New York has long had excellent Malaysian food. So why are 20 people lined up in front of cramped, raucous Fatty Crab at 7 p.m. on a cold Tuesday evening? The answer is half food and half buzz – the latter because executive chef Zak Pelaccio’s previous restaurant, meatpacking district palace 5 Ninth, is an ongoing sensation. (There is no truth to the rumor that Fatty Crab was named for the breed of demanding tourist that packs 5 Ninth every night.)

And then there’s the food, which Mr. Pelaccio skillfully Americanizes, though not by trimming fat. As the name advertises, several dishes here, like pork belly salad and roast duck, challenge our fat aversions head-on. Instead, upscale ingredients are used – short ribs replace the usual rump cut in the beef rendang, and pork ribs are Slow Food certified. And the cuisine’s typically polarizing reliance on fishy, fermented flavors is considerably scaled back.

Dishes are served family-style and haphazardly, with large plates often preceding so-called starters to the soon cluttered tables. Heading the menu are a few simple snacks: briefly poached quail egg “shooters”($5),designed to be slurped from their mottled shells; a stack of unripe mango strips ($4), with an accompanying dish of seasoned salt for dipping; sweet and spicy Malaysian pickles ($5). The best and most substantial of these, though, are the “fatty tea sandwiches” ($7): white, crustless, finger sandwiches whose filling of cold braised pork is deliciously fatty indeed.

The fat continues as unctuous, crisp edged pork belly chunks face off in a savory salad with watermelon and pickled watermelon rind ($7). It’s a curious combination, but satisfying in a way the charred squid salad ($11),which tastes primarily of char, is not.

An array of meals-in-a-bowl in the $10-$12 range can stand alone or be shared. Lo si fun ($11) is particularly wonderful, with rounded noodles in a sweet, dark sauce, with shiitake mushrooms and Chinese sausage. Nasi lemak ($12), an iconic Malaysian dish in which coconut milk-cooked rice serves as a centerpiece to condiments and meat, is done here in straightforward style. The creamy rice comes with a light, fresh-tasting chicken curry, fried anchovies, pickles, and crushed peanuts, as well as a poached egg.

The showpiece of the restaurant is its chili crab, which at $28 costs almost twice as much as its nearest competitor. As it approaches the table, your first glimpse is of red claws seeming to struggle out of a big white bowl, but this Dungeness crab has been chopped into two plump halves and won’t be doing any climbing. It’s set in a pool of mildly spicy, barbecuey sauce, with slices of firm white toast. The moist towelettes provided hardly suffice to cleanse one’s hands and face after the lengthy session of cracking, crunching, and sucking the delicious dish entails.

Other items under the heading “Fatty’s Specialties” are equally compelling, if less labor-intensive: the rendang ($17), for instance, in which beef short ribs are simmered to exquisite, creamy tenderness in coconut milk fortified with cloves, lemongrass, and cinnamon. A bed of rice sops up the spicy, greasy brown sauce. Three pieces of “fatty duck” ($7), brined and fried to outstanding succulence, and sprinkled with chopped chilis, assert once again the savory virtues of abundant fat, balanced by the hearty, moist meat. But other dishes add little to the experience. The mussels ($12) are just a mass of black pepper. A bland clay pot stew of chicken and tofu ($10) is seemingly provided as a token for diners turned off by the rest of the menu’s spice and grease.

The beer selection includes $3 cans of Pabst alongside top-shelf Asian brews. A 50-bottle wine list with most bottles around $60 seems like a lot of firepower for the casual, inexpensive restaurant, but the interesting Austrian and Italian choices manage to hold their own against the PBR. Paul Lehrner’s blaufrankisch ($8/$30), a rarely sighted Austrian red, is dark purple in the glass, with a tasty firmness that flatters its moderate body. A sauvignon blanc from Chateau La Caussade ($10/$40) has a lovely dry balance and versatility that’s a virtue at this restaurant.

Fatty Crab’s staff is competent but usually out of breath, scurrying to sate the 30 hungry mouths jammed into the small space. With its skillful, affordable renditions of Malaysian classics, and refreshingly brazen flaunting of fat, Fatty Crab is well worth a visit, but perhaps not the multi-hour wait it demands at peak hours. It remains to be seen, as the initial excitement fades, whether this Crab has legs.

Fatty Crab, 643 Hudson St., between Horatio and Gansevoort streets, 212-352-3590.