Friends and family is going on, I believe, through the weekend, with the 'official' opening scheduled for Thursday August 5. I think that each diner received a $25 credit from the house, with the remaining balance being paid by the diner.
The space is largely the same as when it was Fat Rice. The decor seems scaled back just a bit and there are fewer seats. The aesthetic of the food is very much in line with Fat Rice. Even though it's a mostly-new menu and many (most?) of the dishes seem to have fewer components, the flavors remained bold, intense and complex. It was F&F, so the number of diners and times they were to arrive was known. That probably made it even easier on the house than it might be during a typical service but still, our food was in front of us no more than 5 minutes after we ordered it at the register. Once we did order, we took some open seats at the counter and our food was brought to us.
The objective here is fast casual and the framework seems to be firmly in place. Since one of the biggest negatives about Fat Rice was how hard it was to get in, this approach seems to make sense. Not only did the food come out quickly, much of it seems better suited for carry-out than Fat Rice's did. That should all help their throughput.
Here's a quick glimpse of what we had . . .
Printed Menu - 21.0730Tray OneHalf Charcoal Chicken, Spicy Jumbo Shrimp and Pork & Ginger Dumplings
Chicken and shrimp were from the 'From The Fire' section of the menu. Dumplings, as tasty as ever, were boiled.
Tray TwoWok-Seared Char Siu Pork Noodles, Egg Tarts, Sweet & Sour Eggplant and Spicy Cucumbers.
Everything was great but I don't think we had a clear favorite. Mrs. Suburban enjoyed the noodles the most. And on that dish, the smoky-seared wok hei was there in droves. For me, it was probably the shrimp but both cold vegetable sides were also outstanding. We were too full to eat our Pastéis de Nata while we were there but they were as amazing as always a couple of hours later.
=R=
Same planet, different world