The Fat Cow & Oyster Bar

First time there, checked Unilocal for reviews, mixed bag. IM GOING BACK. Greeted at door with reservation and taken directly to seats. Given it was early 6 pm on a Saturday. Waiter there immediately ‘Elliott’ saying hello and took a drink order. In between brought menus and then the drinks. Chatted about different menu items answered all our questions with extreme patience and enthusiasm. Bread was brought to the table. We had the one pound mussels in tyme cream sauce. If no one was around I would have licked the bowl. DELICIOUS and succulent mussels, also huge. Second course was bone marrow, it was made into a butter and served in the half bone. Again a tasty and rich appy served with grilled bread. Main was the burger, it was different with a type of sweet sauce with Brei baked in meat which is a generous portion with a aioli that all blended very nice. Other main was the single boil, crab, mussels, clams, andouille sausage, with a corn hash. Fresh and plentiful. Couple of drinks bill was 109.00 we will go back again to try the other dishes. I recommend it, oh and as I said we were early at 6, by 7 they were almost full. Seems it’s not a secret. Cheers to Fat Cow.

We visited here early evening on a Tuesday. I’m impressed with the menu. Lots of the normal stuff but with an avant garde twist and subtle flavours. This place would do well downtown but we have it here! The oyster selection is as good as the big guys and fresh too. EAT HERE!

I got a gift certificate for this restaurant for Christmas and heard a lot of good feedback about this restaurant. This is a real hidden gem sitting on the Langley-​side of the Golden Ears bridge.
The restaurant serves all their dishes in a family-​style fashion and the food comes out as it finished in the kitchen (ie: not all at the same time). I had the waffles and fried chicken, as well as the roasted bone marrow and it was great!!! They also have live music every Friday night.
I would strongly suggest trying this place out yourselves, it has the same feeling as a downtown Vancouver restaurant but in a strip mall in Langley…

Amazing food great service! Burger and beer night is to die for quality and great value! Been many times and never disappointed.

Chris and Emmy are a amazing people! Super friendly, amazing food and all around great place to get together with friends!

If you go in knowing that seafood is pricey and that service isn’t going to be a race to the bill, then this place is fantastic. Ambiance is rustic but comfortable, sufficient tables inside, dimly (but not darkly) lit, live music (she was very talented and played a great variety of tunes), multiple attentive servers coming around constantly filling glasses and taking empty plates. The food: we shared a tie of oysters, prawns, mussels, and clams. It was well explained, tasted fresh and flavourful, and came very quickly considering how busy they were (they had one large birthday party and another large table).
We heard of slow service so we decided to put that order in immediately and ordered our appetizers and mains soon afterward. I had the 1lb of mussel steamers with the garlic and leek sauce — this was a wonderful portion. Well seasoned, the mussels were delicate, tender, bursting with flavour. We shared the delicious cornbread (I would say $ 5 for 2 pieces is a bit much), and apparently my friends’ duck poutine, cioppino, chicken and waffles (a half chicken!!) were all wonderful.
YES, it is expensive. YES, this place seems kind of out of place in Langley. It is reminiscent of Yaletown/​Downtown Van places. Prices reflect the same. I’d love to come back on a night that they have cheaper oysters so I can really indulge! Will return to try more things off the menu.

We finally tried this place out. The food was just ok. I think for what it’s trying to be it falls short. The menu and prices are like a nice downtown restaurant but the food and service did not match the expectations. One thing that also stood out to me is the hostess (perhaps owner) She really stood out in grey tights and a wrinkled t-​shirt that you could see her sports bra through. The rest of the servers were well dressed and put together but she looked like she was ready for bed. Again if you are going for the higher end experience she was way out of place. Glad we tried it but won’t be back.

Food was excellent but bring patience… waited 20 minutes to get a drink, appy took close to 1 hour. We’re fine with a 3 hour dinner but need to keep the drinks and maybe bread coming right from the start. If they had more staff they could sell a lot more! Even just a bartender won help… but I digress. Restaurant had a great vibe, staff was very nice and the seafood was awesome. Wished for a salmon or tuna main though. Oysters were super fresh. Will go back (on a semi-​full stomach) so we can wait.

a disappointing experience overall.
we had a large group booking which was accepted no problem. the issues were the food took an excessive amount of time to arrive at the table, then the food was mediocre at best. it took ages to get our bill. no one was in a rush, but we were at the restaurant waiting for each course or more drinks for a total of 3.5 hours before we got our bills to then pay.
I contacted the person I had been correspond with for the reservation who told me that it was our fault for the time length in receiving our food as we had guests arrive 15 – 20 minutes later than planned. in addition, no one else complained, so it couldn’t have been that bad.
I, and the rest of our group feel that our business was not appreciated and they couldn’t care less about our feedback. underwhelmed completely.
we will never go back.

