Automatic +1 star for not using MSG. Anyone can make a savory soup base using MSG, but to do so without MSG is no easy feat! Kudos to Fat Mao for its delicious and healthy soup. This small noodle shop is reminiscent of local eats in Asia --- small shops that specialize in a few dishes. The restaurant offers an interesting mix of Thai and Taiwanese flavors, and the result is a few signature dishes! I am writing this review from home, so I don't remember the exact terms used in the menu, but for noodles, try ordering them with the thin mung bean / rice wrap option instead of typical noodles. This Thai specialty wrap makes the noodle soup extra interesting. The Vietnamese drip coffee over ice cream is an interesting way to finish the meal. I hope to come back and sample more dishes! Maybe I will see a few more fat cats on the walls then. read more

Solid simple noodle soups, more in Thai/fusion style than purely Chinese as per name. Beers. Who could ask for more? Well, maybe staying open later on weekends, but I get that's not their gig. read more

100% would recommend the coconut mushroom one. The workers are very nice. Its not as crazy busy as the restaurant down the street (if you know what I mean) so you'll always have a place to sit. The rice sheets are super fun to eat so I'd recommend that. read more

Fat Mao - Asian Fusion Near Me - Vancouver, British Columbia

Amazing atmosphere, exceptional service, and the BEST soup we've ever tasted!! We will definitely make the trip to go again & again & again.... read more

Great restaurant, refined and authentic. Century egg on the menu is very ballsy, but they hit it out of the park. read more

Fat Mao - I had the century egg on tofu, and it blew my mind. It was a dish I will never forget. I'm going back again tonight. - Asian Fusion Near Me - Vancouver, British Columbia

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Compact menu, which is great for people who are indecisive And I'll be thinking of that coconut lemongrass soup with vermicelli for dayssssss. Heads up, this is one of those places that takes a break and closes in between lunch and dinner so plan accordingly! read more

Tried the duck, curry and laksa noodles in different occasions, and they all tasted fantastic! The flavours are well balanced, with serveral vinegar based sauces to change up the flavours if you get bored. The wing beans salad are really tasty too. A treasured gem in chinatown. The services have been great everytime I was here. Highly recommended! read more

Fat Mao - Wing beans salad - Asian Fusion Near Me - Vancouver, British Columbia

Came here on a soft opening night with 2 friends, food is average at best. Tried 4 different items: Scallion pancakes, Dan Dan noodles, Braised Duck Noodles, and Taiwanese Beef Noodles. Dan Dan noodles were way too salty and the spices were overpowering. Scallion pancakes tasted fine but the portion offered is not worth $7.99. Both Taiwanese beef noodles and braised duck noodles were overwhelmed with a fist full of cilantro and the broth suffered as a result. The "noodles" that came with the braised duck noodles were soggy and bland, they are the plain "cheong fun" style you would order at dimsum that go well with sauces... Except instead of sauces you get a boring (cilantro) broth. A much better noodle choice would've been a thinner "Lai fun" as what they came with was just mush. Duck was very nicely cooked but lacked flavour, probably wasn't helped by the weak broth. Overall there are much better places in town to have Chinese noodle soup that cost less and offer a more generous portion. I really can't see Chinese people familiar with Chinese cuisine frequenting this restaurant but I guess they are catering to a different crowd. read more

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We had a late lunch at Fat Mao today and by 5pm both of us were taking turns going to the bathroom, suffering from some really bad diarrhea. We can't be sure if it was the duck noodles, the laksa or the Vietnamese coffee mixed with ice cream but we were pretty certain it was from the meal. Its 12.39am now and I just got out of the bathroom from another horrible purge. Its gonna be a long night. The broth was nice and the staff was nice but I think perhaps the staff needs to check on their ingredients and the general hygiene level of the kitchen. Something in that meal made us suffer. (The dishes seemed overpriced too. Had similar and much better original versions of the dishes in Singapore, an expensive city, for a fraction of the cost.) read more

