Has Anyone Tried Wagyu (Kobe) Beef, Was It As Good As They Say?

SeaBreeze

SeaBreeze

Endlessly Groovin'
Location
USA
I've been wanting to try Wagyu (Kobe) Beef Steaks, from what I hear they are delicious and tender. Has anybody ever had Wagyu, if so, did you really like it? Also, have you ever prepared it yourself at home? I understand it is prepared very rare. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagyu
 

If you wanna hear about steak just ask a carnivore.

Like you I was busting to try it but didn't fancy paying 90 bucks for a meal of it in an over rated restaurant but a miracle happened.

The local butcher had decided to go up market and had some shipped in in vacuum packs from the "same supplier" as the restaurants but he got it cheaper because of oversupply and some other speil. So I got a piece about dinner plate size for 10 bucks!

It looked very dark and if anything I'd have picked it as roo meat except for the marbling of fat.

I'd learned from TV that it has to be eaten very rare and that's how I like steak anyway. I cut it into 3 smaller pieces in case I ruined one but got it right first time.
Just scared it a little in a skillet (didn't have a griller at the time) just enough to seal the side then flip it once. It was fairly thin, under 1/2 inch, so only a minute or two at most each side. Let it rest for a few minutes before cutting, it should still 'bleed' a bit.

It was very strongly flavoured, almost gamey, but definitely that rich beef flavour found in particularly good Rump steaks, and melted before you could chew it. Mmmmm. It is the Ferrari of steaks.

The fat gives it the 'special' qualities that make it so expensive, and so tender, so get a well marbled piece. I really enjoyed it but I still wouldn't lay out 90 bucks for a piece.

I've never seen it anywhere else since, so enjoy it for me too huh?

Off topic but I bought a spatchcock for the first time ever a few weeks ago. Wouldn't pay the $12 they wanted for a baby chook the size of a pigeon, but no one else would pay it either so they put them on special for $5 each on the 'use by' day.

Now that was the Ferrari of chickens.
 
Wagu beef, for the price of it, it is not justified.
We have a good local butcher, his supplies are from a country farm, where I often buy a large T-bone steak for the BBQ.
Medium cooked with garlic and herbs butter, it is a food from heaven.
However, for stews and soups, we buy cheap cuts, with bone, marow, and grisle, that are benefitial to sauce, taste, .
French sauces and stocks are the best, as they use the cheapest pieces and offcuts of beef!!
 

I nearly ran over one of these near Thargomindah two years ago. Hard to see at night .....

220px-Wagyu.jpg


Does that count? ;)
 
I've had it, SB, and it is probably one of the best steaks I've ever had. I don't eat beef often and NEVER prepare it, or I wouldn't be able to eat it. I know, I'm soooo weird! The occasion and opportunity for such an expensive meal was via a company Xmas dinner at very upscale Sullivan's Steakhouse a few yrs ago. I would never order anything so expensive on my own.

If you enjoy steak, you really should splurge and try it.
 
Katy, if we find a decent local restaurant that serves it, we'll probably give it a try...thanks for your review of it! :) We've had good buffalo steak, and wasn't very impressed, would rather have regular quality beef steak, our favorite cut is rib eye.
 
Wagyu has a very strong flavour but most notable is it's fat content which gives steak flavour. Any really good cut of well marbled beef is preferable to lean steak, Wagyu is bred and fed for flavour but it's an expensive acquired taste. I like it but won't be paying that much to indulge in it.

I've eaten buffalo steaks but doubt it was the same buffalo you are referring to. It was water buffalo at a BBQ in the NT. It was fillet barbied in foil with herbs and oil and was sensationally goooood.
We had crocodile steaks too but I'd give that a miss, like rubbery turkey leftovers and you'd know what they taste like by now.
 
I have had it and it was very good, but I would never pay the price myself. I have also tried buffalo steaks while living out west. They were very flavorful, but not as tender. However, the best steak I have ever had was venison butterfly steak cooked over an open fire. It was so tender you could cut it with a fork and it practically melted in your mouth.
 
