TacoCat's TrEats #93: The Fanciest Rice Bowl We've Ever Eaten! 🍖

Hey Hive!

Now that it's been quite a while since Singapore has has been out of lockdown, or what our government has termed "circuit breaker", restaurants have been operating pretty much as usual aside from implementing safe distancing measures. We've also been eating out more and trying new places!

And one of these new places is this fancy Japanese-inspired steakhouse called Fat Cow!

It had been quite a while since I met up with my siblings, especially with all the stuff that was going on with us moving into our new house and all that. So when we had finally settled in, my brother and sis-in-law decided to treat us to a fancy lunch before heading to our place for a housewarming! And they decided on Fat Cow!

I'd never been to this restaurant before, especially since it's in town and very expensive. But I had heard of another place that was also Japanese and had a similar name called Waa Cow that had a branch in our old college campus. Sean and I had never eaten there though, but my sis-in-law reassured me that this was different.

Anyway, the restaurant itself looks very understated from the outside. I wasn't even sure it was a restaurant because it was so quiet and the signboard was so subtle, but I guess they were going for a modern look.

The layout of the restaurant was also quite unique. Just past the door was a small counter where I guess the maître d' would normally be to greet customers.

But just opposite that small counter is this meat locker that displayed all the different cuts of beef you can order here I suppose. They were really huge slabs though!

My sis-in-law had made a reservation beforehand but I guess we actually didn't really need one since the place was pretty empty at the time. So we were showed to our table and walked past the counter into this narrow hallway:

We walked past this open bar area that had a couple of tables:

Before arriving into yet another narrow hallway:

And there were two semi-open rooms with two tables each:

The interior looked really nice and modern though; you could tell they tried to marry the minimalist Japanese style with the natural wood and the modern industrialist style with the darker tones. Overall, it was really quite pleasant.

So after we sat down, instead of a physical menu, they handed us a QR code to scan for the menu. I notice quite a few Japanese places do this - using digital menus instead of physical ones, either by using a tablet or a QR code. It definitely saves the hassle of having to update physical menus and re-printing them every time that's for sure. And it saves paper!

Fat Cow's menu was definitely miles apart from what we were used to when it came to Japanese food. Their a la carte menu featured various seasonal seafood options, some sashimi, cold and hot appetisers, some vegetarian dishes, rice, udon, hotpot, and of course a whole range of beef of varying degrees and types.

Source: Fat Cow

It was quite overwhelming; especially considering the price tags of all the dishes. We weren't sure what to choose so we asked my siblings for their recommendations and they suggested we try the donburi since we were pretty hungry. Their donburi set includes sliced wagyu steak on a bed of rice, uni, caviar, foie gras, onsen egg and truffle oil.

I felt bad because it was so expensive, but my brother insisted so I ordered the 21 Days Dry-aged Nagasaki A5 wagyu while Sean ordered the Miyazaki A4 wagyu, and my sis-in-law ordered the Toriyama A4 wagyu.

About 20 minutes or so later, our food arrived!

Sean's and my bowls actually looked pretty similar, so I honestly can't tell them apart.

But my sis-in-law's bowl was different because she ordered a fried egg instead, and requested that the uni, caviar and foie gras be separated since she was pregnant! That was also the reason for this fancy lunch; they wanted to announce it to us in person and she was also craving steak.

My brother on the other hand, ordered just the steak (although I can't remember which one exactly) and added a bowl of fried rice on the side.

Anyway, we were really hungry and the meat smelled so good so we quickly tucked in after snapping a couple of photos!

The donburi tasted.. alright I guess.? The meat didn't have that sear that I typically like on my steak, but it definitely still tasted good. I wasn't really a fan of the raw seafood or the foie gras though. I mean, I did try a piece of the foie gras but on principle I don't eat it because of ethical reasons. Unfortunately we forgot to tell the waiter not to include that in our order so it was too late.. I'm sorry! 😔

But I knew it was just going to be thrown away so I tried a piece and I didn't like it anyway. The texture was weird for me; I don't know why people eat it. Not only does it not taste good (imo) or have any unique nutritional benefits that can't be substituted, but the act of getting the foie gras is so cruel!

But anyway, other than that the rice bowl was actually quite tasty! I think if it was just the beef, rice and egg it would've been enough for me though. It was definitely satisfying, but I didn't really care for all that extra bells and whistles.

Sean and I came to the same realisation that our taste buds are just not sophisticated enough to appreciate these kinds of expensive food. We're more than happy with cheap hawker food, and cheap rice bowls from Japanese fast-food places like Sukiya tbh. Even the most expensive steak we've ever eaten was less than 50 bucks, so I think this meal was a sort of waste on us unfortunately. But it was still a good experience nonetheless.

I learned that the head chef of Fat Cow is this Japanese guy named Shigeru Kasajima who was born in Tokyo and was inspired to be a chef after watching his mother cook! He spent many years as a French chef, before transitioning back to Japanese cuisine, and he marries the different techniques of French and Japanese cooking in his unique creations at Fat Cow.

Source: Fat Cow

I guess that explains the foie gras, but it's such a pity that French cooking uses such cruel methods, and the fact that this upscale restaurant purports animal cruelty like that in Singapore. Quite unfortunate, but I guess the high price tag that will turn most people away is good then.

We definitely won't be eating there again; not only because of the foie gras but also because of the ridiculous price and the fact that we just can't appreciate expensive food like this. Maybe it's because of the French influence but it just didn't taste that great to me, and definitely not worth $148! But I guess if you do like French-Japanese food, you could consider Fat Cow, but please request that the foie gras be removed and maybe if enough people do so, they will remove that as a side dish.

Thanks for reading!

To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!