Aragawa, which opened in Mayfair only last week, has already achieved notoriety for selling a £900 steak from a rare strain of wagyu cattle.
While there are glitzier steaks in the capital, such as the gold leaf encrusted offering from Salt Bae (which certainly costs a pretty penny), the pricing of Aragawa’s steak selection is not for the faint hearted.
Established in Kobe in 1956 and in Tokyo in 1967, the overseas arrival of Aragawa’s high end steaks hit the headlines before the restaurant even opened its London outpost.
The steaks are Tajima beef, otherwise known as Japanese Bleek, a strain of wagyu that is known for the quality of the marbling of fat throughout the meat. They are aged for three weeks and shipped over from Japan. In the restaurant, they are cooked in a searingly hot kiln.
While the luxury meat costs up to around 99,000 yen (approximately £540) in Aragawa’s Tokyo restaurant, in London it comes at an even greater premium.
Of the five steaks the restaurant serves, prices start at £500 and go up to £900 for a 14 ounce (400 gram) portion of sirloin intended to serve two. A smaller sirloin steak from Hyogo prefecture’s Nishizawa Farm in Hyogo costs around £760.
Aragawa founder Kotaro Ogawa explained: “We are not overpricing our product gratuitously for the London market – in fact, we aren’t overcharging at all. It’s the same principle as rare whisky, Burgundy wines, truffles or caviar.”
On the subject of Burgundy, fine wines from the French region feature heavily in the 1,000 bottle strong cellar, alongside those of Champagne and Bordeaux, including a £1,400 2005 Château Margaux.
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This article was originally published by the drinks business and has been shared with permission.
