Pin It
We received a proposal from the couple in the Tiny Urban Kitchen. As Mr. CSO's birthday is just a day earlier than Foursheets', they wondered if we would be interested in doing a joint celebration. They are big fans of
Wagyumafia and have joined as members, and invited us to share this unique experience.
I know of a few people who were among the earliest members of Wagyumafia when they first opened in Tokyo, but I have never really had much interest in the kind of performative dining experience that they are known for. I see them as a more modern version of
Benihana, and chuckle at the memory of my one and only meal spent at their original New York City location more thn 30 years ago - when the chef spent the whole evening been pissed that my friends and I completely ignored his theatrics. But hey... I know these guys at least serve up some pretty good beef, and our friends are a lot of fun, so we readily agreed to a joint celebration.
The entrance to the dining space is through
Mashi No Mashi - the ramen joint from the same group. As this was our first visit, Foursheets and I were kinda clueless about what was supposed to happen. There wasn't exactly an area for us to cool our heels while we waited for our friends to arrive, and it felt ridiculous to stand in an open area behind people on stools slurping down ramen, so we asked to be seated ASAP.
We were then led into this small, enclosed space where it felt like an intermediate step before stepping into a clean room or a freezer. It was here that we would get our "welcome" bite and drink. I was a little bewildered, and as the whole thing felt a little rushed, it didn't exactly feel very welcoming to me... Had I known about this little step, I probably would have chosen to wait for our friends so that we could do this together.
We were given a piece of
beef ham to start.
Sharaku Junmai Ginjo (寫楽 純米吟醸), R5BY - seimaibuai of 50%. The nose showed a lot of musk melon and banana, along with a very sweet, starchy rice profile.
After that little ritual, the two of us were led into the dining space, featuring a C-shaped counter around the prep/cooking area. I could see a Josper grill, so I assume that's where the chunks of beef would be cooked. The stools we would sit on were just a little high for someone of my stature, and it was a pain in the ass to have to get up and down. A couple of minutes later our hosts arrived, and we could finally get this party started!
Edamame and truffle - it's not unsual to start a meal at a Japanese restaurant with some
edamame (枝豆), and these were grilled instead of boiled. The black truffle on top was absolutely, utterly useless. It had neither flavor or fragrance. It was just... fiber. But most of the diners would oooh and aaah at the sight of this fancy fungus.
Since our resident member was celebrating a birthday, the restaurant offered us a free bottle of sake. This worked out perfectly for us, as the reds I brought needed time to open up.
Hakuryu Shin (白龍 真) - a little fruity with some lactic acid on the palate. Also showed starchy, fermented rice notes.
The staff paraded around this big hunk of Ozaki beef, from cattle raised by Ozaki Muneharu (尾崎宗春) on the outskirts of Miyazaki City (宮崎市). The marbling is certainly pretty.
Wagyu monaka - beef tartare is always nice, and adding a little caviar on top brought some salinity. OF COURSE there's gonna be gold foil...
We were next shown the wagyu steak that we would be served later in the meal, and this was resting under a pile of what seemed to be
very coarse sea salt.
Wagyu gyoza - these were pretty tasty. The minced beef filling was well-marinated and on the sweet side, which I won't complain about.
There are three
"Wagyusco" sauces one can use throughout the meal, but I only tried the yellow sauce made with yuzu.
Wagyu tataki(?) - well... the annoying thing about dining without a menu, where servers shout out their introductions for theatrical effect, is that sometimes you don't know exactly what they said. I'm guessing this might be
tataki (叩き) based on how rare the beef is, although admittedly it was a little more cooked than other
tataki I've had before. Anyway, the steak was pretty tasty and very nicely done. Worked well with the pickled cucumbers and
myoga (茗荷).
Wagyu spring roll - this was pretty meh. The minced beef didn't taste like much, and the gratuitous sea urchin on top made no sense whatsoever.
Wagyu dashi - so we've got slices of beef in the broth, which were pretty tender.
We were asked to drink some of the
dashi (出汁) first, before breaking up the poached egg at the bottom. Soft-boiled egg always works well with beef like this.