Group of 20 of us went for a friends birthday last night. Great ambiance, live music that isn’t to loud so you can still talk. Service was quick and friendly. We had oysters, a mussel steamer pot and beat salads. friends had the fat cow seafood bowl. All were fresh and delicious. This is a hidden gem in Langley. Definitely going back.

Came here for dinner after a movie at Colussus. Both my Dad and I were really impressed! Opted for a lighter meal, so we shared 1 ½ LBS of mixed steamers in a lovely white wine, garlic and leek broth. Very flavourful! We added a basket of bread for $ 2 to soak up all that wonderful broth. Also shared the marrow cheese bread and the garlic fries! WOW. Cheese bread was suitable cheesey and the marrow flavor was mild and delicious. It was slightly oily, but that was due to the cheese on top. The fries and aioli were SO garlicky… and that’s good! Garlic fries SHOULD be so. Service was great, very friendly. When we got there at 6 it was empty. 30 minutes later FULL. Lots of different groups, from young 20s to seniors and the food delivered to all the tables looked fantastic. Love the look inside. It’s very Gastown or Yaletown feeling, and it’s nice to have something like this in Langley in the midst of all the franchises and chains. We both said we’d be back in a heartbeat! I’m dying to try marrow appie and more of the steamers… and oysters!

This place was so good I went twice in one week! It really is the Fraser Valley’s hidden gem, and I can’t believe it took me so long to try it as I drive by it all the time. It’s location is a bit odd, I know, but WOW! They’ve really got something going on here!!! You walk inside and immediately feel like your dining in Gastown! And the owners,…super nice!
But most important is the food is outstanding! Everything that was ordered, on both nights,…one word… delicious! From the oysters, both on the half shell and baked, to the dessert!!! And I love that they have items on the menu that you wouldn’t normally make at home, or if your a foodie like I am, see chefs make on the food network… like the bone marrow!
I consider myself a pretty good judge of food and have traveled to many places just to eat a specific restaurants from Vancouver to NYC… and I’d put this one on the list for sure!
I hope you check it out and enjoy your experience as much as I did!
OH! And on Friday & Saturday nights they have live music! When we were there, a very talented young man by the name of Andrew Christopher played. He was a great addition to our evening!

Worst dining experience of 2014. Had a 6pm reservation and got our food at 830pm… no world of a lie. Their excuse was their prep cook didn’t show up. That’s fine and understandable, but even after having us wait trapped (were there for a celebration dinner) for 3 hours, not even a sorry, comp desert, nothing. This place doesn’t deserve to be in business, so avoid at all costs.
The food? Anything would have tasted good by that point, but our ‘steamer’ bowl was flavourless and disappointing. No salt or pepper on the table… didn’t dare ask for some.
Oh, and by the time we left, our entire table of about 12 people were all sweating like it was 100 degrees in there… no sign of any air conditioning, so if you do enjoy waiting 3 hours for dinner, best to go in the winter.

Popped in to the Fat Cow last night for a small Xmas gathering and ate from a prepared menu (though now I want to go back and see what their regular menu looks like! Nom!). Beautiful restaurant in an odd half empty mini mall, never knew it was there and I drive through that area on the regular! Started with the sherbet punch drinky, which was good but not entirely my thing. Sweet but not too sweet, so I was happy. My first course was the beet salad, which was just so pretty and more like a slice of cake with its layers of beets and chèvre. So tasty, the tang of the chèvre and balsamic toned down the sweetness of the beets. Followed with an odd little martini, the one with gin & lavender, which was a warm & slightly sweet sip (though the minuscule sprigs of lavender in the glass made me a spillypants, fearing I was drinking bug juice. Whoopsy!). My main was the steelhead salmon with root vegetable risotto. I’m a sucker for risotto. You could basically offer me week-​old banana peel risotto and I’d be all up in it. The salmon was cooked perfectly and seasoned with herbs de Provençal, very tasty. The risotto was da bomb diggity, as I figured it would be. Coupled my main up with a glass of the house Syrah (which is now on my to-​buy list of booze) and it paired beautifully. Finished with a bread pudding with all sorts of sweet & savory sauces. All in all, a delicious meal! Will be back in January for my birthday for sure!

