duck, I dont expect a huge portion, but I definitely don't expect like 3 thin slices of meat. Come on we pay way over necessary for this.
I feel quality of food was forced to be good meaning we paid good money so we tell ourselves it was worth.
They have popcorn to start off (pretty darn good actually) and they end your meal with some korean style mini yogurt drinks!
I honestly don't know how this place keeps open. It must be the manhattanites that yelp queens restaurants and this is on the higher end,
JUST A GUESS DOE.
SAVE YOUR MONEY & GO SOMEWHERE.
Sorry Salt&Fat, I give you 1 star for ambiance, 1 star for store name creativity, 1 star for attracting customers even at your pricing!
Swindle for days (:
How many times do you have to go to a small plates restaurant before you're allowed to review it? I don't know, but I've been here four times and now I feel like I'm ready.
Salt & Fat is very very poorly described by the label 'Asian Fusion,' but only because most Asian Fusion sucks so much (come at me). These are really New American small plates with Asian ingredients, rather than Asian and American dishes bent into some unwieldy pretzel. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the food here is actually good.
You can and should order a lot of stuff. Plates average (I recall) about $15, and there are a few larger ones that cost a little more. This is not murder compared to most upscale New American small plates places, so thank them for opening up in Sunnyside so they can pass their rent savings onto you.
The must order from the menu is the Uni Toast. It is toast (bear with me) and a spread of rich, creamy sea urchin with a yuzu jelly. As long as you like sea urchin (which, fine, not everyone does, that's okay) you're in for a complex and decadent experience.
I hadn't ordered the chicken wings until this most recent visit, and now I don't remember if they'd been on the menu the whole time or not. They are, in a lot of ways, less complex and delicate than some of the other dishes on the menu, but they are crispy, with what I suspect is a Korean-style vodka or soju batter, and a sweet chili sauce with a lot of tang. This is a larger dish than most of Salt & Fat's plates, and consists of (I think) 8 wings.
The brussel sprouts are great. I remember nothing whatsoever about their flavoring, other than that they were a little salty and funky, but the texture was superb– crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside, I suspect steamed or par boiled before being deep fried. This is actually a fairly large helping of brussel sprouts, and they are rich enough that they could really be one person's entree.
The yellowtail tartare has good quality fish and the accompanying mayo (they might go so far as to call it aioli) lends it a satisfying richness. It is eaten on cassava chips, which is both a lot of fun and a smart pairing, as the chips are crunchy but light and are neutrally flavored. Anyone who has gotten into poke of late will think of poke when they e at this.
The oxtail terrine is kinda meh. The best part of it are the mushrooms it comes with, which have a lot of meat flavor cooked into them and are very satisfying, with lots of umami. The terrine itself is kind of a dry little brick, and whatever they do to the outside of it steals a lot of the flavor from what should be an extremely savory meat. Wasn't a huge fan.
The desserts can be a little bit of a weakness at Salt and Fat. They're not terrible, but when you order a rice krispie treat from the dessert menu of a fancy restaurant, you're anticipating something fun and haute. When what arrives is actually just a huge rice krispie treat with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, you're kinda not sure whether you're being pranked or not. We also had a cocoa pudding that I liked quite a bit– it had an impressively high cocoa content and was barely sweet at all, making for a dish that really highlighted the cocoa taste rather than just the sugar that came with.
As always, Salt and Fat has a very well curated list of beers and wines, and service is attentive but not smothering. This is definitely worth a trip on the 7 train.
When people say "good fats" they mean tasty, right? Because that's what my duck was– tasty.
I had a completely different idea of what this place would look like. I mean, it's called "Salt & Fat". You'd expect something more along the lines of gritty and owned by a man with a gold necklace and visible body hair, but Queens is classier than that.
Before ordering, you're treated to complimentary popcorn dipped in, wait for it… SALT & FAT! Good job guys. Bacon fat to be exact. I'd honestly order that if it were on the menu. Hehe can't complain about free food. Their drinks menu was more extensive than their actual menu. And you know, for once I didn't mind paying for a whole bottle of Cabernet. A good dining experience deserves a good bottle of wine. Plus, I was catching up with a friend, so libations are always complicit. The cabernet was great by the way; there wasn't a strong pungent aftertaste for $38.
While we were ordering drinks, the waiter described the entrees as "shareable". HA! Honestly, is anything "shareable" when it's described that way? One entree per person sir. While aesthetically appealing, the purple octopus appetizer doesn't hold a candle to the foie gras. It's foie gras though, not a lot can beat a liver pumped with fat. But the center stage belonged to the Long Island Duck Breast. *Grunt* It was all fat and juicy, like a steak… but bird. My friend had a piece of my bird and you can see a sudden regret in his face. Sure, Artic Char soooooounds good but so did the letting Christopher Columbus set camp; we all know how that turned out for the Native Americans.