Wagyu siumai - these came with big chunks of onion mixed in with the minced beef, which I didn't think worked. And yes, more gratuitous caviar.
Wagyu yakishabu - the interesting part about this
"shabu (しゃぶ)" was that the thin slice of beef wasn't blanched in
dashi, but seared in direct contact with hot
binchotan (備長炭). That created a lot of smoke in the room, and I loved the smoky flavor. Of course, the beef was very tender, and came served with some simmered eggplant.
Wagyu taco - the tortilla was made with Hokkaido corn, and the diced beef came with some diced raw onions on top. In my excitement I actually forgot to add some of the Wagyusco sauce on top, so there was only a slight kick from the "green sauce". OH YES, we got some gold foil!
Uni somen - this was OK.
Ozaki steak - so this showed up about 80 minutes after it was first shown to us, having sufficiently rested.
We were offered a small taste first, as our server sliced a piece off the end and offered it up.
The beef was then sliced and plated with some Hokkaido sea urchin, together with fresh-ground wasabi,
sansho (山椒) marinated in soy sauce, ground black pepper, and homemade spice blend. We were asked to take the first slice of beef with all the condiments together.
On the side we had a salad with green bell pepper and strips of
shio kombu (塩昆布). This worked very well with the beef.
Wagyu chateaubriand sando - this is always a highlight of a Wagyumafia experience.
I had completely forgotten that our hosts had told me about all the gold foil they sprinkle on the
sando, and how they thought it would be totally up my alley. Well, I'm so glad I was here for it! There was gold EVERYWHERE!
There was gold in my hair, on my shirt, on my camera, all over the counter top...
I asked the staff not to cover up our wine glasses because I wanted some gold in my wine, too! #nogoldnolife
Yes, this was a pretty tasty
sando... but how could it not be?! The quality of the beef speaks for itself.
Wagyu tsukemen - interesting that we ended not with beef over rice but with noodles meant to be dipped in a fairly heavy sauce with diced bits of well-cooked end cuts and onions.
The texture of the noodles was pretty good and there was enough bite. The dipping sauce was a little salty, and although the staff offered to pour
dashi into the leftover sauce to make it more palatable to drink, I declined this kind offer.
Wagyu ice cream - apparently the ice cream was made with beef fat, then poured with some matcha.
I made the mistake of not decanting my wines at home, and only managed to do this after arriving at the restaurant. Maybe this was the reason the first bottle wasn't showing as well as I had hoped. Or maybe it was just bottle variation even among the same batch.
1982 Latour à Pomerol - started drinking 30 minutes after decanting. Initially this was only so-so, perhaps the wine was a little tired? Showing earthy notes without too much sweetness, maybe the nose had a hint of stewed fruits. Later on the wine opened up to reveal smoky and leather notes, and now was showing itself to be an old claret. Finished the wine about 1½ hours after decanting, and it still wasn't showing much sweet fruit.
2007 Peter Michael Les Pavots - decanted about an hour after opening, and started drinking 30 minutes after decanting. Initially the wine wasn't very open and needed to wake up in glass. It was sweeter on the palate for sure, showing its character as a Californian, but not to the point of being ripe or jammy despite being from a stellar vintage.
This was some experience! Other than being assured of the quality of the beef, I didn't have much expectations before the meal started. I hadn't realized there would be so many courses, and certainly did not imagine that many courses would be, effectively, Chinese dim sum. Most of the dishes were reasonably tasty, and I wasn't the least bit surprised at the gratuitous use of "luxe" ingredients like caviar, sea urchin, and truffle. Showmanship, after all, is the ethos of this place. The endless shouts in unison of
"Itterashai (いってらっしゃい！) accompanying the presentation of each dish was cringy and got tired real quick, but I understand that for most people, THAT WAS WHAT THEY CAME FOR. So I kept my focus on the food and enjoying the company of our hosts, to whom I am grateful for the kind treat.
So where would we do the joint celebration next year?
No comments:
Post a Comment