Review TGK Fatty Cow @ Six Star Food Court in Mount Austin Johor Bahru 東甲小肥牛 @ 六星美食中心

Came to Six Star Food Court in Mount Austin to check out a newly opened beef noodle stall in Johor Bahru.

Stall name: TGK Fatty Cow 東甲小肥牛

Address: Six Star Food Court 六星美食中心 69, Jalan Mutiara Emas 5/1, Taman Mount Austin, 81100 Johor Bahru (Ample street side parking)

Hours: 9:00am - 2:00pm (Friday off)

Six Star Food Court has become quite popular even though it is located inside an industrial estate. I was last here before the Covid pandemic in 2019 and the food court has expanded since. It's a stone's throw from JWC 30 Factory Cafe which opened in 2014 and has stood the test of time - it is still the hipster cafe to go to in JB. (Strange, I feel old using the word "hipster" 🤔 Time really flies.)

TGK Fatty Cow is one of some twenty plus stalls at the Six Star Food Court.

The menu is small and straightforward. Soup / dry, meat / tendon / tripe / balls, different noodles, various serving sizes.

I got the RM15 dry kway teow set.

I like it that the kway teow were the broad kind but they were firmer and more chewy than I like. Blanching it a little longer might help.

I like the savoury sweetish beefy brown sauce but there was just enough of it and no more. Was tempted to splash in a bit of soup to moisten the kway teow but didn't as it would change the taste profile of the sauced noodles.

There's quite a lot of meat, tendon and tripe for RM15.

I found out from the boss Ah Yau that he uses a mix of local yellow cows and imported beef. This is understandable as local yellow cow costs a lot more.

The local beef was tender, moist, beefy with an almost milky creamy aftertaste. I love it.

Imported beef was tender too but a little coarse and chewy towards the end just before swallowing. It also dosn't have the milky creamy beefiness of local beef.

(Pro tip: After the meal, I asked boss Ah Yau if I could just have local beef by paying a slight premium. He said yes 👍 )

I like the tendon which were boiled till they were tender soft like jelly but with a subtle crunch to the bite.

I like the tripe a lot. They were soft spongy with a gentle crunch and had a subtle sweetish taste plus flavours from the soup. Excellent. Ask boss for more 🫢

The soup had medium body, tasted savoury beefy with spice flavours. The taste of star anise was too quite pronounced. There were also bits of salted vegetable (kiam chye) in the soup which gave it a bit of tangy saltiness.

I like it that Ah Yau fries his own shallots, so they were fresh and rich with flavour and aroma. Ah Yau uses shallots imported from India which he says is more aromatic. So much pride in his craft 💪

I like this chili sauce. It's a blend of spicy, sour and slight saltiness.

Ah Yau is actually the brother-in-law of the boss of the famous Do Do Do Beef of Tangkak, one of my favourite beef places in Singapore and Malaysia. It's my regular pit stop between JB and KL as it is conveniently midpoint between the two cities and located just beside the highway.

Welcome Tangkak beef to Johor Bahru.

Written by Tony Boey on 22 Feb 2023