Food 1.5/5 With all the hype I had hopes for this place, especially after travelling to many of the cities where he's drawing inspiration for the dishes! Presentation wise the food looked good (4/5) but wow, was I ever disappointed. We ordered the Dan Dan noodles (a favorite of mine), Braised Duck Noodles and the Changmai Curry Noodles with a Tripe starter. The braised duck was OK, nothing outstanding nor memorable in terms of flavour or texture. If anything it was a bit dry - over braised? Maybe they need a fatter duck. The noodles are the rolled rice noodles (the ones you see at Hons) except with no added flavour, just dumped into broth. There's a reason they usually mix spices and sauces for these noodles, they dont hold onto flavour when left rolled up! My favorite dish was the Changmai Curry except our chicken was still raw - unacceptable. Otherwise the curry was a great flavour but we had to send the dish back because we didnt want to get sick. Dan Dan noodles though, typing this makes me die a little inside since I was pretty excited to try this dish. If you're anticipating a tasty, peanut flavoured noodle, be prepared to be eating a bowl of over peppered spicy noodles that ruin your tastebuds for an hour. The spice overpowered any other flavour in the bowl so much that I couldn't bring myself to finishing half of the bowl (coming from an asian girl who has parents that are all about not wasting food growing up and would order hot wings on a regular basis)! Tripe dish was okay, the tripe was nice and chewy but too much sauce. Note - this is the Sichuan peppercorn kind of spice - not your usual Frank's hot sauce. Location 2/5 Meter parking but competing with Chinatown, Phnom Penh and Ramen Butcher crowd for parking. Walkable from Main St and Stadium (a bit farther) Price 3/5. Standard pricing. Ambiance & Service 3.5/5. Usually my first rating but needed some context from our experience outlined above. Cute little place tucked away in my old neighbourhood. Great servers and love that they're using the NoWait app. Good for small groups but wouldnt recommend going with more than 4 people or you'll probably wait forever. Really disappointed with the food but they comped our bill after our Chicken incident (the only reason I'm giving them 2 stars). We understand they're just a few days in their soft opening but we're likely not going back. PS. almost no reception if you're sitting in the back (I'm with Rogers) ****** I like to review my reviews sometimes incase I'm being unfair or if I revisited a place and want to adjust my rating. I'm always curious about what others have to say about new restaurants so i came back to this restaurant's page to have a read. It's always interesting when I see people give 5 stars as their one and only review. On the flip side, maybe they've made big changes since their opening! read more

Thanks to the crazy long wait at PP across the street, we decided to look for other options since I hate waiting for food. Fat Mao seated the two of us immediately (other tables of three and four were waiting). Small menu but everything on it looked like it was really well done (common lesson from a celeb chef's tv show). I had the Tom Yum and hubby had the Koh Soi. Both dishes were bursting with complex flavours. We didn't need to add any extra condiments. Decent sized portions too. The tables on either side of us had ordered other dishes and they looked really good too. Service was friendly and attentive. I would definitely come back and try the other bowls. read more

The noodles here are amazing! The place is always packed, but they were able to seat us in just a couple minutes no problem. Our food was out nearly as fast as we ordered it, and everything we had was delicious! Staff was super friendly and the atmosphere was really laid back which I liked. Great spot for a quick lunch or a casual dinner. I can't wait to go back and try the rest of the menu! read more

Came with with a few friends and I got the hot and sour pork noodles with vermicelli noodles and an extra soy egg on the side. The taste was fine, and somewhat reminiscent of my childhood. However, there were barely any noodles in my dish. My friend and I both got the same dish with vermicelli and it was the same for her bowl. There was literally a few bites of vermicelli- definitely not enough for a serving. My boyfriend got the laksa noodles and he liked it and I tried a bite and it was not bad. His noodles were substantially more than mine. All in all, taste wise this place is fine, but come on, don't be so stingy with the vermicelli. I was hungry an hour later. read more

Fat Mao - Hot and sour pork soup - Asian Fusion Near Me - Vancouver, British Columbia

