Phat Eatery spices up Katy dining scene
Grazing on my nasi lemak platter at Phat Eatery —a bite of dusky, curried beef rendang chased by a roasted peanut amplified by a chewy curl of dried sardine — it occurred to me that I’m going to have to stop making Katy jokes.
No more cracks about the oxygen thinning 30 miles west of downtown on what used to be open prairie. Eighty-six the stale weather-event zingers about whether this sprawling suburb has “evacuated yet.” Sitting over a cold Thai beer and a feathery tuffet of roti canai, the Indian inflected Malaysian flatbread, I couldn’t escape the feeling that Katy is finally fleshing out into a place that feels identifiably Houstonian.
The wild mix of diners waiting in the vestibule and at the wel--
coming bar at this “Malaysian Kitchen” is part of that sense. It’s a heavily Asian crowd of families and hip young people, scattered with tables full of guys from nearby office parks, doing corporate dinners in a modern, spicier style.
Then there’s the exuberant 21st-century Houston mix of restaurants and tea shops and dessert spots clustered in the spankingnew Katy Asian Town mall, which is anchored by a brand-new Korean H-Mart supermarket. Vietnamese noodles, Chinese barbecued meats, delightful Japanese cream puffs (at Houston’s first Beard Papa’s franchise!) and boba tea all wait to be savored by locals who converge on the parking lots in the hundreds.
Phat Eatery itself brings a little more worldliness to Katy’s rapidly evolving dining scene, where the past year has seen the advent of such destination restaurants as Tobiuo, for first-class sushi, and Brett’s Barbecue Shop, for craft barbecue.
Phat’s chef-owner, Alex Au-Yeung, a native of Kuala Lumpur who grew up in Hong Kong, wanted to bring a more focused approach to his Malaysian menu than you’d find at seminal Houston Chinatown spots such as Banana Tree or its younger rival Mamak, where the offerings run to hundreds of items. Phat’s small, smart roster of wine and beer offerings, overseen by personable manager and barkeep Kevin Lee — who is of Vietnamese descent and came up through the Azuma Group ranks — adds another modern wrinkle.
So does the bright neon lettering that gives the old-school hip-hop slang “phat” its Merriam-Webster meaning: “highly attractive or gratifying.” That actually could describe much of the food here. I always came away happy, even though I encountered a few execution blips and a too insistent lean toward sweetness in some dishes.
For instance: the fat, supple Chili Prawns would have held my interest had sugar not been the overweening note in its tomatobased sweet chili sauce, to the detriment of the advertised “torch ginger” and all else. Later, I wished I had ordered the Sambal Prawns because Phat’s sambal belacan sauce is beguiling, multidimensional stuff, its red chiles and sweetness complicated by a deep thrum of the fermented shrimp paste that is belacan, the great Malaysian condiment.
Sambal belacan added its funky tang to a dish of whole pomfret fish, Ikan Bakar, nicely grilled in banana leaf, so that under its crisp-singed skin, its white flesh flaked apart easily. Pomfret is a flatfish much used in Bengali, Thai, Vietnamese and Malaysian coastal cooking, and its texture reminded me of a slightly meatier and richer version of flounder.
I would never eat a meal here without opening with a scalloped dome of roti canai, the riddled Malaysian flatbread that’s all soft, flaky layers and gentleness. Dip it into a pink-tinted curry dip that’s the soul of spicy innocence or into a cup of the rich, chestnut-brown curry gravy used in Phat’s marvelous beef rendang.
You can order the rendang solo, to savor by itself with sticky steamed rice; or sample it on my favorite dish here, the nasi lemak (pronounced luh-mock).
Nasi lemak is basically a little buffet of flavors and textures arranged on a banana-leaf-lined platter and served with aromatic coconut rice. Alternate bites of the golden, sweetish chicken curry, with notes of coconut and pandan leaf, with the rice and some crunchy roasted peanuts; or some chewy little dried sardines that have been marinated in a species of onion jam. Pop a few peeled cucumber spears for coolness and contrast; then grab a hunk of tender beef shank in its rendang gravy.
And oh, yes: Don’t forget to weave bites of the all-important frizzly fried egg into the program, along with nips of that complex, alluring belacan sauce that’s served on the side. I’d venture the 30 miles west just to eat this dish, and the roti canai, and to shoot the breeze with the hospitable Lee and Au-Yeung.
I loved the soft, spongy texture of Sizzling Tofu made in house, cut in big crisp-edged cubes and doused in a dark, sizzling soy-gigged river flavored with either minced chicken and shrimp or mixed vegetables. And I’ve put the yu choy, a green vegetable like a skinnier Chinese broccoli, on my future wish list because Cuc Lam — the gifted Vietnamese chef who put together the Sing noodle shop’s Singaporean menu before her recent departure — swears that Phat’s yu choy stirfried with sambal bellman is one of her favorite bites in the city.
The noodles dishes here could use a few more contrasting flavor highlights to really make them take wing. In particular, the pleasant-enough Mee Goreng, in its tomato-spiked sauce, could have used a bit of tartness — or something — to wake it up. A gentle toss of prawns with flat noodles in a scrambled egg sauce left me in a similar state of longing.
Tossed with a little sambal belacan sauce, though, the flat-noodle comfort dish char kway teow had zip to spare. So when an order of salt-and-pepper calamari turned out tough and strangely bland; or when the wonderfully tender beef and chicken satay skewers seemed a little too sweet for their own good, I shrugged it off, and you may, too.
Au-Yeung and Lee are serious about what they’re doing. They ask for feedback from people. They listen. They keep an open mind. That tells me Phat Eatery, already refreshing and fun, is going to keep getting better with age.
Go for a cream puff at Beard Papa’s afterward, or pick up some hacked duck next door at Chung Wang BBQ. It’s the new and exciting Katy. Enjoy it.