12210 Venice blvd LA 90066 (that’s for you ServOrg)
A first look. The hot food isn’t quite up and running but they do have sandwiches, pastry prepared food to take home ready to go & my cortado was pretty nice.
Great selection groceries
And nice patio
My haul
Noticed that they carry Son fish sauce which I haven’t tried but remember from this article
Hadn’t realized this was coming in.
Will prob stop by to take a look this weekend. Thanks for the early pics.
P went on Friday and commented much of the same. He was thrilled though that they carry Teddy Peanut butter! We have never seen it out here on the West Coast! The Super Chunky is unreal.
We also got one of their Carnitas and I converted them into a Chile Verde for Burritos. The carnitas were essentially pork belly and they had a five spice undertone. They simmered well in my quickie Chile Verde sauce (Onions, Trader Joes Hatch Chile Salsa, a half of cup of water with Tomato Knorr, Cumin and Mexican Oregano) and became so unctuous. Would totally buy again.
Going back again in a few weeks. Hopefully they will have more items. I so want this to succeed…
Me too! I love his style of food I think it will be popular with locals he even had a sign up that said if you had suggestions of things to carry or make to send them in to him. So it sounds like he is really invested in the community
Is there a shittier or more cynical ploy in all of LA than Fatty Mart?
The invisible hand will hopefully deal the ‘aggregate shit from asian markets and charge three times the price’ business model a harsh blow. However, that area is populated by a large percentage of westsiders who as someone maybe here said so eloquently, “can’t afford to not be seen spending money.” I’m clearly not their target audience so what the hell do I know.
$17 four packs of ramen isn’t ok.
Yeah thats kinda ridiculous but if they can get away with charging that much, more power to them I guess. It’s kinda like erewhon if they can get away with charging 20 dollars for a smoothie why not? We live in a pretty much free market economy if their customers dont support their business habits we’ll find out soon enough.
Holy shit $17 for a 4 pack. Does it come with a teaspoon of caviar
I’ll concede an embarrassing degree of ‘old man shaking fist at clouds’ to my post. I get annoyed with Erewohn, Cookbook, etc. but I’m for whatever reason less offended by stupid silly markups on Maldon salt and pretty bunches of turnips than I am on mass-produced air-dried noodles.
Seemed to be $12.99-$16.99 but the ramen section didn’t strike me as particularly esoteric. I actually went in there in hopes of getting hosed on some thai drinking vinegar or hong cho and they didn’t have none of that.
Maybe I missed something when I was there, but I didn’t find Fatty Mart that shitty or cynical. I can’t get house-made pizza, banh mi, or single portions of ready-to-heat bulgolgi at 99 Ranch, AFAIK (but I’ve never actually checked for any of these things at 99). Or a nice seating area so that I can enjoy said food on-site alone or w/ a group of friends.
And I’ve never consider, let’s say, Mituswa to be particularly cheap, although I haven’t compared their prices directly w/ Fatty Mart (and I wasn’t paying any attention to the ramen prices when I was there).
And until 99 Ranch in Westwood opens, I’m not sure if I’m going to find a more convenient location if I randomly want a single good/item (traffic to/from Van Nuys makes that a total no-go during the weekday).
I was also under the impression that the ratio of employees directly helping customers at Fatty Mart was, like, exponentially higher.
Don’t get me wrong; if I need to buy a lot of “Asian” goods at once (which I never do), I’ll be waiting until the weekend to go to 99 Ranch. But as a place to quickly pop in for a few items, I think Fatty Mart seems… fine?
But I also assume that any ridiculous markup on what might normally be quite cheap at other places helps them to fund other parts of their business?
I have not done a real look into Fatty Mart so far (promised my daughter I’d save that for doing with her), even though it’s walking distance. But I needed an item a couple weekends ago and the guy at Mitsuwa knew he didn’t have it and Fatty Mart did. I found that very helpful. Community! 
I was pretty impressed with their pizza for being a mini mart. 4 day ferment, bianco di napoli tomatoes, grande cheese… I’ll be back.
meiji tofu, pork collar, little fatty mapo sauce, fried shallots
What’s the cost for a slice?
$4.50 - 5.50
You inspired me to head back out there. Had the Birria and cheese slice wasn’t expecting much out of the cheese but it really was tasty. Still like the small quirky wine selection as well. Picked up in a.Louis/Dressner import Domaine de Majas ‘cortado’
I haven’t been contributing too much as of late due to budget and life/Work stuff. For the past two years I have tended to go to the same set of places over and over again. Maydan Market, Pine and Crane, Oubei, Danny Boys, Softies and Fatty Mart. I cook a lot at home.
Recently there was a discussion on the Brentwood thread about Westside Bahn Mi. @NewTrial mentioned the Bahn Mi at Fatty Mart. I am at Fatty Mart like almost once a week. But for very specific reasons as they are very close to my work.
First, they have Char Sui and It’s very good and not that much more expensive than the one I can get in Chinatown. Like I said, I cook a lot at home and I can use it for rice bowls, fried rice, Singapore noodles, etc…
I also like their Banchan sampler to make at home Bimbimbap.
Finally they have a grab and go hot case with things like three cup chicken and orange chicken. It’s a great option for me to just have in the work fridge when I can’t run out. The rice in these are good and they always include a ton of veggies. I think it’s well priced for what you get.
Over the several years now that I have been going to Fatty Mart a lot has changed. I never liked their pizza. Their current make your combos don’t have appealing sides for me. So honestly, I haven’t ordered off their actual food menu which includes the Bahn Mis. They are $16 which seems to be a going rate for fancy sandwiches nowadays.
Now, I had have their Bahn Mi years ago. There was only one and it had like chicken patties in it. It was SO GOOD. I was sad not to see it on the menu, so I opted for the Lemon Grass Chicken to see if it was, as a Bahn Mi, as good as I remember.
And man, was I happy! It was absolutely stuffed with chicken! It has all the good Bahn Mi stuff and it was super fresh! I had recently a meh experience at two well regarded Bahn Mi places in the SGV. And this one, although more expensive…. Blew those out of the water because…. THE BREAD!
When you get this sandwich, the baguette is crisp and light. You get flake and yield that makes Bahn Mis so satisfying. I ate the first half there and per usual, had to rush back to the office and had the second half much later on the day. By then, the crispness had degraded. So I do recommend eat there or ASAP (Like all Bahn Mi).
I’ve tried many of the others mentioned on the Westside in the thread like Lokal, The fancy place on Montana and of course Mendocino Farms (Valiant effort). But to me this the best Bahn Mi on the Westside.
I just wish I could get it with pate! Went there for the first time in a while and it is pretty decent I’m impressed they seem to have found their niche in the neighborhood and didn’t just fold after the initial hype died down.
Personally my favorite Bahn Mi in West LA are from Nong La & Phorage.
Phorage (from May)
