There, I said it. Had some Wagyu A5, genuine certified import from Japan prepared by an actual chef on a handful of occasions. The last one was on Saturday as part of a business conference in the exec suite of some fancy hotel, talking to potential investors.
The set menu cost the equivalent of $700 per person, wines not included.
And. I. still. don’t. like. it.
The meat is simply too rich, too soft, too greasy. There’s no bite to it. Every time I try it, it reminds me of sucking on a piece of beef flavored butter. A slightly solidified cube of beef lard.
Just give me a Black Angus rump or sirloin steak if you must, that’s pretentious enough at a fraction of the cost and provides such a nicer eating experience.
And please, PLEASE, for the love of everything holy, don’t give me Wagyu cubes topped of with steamed foie gras. That’s akin to buttering your lard. Maybe in 50 years when all my teeth are gone, I’ll appreciate being able to grind down a piece of beef between my gums. But as it stands, the Wagyu hype couldn’t die fast enough.
/rant
I’m having trouble with your preference for rump or sirloin. Maybe you just don’t like beef if you didn’t list ribeye first? Or maybe you like things well done?
Ribeyes can be nice, really depending on the particular piece of meat, but they can already be marbled beyond my liking. I eat my steaks rare, bordering on blue, so I want the meat to be on the leaner side since you don’t render all the fat out in the cooking process.
When I make my own I’ll usually go for picanha (rump cap), cut them into thick slices and grill them on the fat cap until it’s rendering in the pan and then brown the meat just for half a minute on either side in the fat.