Fat Cow’s got real burgers

Fat Cow's Notorious BIG
When Fat Cow Burgers and Malts tells you “we’ve got the beef,” you’ve got to believe them.

Because they just don’t have the beef, they have the real beef.

Owner Mariles Alvarez-Nable said they have local suppliers for their sirloin patties, while they import their Angus beef from the US.

This may be the reason why the burgers at Fat Cow are quite expensive – the most pricey is the Notorious BIG at P295. This particular humungous burger is made of a half-pound premium-blend beef patty and cheese, stuffed with fresh tomatoes and greens. It’s actually quite huge, hence the name. And the patty, it’s not just all beef, it’s also juicy and tasty, that you don’t need a sauce or any catsup to add flavor.

The owner explained that they make sure that their burgers don’t need special sauces.

“There are places with big burgers oozing with sauces. It does not appeal to us. The real burger enthusiasts, they want plain burgers. They don’t even want sauces. They just want to try the patty,” she said.

And, Fat Cow is not only particular with its burgers and how they are prepared, it is also keen on its bread.

Nable said that while they put “a lot of efforts” in coming up with good patties, they also do the same with their bread.

“Because you cannot have a good sandwich without a good bread. Even if a patty is so good and you have a dry bun or something with preservatives and all, you still won’t enjoy it,” she said.

Fat Cow has two kinds of bread to choose from: white and wheat.


It also has milkshakes, mac and cheese and other American staples. It is not, however, an American brand.

Fat Cow's double patty and double cheese burger

“Many people are asking if Fat Cow is brand from the US, I am proud to say that it’s homegrown. You don’t have to be a brand from the Us to have good products. You just have to put in your efforts in coming up with good products,” Nable said.

Nable is from a family who owns and operates Montebello Villa Hotel and Costabella Resort. She also owns Pueblo Mexicano, a Mexican restaurant at BTC.

“My family, we have restaurants and other business like Costabella, Montebello; we are our worst critics,” she said.

Asked if she is opened for franchising, Nable said even two years after opening the firs tFat Cow, she would still want to ensure that they keep the quality of their products before expanding.

“We know that in any food outlet, the problem is always the consistency. It tastes good now, it is not later. That is really a challenge. But we always tell our staff to please always listen to our customers because we cannot be eating these things every day. We take efforts to ensure the quality is there,” she said.

She said she had already received requests for franchises outside Cebu in the past, but turned them down, as ”we want to take it slow.”

“We want to make it big, but we want to do it slowly but properly. The problem with expanding fast is you lose the quality. We are looking at how we grow but maintaining the quality. The family is very conscious about the quality. It is not just the money,” she said.

Fat Cow’s first branch was opened in 2015 at Banilad Town Center. It then branched out in Ayala but was shut down after the building where it had a space was torn down. Its latest addition is in Robinsons Galleria.



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