Winter time means hot pot, so Master Cow is a welcome arrival as it brings bubbling broths, a self-serve sauce bar and DIY fun.
14/20
Chinese$$
Beef aorta might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of hot pot, but don’t discount it. The vital artery is cleaned to a pristine white and, after a few minutes in simmering soup, it yields a gentle cartilaginous crunch that’s also high in collagen – bonus skincare!
For many Chinese people, winter time means hot pot, so World Square’s newly opened Master Cow and its aorta are well-timed arrivals. It’s a slick setup, with individual, temperature-controlled induction pots, QR-code ordering (ask for the paper menu if you prefer to see all options at once) and complimentary paper aprons to minimise any soup splatter damage, which is all but guaranteed.
The pitch here is the availability of hand-cut beef, no pork (although the kitchen is not yet halal certified) and a Cantonese signature soup base made from cow bones. By 6pm, the restaurant is pumping – mostly friend groups and young families at this hour – and late-night dinner is available until 2am on weekends. Bright tangerine orange walls are splashed with cow motifs and hyped-up slogans such as “beef till you’re filled”.
Everyone gets their own hot pot, which means you also get to choose your own soup base, ranging from tangy tomato and oxtail soup to the fiery red Sichuan spicy fish number (a slick of red chilli oil appeared even when we asked for mild). The pipi soup wins points for its sweet seafood notes, but we can see why the signature soup is recommended. Its herbal beefy undertones are full of flavour but won’t overpower your individual hot pot ingredients.
Personal hot pots mean there’s no squabbling over how many fish balls should go into the communal pot at any one time, or who forgot to take out the slice of beef that now resembles leather (it wasn’t me!). And while there’s a little less merry chaos, there’s still a sense of DIY fun as everyone tends to their own cauldron. Staff quietly top up your soup when the tide gets low.
A self-serve sauce bar lets you customise your dipping bowl with as little or as much raw garlic, coriander, sesame sauce and chilli as you can handle. Hot tip: don’t add too much liquid to your sauce given how much soup will eventually end up in it anyway. Service is fiercely efficient, so by the time you’ve made your sauce and had a squiz at the glassed-in butchers slicing beef, food will already be arriving at your table.
The Master Cow beef platter is the dish that makes everyone’s head turn: a golden cow statue adorned with beef and brought to the table in plumes of dry ice. The kitchen chooses which cuts you’re served, and although our waiter doesn’t initially know which slices are which, an apologetic dash back to the kitchen confirms our meet cornucopia includes highly marbled wagyu, beef tongue, “premium fatty beef”, prime rib and shin shank conical (a rare cut within the heel muscle prized for its tenderness and flavour).
Eating your way around the platter lets you explore the different tastes and textures of each cut, from buttery wagyu and the creamy bite of tongue, to the richness of shin shank. In addition to the hand-cut beef, there’s a larger section of offal such as tendon, honeycomb tripe and that aorta. Seafood options include prawns, abalone and scallops, plus crab and lobster are available for ordering in advance. Fish balls, meatballs and dumplings also abound.
Leafy crown daisy, or chrysanthemum leaves, are mandatory. They cook to a vibrant green in less than a minute and have a mild grassiness that provides palate-reviving relief from all the rich meats. Meanwhile, white radish and winter melon need to properly wallow in the soup so that by the time they’ve cooked through they’ve soaked up all the broth’s evolving flavours.
The vegetable section is long and thorough, with more interesting options including fresh lotus root, bamboo fungus and Chinese yam, a starchy tuber that cooks through to an intriguingly chalky texture. Just save the noodles for last, so their starchiness doesn’t thicken the soup too early. Handmade noodles are our table’s pick – coils of toothsome thin strands that may turn your stomach from almost-full to exploding.
At the 55-minute mark we’re politely reminded that our booking is only for 90 minutes. Many people were turned away because the dining room was at capacity by 6pm. Given it had only been open for three weeks when I visited, all signs point to Master Cow becoming a roaring success at World Square. Who needs pork when you’ve got midnight aorta?
The low-down
Atmosphere: Dip, plunge and slosh premium beef your way in bubbling soups
Go-to dishes: Master Cow beef platter ($128.80); crown daisy ($9.80); radish ($8.80); handmade noodles ($9.80)
Drinks: Soju, crisp whites and beers plus a broad selection of non-alcoholic options, including chrysanthemum tea and barley water
Cost: About $120 for two, excluding drinks
Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.
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Helen Yee is a restaurant reviewer for Good Food.
