F.A.T Fried And Tasty, Brunswick East

MELBOURNE | F.A.T Fried And Tasty Brunswick East is an independent fast food joint that serves “old school southern style fried chicken, buttermilk waffles, burgers and beer”. These are all things that we love so we were keen to see if the food here was a cut above your usual fast food chicken spot. The space is modern and casual, with a range of hip-hop and chicken inspired posters dotted all over the walls and pillars of the restaurant. Old school hip-hop beats play loud through the speakers and the overall vibe is fun and boisterous.

Bucket ‘O Chicken ($25.00)

Serving of chicken is $14.50 with choice of a side. Option of original, hot, hot wings, fried tenders, and BBQ wings. We went for the bucket with half original half hot and were happy with what came out. Moist, tender chicken that was nicely coated with good flavours and crispiness.

Burger “The Original” ($9.90)

Crispy fried chicken breast, coleslaw and mayo inside a soft toasted bun make for a tasty burger and everything worked well here. The burger delivers exactly what you expect from an original chicken burger – nothing fancy, just the essentials done well.

Poutine ($7.50)

This chips, cheese and gravy combo isn’t poutine as such however it’s tasty nonetheless. There’s just the right amount of gravy to stop everything from getting super soggy and a nice amount of cheese too.

Overall, the food at F.A.T. is good and it’s a great addition to this part of town. Is it the best fried chicken in town? No, but it’s a definite one up on your usual fast food chicken joint fare. For those of you that find yourselves in Brunswick and are looking for a fried chicken fix, you won’t leave F.A.T. disappointed. In fact being locals ourselves we’ve been back several times when the craving has hit.

Finally, we couldn’t write about F.A.T. without mentioning the giant photo shopped mural of rapper Notorious B.I.G. holding a piece of fried chicken. We mentioned this on The City Lane’s Instagram account when the place first opened but it didn’t get much attention until comedian Aamer Rahman called it out a few months later. The owners of F.A.T. have stated that they in no way intended for there to be any racism and that the mural is simply a homage to the man. We believe the owners when they say that their intentions aren’t racist but subjectivity is irrelevant here. Objectively, the mural is racist. If the owners didn’t know about the racist connotations of the mural when they but it up, the racist connotations around African Americans and fried chicken they most certainly do now. Our advice to the owners? F.A.T. is a great space with tasty food so don’t let the poster detract from that – it’s racist and you have nothing to gain by keeping it on your wall, get rid of the piece of fried chicken and replace it with a mic as a true homage to the man.

F.A.T Fried And Tasty

360 Lygon Street
Brunswick East 3057
Australia

Telephone: (03) 8560 3328
E-mail: n/a
Website: http://www.friedandtasty.com/

Open
Sun – Thu: 11:00am to 10:00pm
Fri – Sat: 11:00am to 11:00pm