The food is delicious and innovative. The service is welcoming and friendly. The ambiance could be better but not a deal breaker. Salt & Fat is located conveniently across the street from the 7 train stop and not too far from Manhattan. There's nothing much else to do in the neighborhood from what I saw but it was also around 10pm so a lot of the surrounding stores were closed. The starter popcorn wasn't fresh or hot so it was a bit cold and soaked with the duck fat. It might be better if you came earlier. But it's a small detail. My only comment is that the menu overdoes it on the fat… this isn't a restaurant for gluttony and some fat is good on dishes but at some point, it seems to try just a bit too hard. Nonetheless, the food was wonderful and the plating is beautiful.
Here's what we ordered:
– Scallops with corn puree and truffle corn salsa: The scallops were cooked perfectly. Beautiful sear on the outside and just about cooked on the inside. The delicate sweetness of the scallops paired very well with the sweetness from the corn. The added fat from the truffle oil was just enough to give the dish a little bit more body.
– Braised pork on duck fat tamale: This might be my favorite dish. The braised pork was moist and flavorful, with a bit of a barbecue combo, a little salty, a little sweet, and a little tangy. The tamale was delicious as well. I'm not a fan of tamale as it can become dry and bland, but this was very good.
– Seared duck with lychee: The duck was cooked perfectly medium-rare and portioned well. I loved that this dish was paired with a more delicately sweet fruit like the lychee. Duck is often paired with cherries, figs, or port wine and the gaminess can often get covered by a sickly sweet sauce. But this was balanced well and had enough lychees to accompany each bite.
The atmosphere could have used some help. It was more of a narrow room with tables and chairs. I'm not asking for frills but it seemed just a bit too casual for the price range and food. Otherwise, the food was different and worthy of coming back for.
Delicious flavor, great service. The only thing that's even slightly lacking is the decor, which is a bit outdated. However, the food is so darn good that it doesn't even matter. Everything on the menu is amazing – you absolutely can't go wrong!
Delish; Salt & Fat is serving some some yummy tapas plates at a surprisingly reasonable price.
Came here with a fun couple who we met at a Yelp event. I had wanted to try it for some time, but the only time I went, they had a long wait. That was not to occur twice as this time around we went at their opening hour.
You sit down and realize that the place is not big. It resembles a medium sized hallway, except that it's very wide. They have tables on both sides of the hallway'esque room and could likely fit tables in the middle as well–thankfully they do not. You sit down and you feel comfortable. You're given some popcorn to nosh on while you decide what to order.
Fair warning, you won't be ordering liquor here–it's beer and wine only. That doesn't dissuade me from ordering a Queens Lager. I love lagers and it's not often you have a choice outside of the usual suspects. I love Queens, I love lagers; choice made!
We order five dishes: Yellowtail Tartare, Chicken Wings, Oxtail, a toast thing, and Brussel Sprouts. Now I really dislike Brussel Sprouts, but these were actually really good. The Chicken Wings were good, but I think I'd order something more creative next time. The big winner for me was the Yellowtail Tartare. It was absolutely delicious. I'd probably order three if it were socially acceptable inside of a group dinner. It had tremendous flavor and was paired well with cassava chips.
Salt & Fat is not the type of place you're going to go to on the regular. It's the type of place you go on special occasions when you want to splurge a bit. Honestly, going to Salt & Fat too much would probably ruin other places as they set the bar of expectations very high.
Sunnyside is a now true contender in the tapas field.
The menu was short, but they change it often so I do not have to worry about eating anything twice! We went on a Sunday night which meant it was not too crowded, but as the night went on the tables around us filled with families and couple. As soon as we walked in the staff was attentive and professional. They explained each dish as it came out and didn't rush us out as we sat and talked well past the end of our meal. We had:
brussel sprouts: Bacon and crispy – delicious!
oxtail: Pretty good. It was crunchy on the outside and pulled apart easily. Not a whole lot of flavor
yellowtail tartare: Showstopper! The presentation was beautiful and it was fun to mix it all around into one mess before eating on chips
umi loaf: I cannot lie. I let the table devour this so I cannot say how good it was, but from all of closed eyes around me I have to say it looked tasty
honey/garlic chicken wings: These tasted exactly how I thought they would. Sweet and a bit crunchy. I don't know if I would order them again though since these were the least original thing on the menu which is not saying they weren't good!
salted chocolate pudding: They must have mixed salt into the marshmallows because it definitely added something special to the dessert.
All of this was enough to fill 4 people pretty well