Beginners Guide to Wagyu Beef
What is Wagyu? ‘Wa’ means Japanese Style and ‘Gyu’ means Cow or Cattle in Japanese. It is pronounced as wae-gju.
Types of Breeds – Wagyu Japanese Cattle has 4 main breeds – Japanese Black (Kuroge Washu), Japanese Polled (Mukaku Washu), Japanese Shorthorn (Nihon Tankaku Washu) and Japanese Brown (Akage Washu). 90% of the Wagyu cattle are Japanese Black.
Benefits of Wagyu Beef – Their meat contains higher % (approx. 3x compared to commercial meat) of omega-3 and omega-6. Wagyu cattle are grained fed 300-600 days of production. Most cattle are 100% vegetarian with no growth hormones or stimulants.
Quality & Pricing– There are 4 factors that the meat is graded on – marbling, brightness and color, texture and firmness and color, luster, quality of fat. Each is graded from 1-5, 5 being the highest. The meat will also receive a yield grade, A representing above standard, B standard and C below standard. A grade of A5 Wagyu meat is the highest score representing the finest wagyu beef in the world. With so many benefits to wagyu beef, the meat warrants a hefty price at over AED 180 ($50 US) per 100g.
Taste – Chefs would recommend Wagyu steaks to be cooked to medium rare or even medium. With the intense marbling and omega content, each bite is juicy, tender and smooth.
Where – Wagyu beef steaks can be found in local dedicated steakhouses. My most recent experience in Abu Dhabi was at Entrecôte Café de Paris where we were served with the most succulents Black Wagyu Beef 9+ with the special Café de Paris sauce flown in from Geneva. Read on further for my experience at Entrecote Abu Dhabi.
Entrecôte Café de Paris, Souk Qaryat Al Beri, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Welcome
My husband and I were invited to Entrecôte Café de Paris on a lovely Friday afternoon. We had a lovely chat with restaurant manager, Issam Hajbaoui who walked us through the menu and had even toured us around the kitchen and storage room facilities. Good quality ingredients and consistency were the key emphasis to maintaining a fine quality restaurant such as Entrecôte Café de Paris Abu Dhabi.
Menu Options
With Entrecôte’s single menu formula, guests really only have 4 options of meals – (1) New Zealand Beef (185 dhs), Austrailian Angus Beef (285 dhs), Wagyu Beef (395 dhs) and Black Wagyu Beef 9 (595 dhs). Full Blood A5 OMHI Wagyu will be available soon on the Café de Paris menu. This type of cattle is a rare kind which once was offered to the Shogun as medicinal purposes. Issam recommended us to try the Wagyu Beef 7 (400 day grain fed) and the Black Wagyu Beef 9+(600 day grain fed).
Every Thursday and Friday evening – Unlimited Selected Wine & Beer with New Zealand Beef Set Menu including your favourite Dessert. – AED 295 net
Meal
Along with the 200 g of the finest meat, the meal includes salad, bread and the best (and unlimited) shoe-string fries. First up was the salad and bread, it was fresh and I enjoyed the tangy sour house sauce it came with. As Issam came with the fries, he made a bold statement saying it was the best French fries in town. Quite bold indeed, but holds very true as my husband devoured his whole plate of fries and more. I thought the combination of fries and steak was not well suited for a fine-dining restaurant. I would love to see other side options such as baked potato, or sautéed vegetables on the menu in the future.
Wagyu Beef
As the main feature came to our table, onto the warming stand, our server quickly turned over the steaks over slice by slice so that the sauce could melt evening onto the meat. The plate became sizzling hot as it made vibrant yellow bubbles from the sauce. The secret Café de Paris sauce recipe is still unknown by all except one man, Mr. Boubier who flies it over from Geneva. Along with it, they also fly over their unique embossed paper table covers.
My husband and I indulged in every bite of the wagyu beef. Super tender and juicy, certainly superior quality beef. The Café de Paris sauce perfected the taste, it was full of herbs and butter. We even dipped our fries into the sauce – what a combination!
Desserts
Lastly, we ended our perfect afternoon with some sweet delights. I enjoyed the Profiteroles au Chocolat de L’Entrecôte the most as they pumped it with vanilla ice cream inside the pastries! Ideal for a nice day on their new outdoor terrace, coming soon in Fall 2017.
