What is Fat Boy Roasted Delights? There’s ‘nothing like’ new Modesto restaurant
Two months to the day after I published a story acknowledging a new restaurant was coming to Modesto’s Wood Colony Plaza and admitting I had little information about it, it opened.
Fat Boy Roasted Delights celebrated its grand opening Wednesday, Nov. 3, at 3900 Pelandale Ave., Suite 650, near Vallarta. It is a traditional Cantonese restaurant specializing in roasted meats, said owner and Modesto resident Ray Hu.
I was coming back from a media preview of Dave’s Hot Chicken in Turlock when I saw the “open” sign from the freeway (not that I’ve been highly anticipating it or anything). I stopped in and spoke to an employee, who said Hu opened it because there was “nothing like it” in Modesto, which he later confirmed in an interview.
“Seeing the high demand for authentic barbecued meat in the local area and the limited choices, I decided to do it myself,” he said. “Good taste shouldn’t be hard to find, so I opened a genuine (Cantonese) barbecued meat store to bring the aroma back to the streets.”
I wanted to order half of, or even a whole, roasted duck just for the experience, but they were sold out by the time I got there at 6 p.m. The employee told me customers should show up during the earlier business hours if they want to order large portions of duck, because they go quickly.
Scallion chicken and barbecued pork are other favorites, she said.
“I enjoy researching the cooking time and marinade ratios for roasted duck, barbecued pork and braised pork,” Hu said. “I wanted to turn my interest into a career.”
Fat Boy Roasted Delights has an extensive menu, with roasted meats being the stars. A whole roasted duck will run you $36, and half is $19.
Other meat options include Peking or pipa duck, soy sauce or salt-baked chicken, roasted pork belly, spare ribs and honey barbecue pork.
The restaurant offers barbecue combination plates served with white rice and vegetables. A one-meat combo is $12.50, a two-meat combo is $13.50 and a three-meat combo is $14.50. For $1 more, customers can upgrade from white rice to pork fried rice or pork chow mein.
Chinese-style combination plates are $8.95 and include options such as orange chicken, Mongolian beef or chicken and kung pao beef or chicken.
Broth-based noodle dishes are $12 with one meat selection, $13 with two meats and $14 with three meats. Other noodle dishes include dumpling noodle soup, chow fun and chow mein.
The nearly 100-item menu also includes seafood dishes, vegetable dishes, appetizers like duck rolls and cucumber salad, and teas.
Fat Boy Roasted Delights is open Wednesday through Monday from 10:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
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