Wagyumafia’s luxury Japanese beef lives up to the hype (yes, even the US$125-supplement sandwich)

As the evening progressed at Wagyumafia, my friend and I wondered if the chefs had to audition for their jobs not by cooking, but by using the pose made famous by the restaurant’s founder, Hisato Hamada – arm outstretched, holding the meat or whatever dish they were presenting, chin down and eyes smouldering at the camera.

The chefs certainly were all an affable lot; friendly and talkative, they chatted knowledgeably and at length about the dishes they were serving.

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We had to book online (and pay upfront) a month before eating there. Seats could have been reserved sooner if we had been “Wagyumafia members” (which costs HK$1,000), and our meal would have been HK$2,600 per person (not including any supplements). Instead, we booked the ordinary Wagyumafia tasting menu (HK$1,800 plus service charge per person), plus one “world famous chateaubriand sandwich” with a supplement of HK$1,000 (US$127).

Was it worth the wait – and the price? We were sceptical – a pretty pose does not necessarily make a good meal.

And they were at risk of overselling the Ozaki beef – which, we were told was named after its farmer in Miyazaki prefecture who produces only 60 cattle a month, of which 30 stay in Japan, with the others available for the rest of the world. We were also told that the fat has a melting point that is lower than the human body temperature, so the beautifully marbled meat feels less fatty as we eat it – and that, even though we were being fed about 300 grams per person, we wouldn’t feel too bloated at the end of the meal.

Finely sliced Japanese green peppers with chilli and shio kombu was a starter that we could have eaten through the meal – it was refreshing and palate cleansing.

Gyoza were very juicy, slightly sweet, and simply delicious. We were told that the Tabasco they insisted on serving (they even presented the bottle) would balance the flavours, and they were right, although we liked it well enough without. Sirloin sando – one quarter of a sandwich each – was lightly breaded and meaty, and served on puffy sandwich bread.

Up next was the chateaubriand sando, with its HK$1,000 supplement. I’m not quite sure it was worth HK$250 per quarter (so two of us had two pieces each) but it was the tenderest, most delicate piece of beef we’ve eaten – the texture was almost pillowy.

And who knew a turnip could taste so good? The roasted Japanese turnip on turnip greens with black truffle (although it did not taste truffly) and Wagyu snow made out of the Wagyu fat was one of the best vegetable dishes I’ve eaten. The turnip was soft and sweet, with a hint of bitterness. The only disappointing dish of the meal was a Hong Kong exclusive of Wagyu spring roll. It was crunchy but you could not taste the beef, and the filling contained too much cornflour.

When they put the large shiitake mushroom in front of us, they warned us that it was juicy. Roasted in a Josper grill, the mushroom, seasoned only with olive oil and salt, was succulent – the juices dripped out as we ate it – and wonderfully intense.

The rib-eye – with the eye and cap sliced separately – was a fantastic piece of beef.

I preferred the meatier flavour of the cap portion, but the eye was also good. The beef was served with ground sansho, delicious sansho buds pickled in soy sauce, ground pepper, and an excellent salt flavoured with dried scallops, kombu and shiitake mushrooms.

The tsukemen ramen signalled that we were at the end of the savoury courses. It was the best tsukemen ramen I’ve tasted.

The thick noodles, topped with grated fresh sudashi, were toothsome, and we dipped them into a thick sauce studded with pieces of beef, beef fat and leeks. After we finished eating the noodles, the staff poured some dashi into the cups to water down the gravy, so it became a sippable broth.

We were asked if we were still hungry – and surprisingly (after 300 grams of beef), we could still eat more. So we had half-portions (HK$60 each) of the curry rice, which was excellent, because both the rice and the curry sauce were of such high quality.

Dessert was a sweet-salty-savoury-spicy Wagyu fat and aged whisky ice cream, served with salt and chilli powder.

Wagyumafia, shop 1/B Guardian House, 32 Oi Kwan Road, Wan Chai, tel: 2812 0500. HK$1,800 per person for the signature tasting menu, without drinks or the service charge

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