In case your Instagram feed appears to be like something like mine, you get served A LOT of steak porn. And a great deal of it reveals inconceivable cuts of Wagyu steak: a German butcher slicing an insanely marbled dice that appears like probably the most decadent factor one might presumably eat, or a Japanese chef putting a exactly sliced slab of an artistically marbled lower on a binchotan grill so you may hear the sizzle. This has all the time felt like pie within the sky stuff, social media fodder that I drool over from afar as a result of if I tracked it down, it in all probability wouldn’t be something just like the extremely manicured visuals. That was till I took a seat at San Francisco’s Niku Steakhouse, the place it felt like my Instagram feed had come to life and all of my Wagyu desires (after which some) got here true. 

I’ve been to steakhouses the place there’s multiple Wagyu possibility, sometimes a mix of A5 (the fattiest, commonest number of Japanese Wagyu cattle), Australian and American Wagyu (the latter two are Wagyu breeds raised on farms in different international locations). However after going to Niku — the crown jewel of SF’s mighty Omakase Restaurant Group — every thing else felt like youngster’s play as I acquired hit with a crash course on the Wagyu spectrum. 

A server introduced out instance items of 4 completely different cuts, starting from A5, rarer A4 and A3 choices, and the rarest of all of them, a “Drunken Wagyu” that was raised on a farm adjoining to a sake brewery and fed spent sake grain. I’d by no means had beef like this. Whereas A5 is widespread, Niku is one in all one in terms of stocking many A3 and A4 varieties. There are seldom-seen Wagyu cuts out there right here that you simply gained’t discover in some other restaurant within the nation, and it’s the product of the Michelin-starred chef and madman butcher behind all of it.

Earlier than Niku acquired its personal Michelin star, Government Chef Dustin Falcon labored at three-starred The French Laundry in Napa County and two-starred Lazy Bear in SF. Throughout service at Niku, he mans a three-part, crank-driven grill that makes use of reside oak from California’s Central Coast for larger hybrid and American Wagyu steaks; a smaller, extraordinarily scorching floor utilizing Japanese binchotan charcoal for these uncommon Japanese Wagyu cuts; and a compressed charcoal grill for greens like maitake mushrooms which can be cooked in — what else? — Wagyu fats. Sitting at one of many dozen or so counter seats offers you a entrance row have a look at Falcon’s tackle the traditional ritual of man and hearth. 

Then there’s butcher Man Crims, who runs The Butchershop by Niku subsequent door and has been within the commerce for 40 years. Each Crims and Falcon go to Japan yearly on journeys organized for distribution reps and discover themselves the one restaurant individuals within the caravans visiting small household farms all around the nation. It’s the relationships they construct that make it so Niku is the one place in the USA that carries sure cuts. 

“We purchase extra Japanese Wagyu as a restaurant than some A5 purveyors do,” Falcon says. “And the onerous factor is that each farmer thinks they’ve the proper technique. All of them have differentiators, however on the finish of the day, you simply need to style it, like wine.” 

There’s a concord within the fantastic eating method that Falcon brings to cooking with the extra visceral butchery of Crims. The chef is tempered, centered on flawless execution, presentation and the entire expertise of the 70-seat restaurant. The butcher, then again, is a wild man. He loves Harleys, wears a custom-made bullhead ring on one finger and a cranium on his pinky. He credit a religious trek to Mount Everest as his calling for turning into a Wagyu butcher, shares a spread of unique Wagyu cuts (like a Yamazaki whisky mash-finished Kobe) and his lunchtime butcher counter double smashburger — a 50/50 mix of home and Japanese A5 Wagyu — with Wagyu beef tallow fries is taken into account by many to be the most effective burger within the metropolis. 

“That is my dojo,” Crims says standing within the butchershop. “And I’m the trendy Cro-Magnon man. I am going out into the world with my group and produce the mammoth again and divide that up with the tribe.” 

Sitting down at Niku for dinner, we every get to select our personal knives from a variety that features a unfold of Spanish, Japanese and French metal (even a small cleaver!) that may make Hattori Hanzō jealous. My 44 Farms Prime NY Steak from Texas, rubbed with Falcon’s combination of French sea salt, garlic, onion, paprika and celery, is definitely probably the most well-executed steak I’ve had in years. 

My desk shares a Wagyu tasting of the Takamori Farms Drunken Wagyu and the Hasegawa Farms A3 Mom-Gyu. It’s wealthy with a melt-on-your-tongue umami with a savory lightness to it. The tasting is served with a dollop of contemporary wasabi to chop by any excessive fattiness, however there’s a palpable steadiness to those cuts in contrast to the fats bomb I used to be anticipating after robotically watching all of these Instagram movies. It’s elegant. 

Cuts like these fatty cubes are sometimes A5 that sit larger on the Wagyu BMS index, or Beef Marbling Rating. The size goes from one to 12, with 12 being the very best; A5 cuts are sometimes within the eight to 12 vary. Latest journeys to Japan have made it potential for Niku to entry and higher perceive extra flavorful A4 and A3 cuts from cattle raised on simply digestible apple chips, spent grain and sake lees. 

“The farms we appreciated probably the most are those the place we are able to actually style the distinction within the feed,” Falcon says. “Comfortable, well-fed cows are happier for us.”

Niku is a blissful place to be for a steak lover, a restaurant that has seemingly taken the Wagyu sport extra critically than anybody else. Most of those breeds can be found in America for the very first time, and you may go as all-in as you need from start-to-finish — whether or not it’s with the huge array of steak choices or starters like Wagyu bone marrow and Wagyu charcuterie with pastrami, tri-tip jerky and pate with rooster liver that goes completely loopy. There’s even a Wagyu fats brownie for dessert with Wagyu caramel in case any packing containers went unchecked. Any method you slice it, Niku is the last word Wagyu expertise within the nation. 

“This isn’t a timid idea,” Crims says. “However on the finish of the day, it’s concerning the love, care and respect of the animal and the way the farmers we work with and people households steward the land. And if we don’t supply the standard on the hunt, we’re not going to get individuals again at our desk.”