It would have been criminal to come all this way from London and not try the renowned Kobe beef.

So when booking my flight back from Miyakojima and Kobe popped up as a destination airport it was meant to be.

Wakkaqu was the restaurant of choice which was a higher end choice, but didn’t want to skim on the experience and I wasn’t let down.

Teppenyaki was the style of cooking. So a chef looked after our every need for the evening. Amazingly the chef spoke near perfect English without having lived abroad. He says he’s a singer and loves The Beatles.

A mixture of sirloin and the recommended fillet steak set meal was duely ordered.

At the start of the meal the chef carefully placed garlic slices on the grill and toasted them to perfection. He then plated up a selection of condiments of local sea salt, pepper, english mustard and the toasted garlic. There was of course the obligatory shoyu (soy sauce) on the side.

The chef would prepare bite size pieces of the meat alternating with one of a variety of vegetables, tofu and potato gel cooked in the excess beef fat that he chops off at the beginning. At every step the chef would explain the detail of and difference of the food he was serving.

Each serving was done so at you eating pace. The meal is finished off with fried rice flavoured with little beef fat and meat nuggets and finely diced vegetables.

 

As you finish one serving he would plate the next in almost perfect timing. The beauty of this way of dining was that every mouthful was a perfect temperature, a nice crisp on the outside yet rare enough to enjoy the flavour of the meat. The chef would recommend on or a number of condiments to try to accompany each morsel of food.

Well? How did the beef taste? – I hear you ask. I chose the sirloin because I wanted a bit of fat. The beefy meaty flavour burst out on every downward grind of my jaw and swilled around my mouth as my jaw opened again.

It was simply so divine every jaw movement happened in slow motion to try and savour the experience longer. The chef enjoyed a chuckle as I closed my and made various murmurs of oral pleasure. In actual fact the fillet (or as the locals call it by the actual cut tenderloin) was an even nicer balance of meat and fat. More meat meant a firmer (meaty?) texture, but still oh so packed full of flavour. Glad I was able to try both and compare. Would probably stick to the tenderloin next time.

I have eaten some amazing food in Japan, but I’m going to put it out there and say this comes the top of my list. Amazing ingredients, cooked with such precision, care and love and as always in Japan top class service.