I have had Wagyu (at a grill house) before just to try it, and it was quite good. However, I actually prefer the taste of dry-aged steaks. Dry-aged steaks are just so flavorful! Don't get me wrong, Wagyu is really good, but I probably wouldn't buy it again (and spend that money on a dry-aged).
 
I bought a package of Wagyu beef frankfurters for $10.99 at a small local meat market last week, never did get to have a good Wagyu steak yet, but we will if we come across one. Anyway, the franks were really plump and split apart when we warmed them up in the frying pan. They tasted pretty good, but they were very rich and fatty, I won't ever buy them again.

We're really not hot dog people and only have them a couple of times a year, usually when we're camping I'll buy nitrate-free beef franks (Coleman). I'd go for a Wagyu hamburger though, if there was a nearby restaurant serving them.
 
I did have a Wagyu burger in a casual style restaurant. I couldn't detect any difference in that burger from most others. In fact, I've had better.

Since I'm so confused about the difference between Kobe and Wagyu, I did a search. I'm still confused but I did learn that-

Legitimate Kobe beef is priced around $200 per portion for a steak, and $50 for a burger.
All Kobe is Wagyu, but not all Wagyu is Kobe
Wa =Japanese or Japanese Style
Gyu =The Japanese word for a Cow or Cattle
Kobe= City in Japan

https://www.quora.com/Whats-the-difference-between-Wagyu-and-Kobe-beef
 
I never knew the difference and figured they were the same. But the Wagyu franks were supposed from US beef, that's probably why they were so cheap. I figured a hamburger, if it was the real deal from Japan, would run around $30-$50, they were talking about it one day on the radio. But I haven't known a local restaurant that specialized in preparing and serving it.
 
RadishRose said:
I did have a Wagyu burger in a casual style restaurant. I couldn't detect any difference in that burger from most others. In fact, I've had better.

Since I'm so confused about the difference between Kobe and Wagyu, I did a search. I'm still confused but I did learn that-

Legitimate Kobe beef is priced around $200 per portion for a steak, and $50 for a burger.
All Kobe is Wagyu, but not all Wagyu is Kobe
Wa =Japanese or Japanese Style
Gyu =The Japanese word for a Cow or Cattle
Kobe= City in Japan
Click to expand...

I was in the US Air Force. I got stationed in Japan in '89. I had real Kobe beef there.
For me, it didn't live up to the hype, and wasn't worth the price. But, I'm not the typical diner as I grew up on a farm. We had some beef cattle and butchered one for ourselves (and family and friends) once in a while. That means I've have the very best cuts of beef from a hand picked steer that was grass and/or corn fed. I don't eat much beef, because I can't afford the cuts I like very often.

Re The difference;
Wagyu is a breed of beef cattle. Roughly, Japans version of angus.
Kobe beef is meat of a wagyu that has been meticulously raised. What it ate, how much, how often and even what it drank was strictly regimented. So was it's movement / exercise. It was also massaged.
Kobe beef is also cooked to very explicit regulations.

In short; wagyu is an element of kobe beef, but it's only part of the equation and not the same at all.
 
AZ Jim said:
I have eaten buffalo but don't care for it. It is very lean, dark in color and a little gamey.
Click to expand...

I eat a lot of buffalo (bison) because there are large herds around here, but I can't imagine why anyone would eat a buffalo steak and expect it to compare favorably to beef steak. For the consumer, buffalo has two major things going for it over beef: (1) until recently, there was far less danger of contracting E. coli from buffalo; and (2) it's less fatty.

That "less fatty" thing means buffalo does not have the fat marbling that makes a steak juicy. I like buffalo roasts, and they taste great if they're cooked with moist heat. Ground buffalo is also quite good, but when I use it for meat loaf, I always mix in a bread-milk panade so it gains and retains some moisture.

I forgot to answer the question about wagyu and kobe. I ate kobe steak at a Japanese friend's home years ago and was impressed with both the flavor and tenderness. It was fork-tender. Having said that, it's far too expensive for me so that's probably going to be my only experience.
 

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