You’ve all heard of normal wagyu beef but the 3 best wagyu producing regions are the Matsusaka, Kobe and Yonezawa. Of these 3 regions, the one that most beef lovers agree is the best would be wagyu coming from the Matsusaka prefecture in Mie.

Doing some research on the internets, I found out from a site called Paul’s Travel Pics that the best place to try some of this Matsusaka beef was at Steak House Satou, located in Kichijoji.

Below, you can see people queuing up from some grilled wagyu meatballs, hugely popular. The queue grew to triple that length while I was eating

This is the entrance to the restaurant upstairs, it’s quite small and easy to miss.

Super narrow and steep staircase up

Counter setting

A look at the very small interior. I’m already sitting at the extreme end of the restaurant.

Here are the busy chefs working in the tiny open-air kitchen to make beef teppanyaki for the customers. It’s hard to imagine having 4 chefs for such a small restaurant!

And finally the Tokusen sirloin set that I have been waiting for, 180 grams of glorious Matsusaka grade A5 beef!!

What can I say that hasn’t been said about Matsusaka beef already? The dense marbling of fat in the meat makes it so succulent and juicy when they cook it, and it is really so soft and tender like tofu that when you put it in your mouth and press your tongue on it, all the beefy flavour explodes in your mouth.

There must have been such an orgasmic expression on my face because the manager was so impressed that he had to give me his name card!

A closer look at the steak. Costs only 8,400yen here but the manager told me that at other restaurants it would be around 20,000 yen.

サトウ吉祥寺店 (Steak House Satou)
1-1-8 Kichijoji-Honcho, Musashino-shi, Tokyo