Sometimes you want to be healthy, and sometimes you don’t. SkinnyFats, West Village’s newest eatery, has you covered no matter what you choose. This Las Vegas-based restaurant pioneered the two-sided menu, with one side featuring “happy” indulgences and the other focused on “healthy” alternatives. In fact, this menu layout is a registered trademark of the brand.
Established in 2013, SkinnyFats has six locations in Vegas. The Dallas location is its first expansion outside Nevada. The interior is a combination of steampunk and nature-inspired, with funky, oversized Edison lightbulbs, metal siding and tabletops, but with touches of nature — plants potted in stone line the entrance and the walls are paneled with distressed wood.
The menu is playful, both conceptually and linguistically. SkinnyFats loves a good pun. Some of the tongue-in-cheek names for its dishes include things like Caes’ the Day for its Caesar salad, Sweet Cheese Us for its cheesesteak sandwich and CauliFire for its spicy buffalo cauliflower bites.
The healthy side of the SkinnyFats menu offers calorie counts, while the happy side does not. The majority of the food falls into one of two sections: “things in bowls” and “between the buns.” Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and spicy items are all noted on the menu.
Healthy options include the naked chix bowl ($8.95), with mango-basil chicken, peppers, onions, pineapple jasmine rice and cilantro. Or try the mean bean ($10.95), a house-made black bean patty served on a wheat bun, with spinach, red onion, avocado and hummus.
On the happy side, try the curry bowl ($8.95), with rice noodles, roasted corn, peppers, basil, jalapeño, coconut curry sauce and crispy chickpeas. The Blaze of Thunder ($10.95) is a Nashville hot chicken sandwich served on a brioche bun with pickles and creamy slaw.
SkinnyFats also serves breakfast all day. The healthy side includes things like protein waffles, while on the happy side, you’ll find the S’motherload ($11.95), a burrito stuffed with filet mignon fajita peppers, potato, Cajun cheddar sauce and pico de gallo.
The food is approachable with some creative twists, and well-executed. We particularly enjoyed the Brussel Crowe ($6.95), a shareable appetizer of sautéed Brussels sprouts, caramelized onions, golden raisins, capers and almonds in a balsamic glaze. The Filet o Fire ($13.95) was another stand-out. This sandwich is served on Cajun sourdough and is stuffed with sliced filet mignon, fried jalapeño, avocado pico de gallo and jalapeño ranch.
This is affordable for any restaurant, but especially serving this kind of food.
SkinnyFats has a full bar and serves cocktails, local brews, harder-to-find craft beers and coffee from Dallas favorite Houndstooth.
The SkinnyFats brand has further plans to expand into Salt Lake City by the end of the year.
SkinnyFats, 3700 McKinney Ave. (Uptown/West Village)