My guy friend and I stumbled upon this place and ordered two noodle dishes and their homemade pancake. I had the beef noodles and he had the curry broth noodle. Sorry but both of our broths were disappointing.. even after adding our own spices to it. Our noodles were stuck in one clump. They clearly didn't take the time to make sure the strands were separated while cooking which is so unfortunate that they can't seem to take the time and care to make sure we don't have a clump sitting at the bottom of the bowl. And the homemade pancake that is supposedly made by the owner's mother? I'm pretty sure I watched the cook pick it up and inspect it before attempting to reheat it. When it came it, it was burnt, and not nearly as satisfying as my friend and I would've hoped. You can get much better food at so many other places around town. For much much cheaper too! We won't be back and I'd probably advise all of my friends to save their time and money and just stay away. Seriously not impressed. read more

Happened to be wandering in the area during a lull in the weekend storm and managed to grab the last seats available at the time. This place gets busy and with that beware that sometimes they run out of portions. I ordered the Dan Dan noodles and my wife had the Taiwanese Beef, with a side of the XO sauce. The Dan Dan had a great broth and overall flavour but I found the noodles themselves to be a tad clumpy. Not sure if that's how they're supposed to be as this was my first time having them. The Beef bowl had a wonderful broth as well and I liked the texture of the noodles. Wifey loved it, but she wasn't wowed by the XO tho. We both agreed we'll go back and try some of the other dishes. read more

Un-traditional. A coworker and I raved about the menu two days before actually going. The idea of bringing noodles from the places we grew up into Vancouver was extremely enticing, and we couldn't wait to go. We decided to order three dishes: the Braised Duck Noodles, Dandan Mein, and scallion pancakes. Where do we even start. Scallion Pancakes: Pretty decent, but overpriced. $8 for something that's easy to make isn't really the way to go, especially if you're located in an area like Chinatown, where there's no reason to over-inflate prices. Braised Duck Noodles: The duck was pretty decent, but everything else about it was not. The broth was flat in taste. The server recommended using 4-5 scoops of spicy-sour sauce in the broth, and claimed that the broth was actually made with the idea of including such, but... it was hard to understand why they wouldn't do this for us in the first place. Adding the sauce didn't add flavour either, it just left a sour-spicy aftertaste in the mouth. Dandan Mein: Oh dear, where do I begin with this. Traditional dandan mein calls for a rich, thick peanut-y broth, with crushed peanuts, and spiced just right. These noodles were not in a broth, quite oily (as opposed to rich-tasting), and just tasted like salt. Everything from the beef/pork mix to the sauce itself was disappointing and salty. Even instant noodles would have more of a diverse flavour. On a plus note, the noodle consistency was great. This place would do better if they just sold the noodles for you to cook yourself. We're just so disappointed that a place with so much potential would go flat like this :( :( :( read more

Since I went Maenam, I'm a fun of the chef and tried the other restaurant Long tail too.I love both restaurants and I was looking forward to try Fat Mao. I saw low rating stars review and people said about their broth was bland, to me it was "elegant". I had Dandan and I wanted something punchy taste at the end still, I could see the chef's style and enjoyed every bites. Too bad they don't make noodles in house anymore, I want them to get it back someday. Will come back to try other menus. read more

Fat Mao - Asian Fusion Near Me - Vancouver, British Columbia

Will I revisit Fat Mao? Fat chance! Over priced - over cooked - overrated. The chefs at Maenam really need to check in on their sister-kitchen - what a shame. read more

Just walking around the Chinatown neighbourhood and looking around for a bite to eat...the name Fat Mao is super cute! I just had to check it out! As I was waiting for my seat, i was able to watch the kitchen's hustle and bustle right at the front of the restaurant. I got to see a few of the dishes made right before my eyes. Because the menu was just one straight forward page, I was able to figure out which dish was being made. There wasn't many tables and the restaurant itself reminded me of the small and rather narrow ones of the by gone eras of Hong Kong, but in a much more hip way. As you are allowed to choose from a few styles of noodles for your soup noodles, i chose the rice roll style and i absolutely loved it! I still think about it very often! read more

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I've eaten here every day for a week. I might be addicted. Pro Tip: Noodles arrive without heat, add your own chillies and don't be shy. read more

So get this they don't do take outs at all so don't bother calling if u wanna order Togo. Dine in only food is meh had the hot and sour pork it's meh for the price and u get nothing inside but pork and bean sprouts read more