I don’t usually go out into the Fraser valley, but when I do I make it a habit to stop here for some good oysters and food!
Service is really friendly and the food is fresh, delicious and never disappoints. It is a seafood restaurant so I expect to pay the price, so if you’re complaining about price and value etc. better try the burger joint you’ll fill up nicer with $ 20.
Oysters are great, never had an issue or a bad one. The meats here are wonderful as well, always try something new but gotta say I love it all! Never overlooked and always perfectly seasoned. I don’t usually like dessert at restaurants but the lemon tart here is super memorable, it’s tangy and sweet and so light and yummy.
Great people and great food makes for a great meal! Highly recommend to everyone!

The first time I decide to try out a new restaurant I try to come for lunch, that way if it’s terrible at least the financial hit isn’t so bad. I wasn’t afforded this option at the Fat Cow as the last time I stopped there they were closed, at 2:15, despite their hours saying open from 11am-​9pm that day. I guess I’d missed the proviso on the bottom of the webpage that they were closed from 2 – 4 every day, my bad…
This place has potential but just kinda falls flat. It’s in a strip mall in an industrial area of North Langley. The exterior is seriously lacking in character with no patio, but they had made the interior pretty pleasant considering it’s your typcal strata strip mall big square box. We walked in to a very strong waft of fish smell. Yes they serve fish here but I’ve been to many full on seafood restaurants without a smell like this. Immediately past reviews I’d read where the writer was not happy with the age of the fish came to mind… We had come for the raw oysters so wasn’t put at ease presently! I had made a reso on Unilocal but with lots of empty tables near windows, but they put us on small walled section in the middle of the dining room, weird.
The waitress was pleasant and attentive, not overly helpful with the menu, no complaints, or accolades there. The oysters were excellent, we had a dozen, 4 different varieties and they were all tasty with lashings of the standard horseradish/​lemon as well as a watermelon sauce of some kind. Appies were mussels in cream sauce (bread for dipping was dry/​seemed storebought), and albacore tostadas, both tasty and well prepared. However, this place is expensive. 2 beers, 2 house wines, 2 appies and 12 oysters was over $ 120. Not a terrible place but really not worth the Yaletown+ prices. If you want oysters, go downtown and probably still pay the same after factoring the Port Mann toll and gas. Then the night is your oyster! Not too many apres dining options in industrial North Langley. Might try them again for lunch, if I can make that restrictive time window.
* 2 stars ambiance/​curb appeal/​neighbourhood
* 4 stars food
* 3 stars service
* 1 star for value, =2.5 stars total, but I gotta round down here folks.

The food was very good but be prepared to pay accordingly. The prices are not completely out of line and I would say I was satisfied with the value for money.
Service was very good and the live entertainment was a nice touch. Good house wines that won’t break the bank rounded out a great meal.

My wife and I thought we would try this place out to celebrate her successfully completing some exams — what a mistake. She ordered an $ 8 chocolate martini, she got a martini glass with Kalua and milk.
A Chocolate martini is supposed to be vodka and crème de cacao? $ 8 for milk??? We shared a $ 12 crab cake it wasn’t bad but was only about 4 oz. she
Had a $ 30 AAA tenderloin which was grey looking and over-​seasoned. It came with some sad looking wilted spinach a few silly veggies and the smallest, hardest baked potato I have ever seen. I ordered the 1 pound spot prawn special. They were poached to hell and the meat was like paste. There was no cornbread as advertised, but a small dry loaf of sourdough. The server visited maybe twice. What a joke this place is. $ 105 for a dinner I could have done a much better job preparing for a fraction of the price. If you are considering this place — just save yourself the trouble and visit the Keg.

Horrible place, do not go here. Took over an hour to get food, the service was terrible (waitress never asked if the food was good or refilled waters) and when I finally got my food, the ling cod was plain, about the size of a small burger patty, with barely any flavour! It only came with 7 vegetable pieces and cost me $ 20. Seriously. If you’re going to skimp on the meat, at least add mashed potatoes or salad or something!
I can honestly say that I would rather eat at burger king then fat cow… and I strongly dislike BK.

The good: they didn’t screw up my bottled beer.
The bad:
Service was terrible… water wasn’t refilled, we weren’t checked on, and as soon as the waitress realized she wasn’t doing a good job, she abandoned all hope of redeeming herself to our party
Their seafood delivery was late, so that meant no crabcakes. How can a restaurant in Langley, BC not have another way to get fresh seafood?
As an alternative to the crab cakes, we tried the lox tart appitizer… it looked like lox on a tart, but tasted like a saltlick.
I ordered the pork loin and it looked really good. My first bite was good, too. After my second and third bites, though, were the dryest and most flavourless pork I have ever had.
When I sent the dish back, I declined anything else. The food was horrible and took an unbelievable amount of time to be prepared.
Overall, this place was one of the worst restaurants I have ever eaten at.