I finally got to play show-and-tell and took a foodie friend and my bf to Fat Mao Noodles (I love this spot and come all the time) to have their oh-so slippery, bouncy, chewy, snappy, max-mouth-feel rice sheets! I had them in the Coconut and Mushroom soup (infused with #galangal) aka Dom Ka/ Tom Ka soup, which by the way is the BEST version of this soup I've ever had anywhere, with added tender sous vide chicken breast. The broth is thick, creamy, full of different flavours and spices. My friend had the rice sheets in Fat Mao Noodles' signature Braised Duck Noodles, which is a must-try if you haven't had it (or just duck junkies like us ). We all shared a classic Chinese/ Taiwanese summer chilled appetizer to start - century egg with house egg tofu that's topped with bonito flakes, cilantro, and fried shallot. And since no meal is complete without a sweet palate cleanser for me and my friend, we also ordered the delicious and satisfying warm dessert roti, covered in sliced, sweet strawberries, drizzled with condensed milk, and topped with wafer cookies to finish. Thank you, Chef Angus An - for creating such amazing dishes, elevating asian street food to another level, and making it accessible and inclusive for all to enjoy. You have my upmost admiration and respect. ‍ read more

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Decided to try out fat mao as it was too busy at the other place across the street. Loved the decor of the place. The roti was decent but the curry it was served with tasted like a gravy more than anything. The laksa was tasty, however the noodles were overdone and very clumpy. This place is way too expensive for what it's serving. Noodles at any Chinese noodle house is cheaper and tastier. Very cute restaurant with a nice theme, but I don't think I would visit a second time. read more

went to Fat Mao Noodles based on the connection from Long Tail which is close to my work and I frequent several times a month. The restaurant is in a convenient location in the ever changing personality of Vancouver Chinatown. Parking was easy enough to find during dinning hours as most of the shops and grocery stores have closed. When you get in, the kitchen is right in the dining area so you get a chance to see how your dishes are created. We ordered the Braised Duck with Rice Sheets and the Hot and Sour Pork Noodles with Rice Sheet. We also tried the Duck Lettuce Wrap. The broths for both bowls of noodles were complex and very flavourful. There were generous amounts of toppings and both the pork and duck were tender. I would past on the Lettuce Wrap as it was not my style, but overall, it was a great experience and will come back again. Love the fact that they give the bill using a comic book as a presentation tool! Try going during the "Happy Hour" as you can get a bowl of noodles and beer for a great price! read more

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Very cozy little restaurant with excellent service. Food was just ok. Laska was not too bad, a little bit on the sweet side. Duck leg noodle soup lacked some flavor and way too sweet, but duck leg was tender. read more

Fat Mao - Duck leg noodle soup. - Asian Fusion Near Me - Vancouver, British Columbia

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Nice space in Chinatown but definitely needs improvement. Service was good but they do need to work on the food quality. We ordered the tripe salad which was decent tasting but portion was tiny. The noodles are 11.99 but the portions are pretty small for that price. I ordered the Taiwanese noodles but the broth was bland and the noodles a bit on the hard side. The beef was not tender, but hard and sinewy. Meat was too lean -need for fattier meat if you want tender and tasty. My husband ordered the curry noodles which was the only thing that tasted good. The crispy deep fried noodle on top was very interesting. Lots of flavor in the broth- tasted like laksa. Pretty expensive place to eat for the quality and portions. Not sure we will be back. Btw, my mobile phone didn't work in this restaurant - poor reception. Apparently only Bell and Telus phones work. No luck for Rogers customers. read more

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Pretty cool little space next to Ramen Butcher in Chinatown with some decent food. Started with the ma po tofu to split with my friend while we waited for out noodles and it was dynamite. The best ma po tofu I think I've ever had actually. Silky tofu topped with perfectly seasoned and spiced pork, amazing. Maybe it's because this dish was so good that we weren't all that impressed with the noodle dishes. My friend got the braised duck and I got the hot and sour pork. I think mine was a bit better, but the soup in both was just too sweet - if it wasn't so sweet I'd probably give it 4 stars. The condiments in the little jars were really good. read more

Fat Mao Chinatown is a new noodle bar in Vancouver by Chef Angus An. Those familiar with his other tasty ventures like Maenam Thai Restaurant in Kitsilano and Longtail Kitchen in New Westminster would have this small casual noodle bar on your radar! "Fat Mao" literally translates to the fat cat is located on the ground floor of 217 East Georgia Street - iconic yellow palette "The Flat" is a nine storey, 26 unit residential building designed by Birmingham and Wood with ASIR Architects. It is one of the contemporary balcony/screen idea now transforming the Chinatown area. This quick in-and-out in less than 30 minute restaurant is strategically located beside The Ramen Butcher and Phnom Penh - high traffic, high turn over, and lots of overflow. We came here a few times during late afternoon Fat Mao was already "sold out" of their noodles. "Sorry no more noodles" a sign plastered on the window. Today we were able to find a seat no problem. Fat Mao tugs at a few childhood heart strings like cute cartoon drawings of maneki-neko (lucky cat) and some copies of Slam Dunk anime comics set on the table. Something to do if you are bored waiting for your food. Hopefully you can read Chinese. Or if just look at the pictures! Century Egg with House Tofu 7.99: To be honest, I was a little dismayed by the sticker price of this comforting cold appetizer. However, I love the smoothness of the tofu, the texture of bonito flakes, century egg and the flavors of soy and other seasonings combined. Maybe, I will order this again. Braised Duck Noodles 11.99: A rich duck broth with clear rice noodles. It comes with a large tender duck leg. We were advised to add a few spoonfuls of the red spicy vinegar sauce (much similar to red chili sauce paired with Hainan chicken). Koh Soi Chiang Mai Curry Chicken 11.99: Similar concept as the duck noodles. Large chicken leg served with egg noodles. The broth was light and towards the bland side. We added a lot of chili flakes and chili oil. I do like the crunch noodles on top! Overall, there wasn't enough broth to be called a soup noodle (much of the soup was already soaked up by the noodles). It wasn't dry enough to be considered a lo-mein. It had us confused to the original intention. Anyways, we asked for extra broth and it made a world of difference! read more

So, this is probably the first "bad" four star review I've ever left, but I'd like to preface everything I'm about to say with the fact that this is one of my favorite places to get noodles in the city, and the food has always been spot on -- today was no exception. The problem was service -- which prior to today has always been spot on. I don't want to get anyone into too much trouble, but I do think whoever was working needs to have some serious coaching. First of all, we came in as a table of two -- super low maintenance; and not many other people in the restaurant. Things seemed okay at first, the water and menu drop off was fine and normal. He took a little bit long to take our orders, but that isn't too out of the ordinary -- it wasn't an unacceptable wait. The first sign of weirdness came after we made our order. My friend ordered her soup and noodles, and there was no problem. After I ordered my noodles, he made a long pause with a weird expression before repeating it. A little weird but again not unacceptable. I didn't mention it to my friend but I thought it was pretty weird that he didn't try to upsell us since we were looking all over the menu -- I was debating over getting a drink but decided not to anyway. There was no question about whether we wanted anything else, he just said "ok" after taking our orders and walked away. Food came out fairly quickly as usual -- he made a recommendation for which sauces to use which was good. He made a quality check which was also good. I finished my noodles quite a bit faster than my friend and would have gotten more noodles, but he didn't do another pass by the table until after she was already finished. When he made a round by the table, he looked at our table with utensils aside and napkins in bowl and walked away. I thought it was pretty weird that he didn't offer to clear the table or ask if we were finished. So we went up to the bar to pay and asked "yes?" I said I'd like to pay and he replied "we take payments at the table." Which of course I know, because I've eaten there a dozen times. Then he says "you didn't even give me a chance to clear your bowls away" in a snarky tone. On the way out I discussed with my friend and she said he felt cold and had a snarky tone in his voice the whole time, which I agreed. I'm not even really off put by servers who have snarky tones, as it happens all the time, but I do expect basic or standard table maintenance. In this case everything just made me feel as if I was inconveniencing him, however as I said at the beginning we were super low maintenance, and happy with the food. I wouldn't have even left this review if it hadn't been for the weirdness when paying. read more

The place is small the menu is small the flavours and passion of the chef huge! Our waitress was very patient and accommodating with my particular date. read more

Maybe a 3.5. My only complaint really is that the noodles we had came out rather 'unseasoned' with instructions on how a server might like to season it. I'm a big believer that you should season the food how you think it should be eaten and quite frankly adding vinegar or hot sauce to a noodle bowl after the fact just lacks a depth of flavour. It ends up missing that umami mouthfeel too. That being said, the noodles were awesome in both the Taiwanese Beef Noodles (these especially) and the rice noodles in the braised duck. A modern twist on some classic styles, with everything made in house. The broths were as I said underseasoned (in my opinion) but very fragrant and still at least on par with similar styles of broth I've had. Rather than stick to a particular style here, they've opted to use a variety of noodle soup stocks I found similar to Pho but with their own flare. The Kimchi was dynamite and made in house and the scallion pancake was simple and well prepared. I'm looking forward to my next visit to try some of the other items on the menu. read more

Oh WOW, I absolutely loved the Koh Soi Chiang Mai Curry. The turmeric curry broth is what I really went nuts about, as it was just so rich and flavourful. The chewy noodles set against the scallions, chicken and crispy noodles made it a really great meal. One more time: I LOVED the BROTH!! read more

My soup arrived with a half cooked/half raw egg. Don't uncooked eggs cause samonella? As soon as I got home I got the runs and have had a sore stomach since. Also it was a very small bowl for $11.00. The waitress was more interested in talking to male customers so I had to get up and ask her for another order. Will never go back. read more

Amazing noodles! I got the duck noodles and the portion size was perfect for me and had an entire duck leg cooked so well that the meat was falling off the bones. The broth was tasty but could be a little less salty. Overall it was really good, would definitely be back. read more

Awesome ramen! Very limited on drinks 2 or 3 beer options. Great list of appetizers. Portions were very reasonable but not overwhelming large. read more

This place is by my art studio and I always walk past it so I decided to try it out today. I had the braised duck noodle. I was pretty disappointed with the price to ratio of the food. There wasn't really a lot of noodles in mine - flavour was fine but a little too sweet (similar to another review here). I found the sweetness a little overpowering. It would not have been so bad if the total wasn't nearly $20 after tax and tip. For the amount of food you get and it not being the best bowl of noodles I've ever had - not worth it for me. I was hungry again an hour later. read more

Despite Yelp, their webpage, and their front door listing their hours as open at 3pm, we were turned away because "they were on a break". Most of the tables were full and people were just getting their food brought out. Pretty poor way to do business. If you close, that's fine, but it ought to be listed - not just whenever you feel like it because you're tired. read more

Fat Mao - Incorrect hours on the door - Asian Fusion Near Me - Vancouver, British Columbia

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I really really wanted to love this place. With many noodle/ramen shops popping up in the city, this one seemed to have some originality because of the different types of noodle soups offered. There are 5-6 diff types of noodle dishes to choose from, and on paper they look delicious! I had the special of the day - tom yum soup. It was pretty flavorful but the noodles were a little bland. My other dining companions had the dandan noodles and the braised duck noodles, both of which lacked flavour and were underwhelming. We did share the tripe salad side dish which was pretty tasty but for 7.99 I would rather go for dim sum. I appreciate the efforts but quality will have to go up a little more to keep up with other noodle shops in the city and especially area. read more

I accidentally stumbled upon this place with my 8,6 and 1 year old kids. We were suppose to go to the Cambodian restaurant down the street but their wait for 45 minutes. There was an open table at Fat Mao so we took it. Sadly there was no high chair or Change table for younger children; I had to hold my 1 year old. After looking at the menu which I found tiny and not very kid friendly for kids that don't eat a lot of Asian. Luckly my kids are Asian food eating kids. I ordered their duck noodle soup with the noodle sheets for them and ma poa tofu dish for me. It was delicious! Both dishes. My kids couldn't eat the tofu dish cuz it was too spicy. The service was great. Food came out pretty fast. Food and service is 5 star. Family friendly amenities is 2 starts. I will def come back without my children. read more

Coconut and mushroom noodles. I will dream about this soup. Perfectly spiced, full of delicious mushrooms, coconut creamy, filling, and vegan. My husband had the duck w noodles, which was also excellent. read more

Fat Mao - Asian Fusion Near Me - Vancouver, British Columbia