Kobe Steak Sai-Dining — Restaurant in Kobe

If you are looking for the best, melt in your mouth Kobe beef around, the lunch menu may not be the right choice for that. But, their prices are very reasonable, the staff is exceptional and overall a great experience!

We visited during lunch hours and there are only 3 types of beef to choose from. 2 Kobe beef and another Japanese wagyu. We ended up getting the "Marbled Kobe" beef round and the "Japanese Wagyu" as the B course, which include hors d'oeuvres, soup, salad and dessert. The chef correctly assumed that we wanted to try both and offered to portion the different meats evenly and of course we accepted. We were asked how would we liked it cooked, I asked the chef how he suggests it should be prepared and he mentioned "medium" so we went with that. The hors d'oeuvres comes out first. It was beautifully plated seared tuna with pickled vegetables. The soup was next. It was mushroom based and was very balanced and subtle. After that was the salad. Honestly, it's just a plain ol' side salad. Acts as a good palate cleanser and nothing more. Then the chef brings out the beef. They let you take a picture of if before it goes on the grill. Well, it's a tease because the vegetables get grilled first. Then the beef goes on with a short "fire show". And finally you get to enjoy the beef. No one really cares about the grilled vegetables and you aren't coming here for that. Now to the beef, well, it's real Japanese wagyu alright. It certainly tastes the part. There's no mistaking the very distinct, sharp umami of real wagyu. However, these cuts of beef do not melt in your mouth. There is a chew to this cut, but it is still tender. I feel like this is very important to keep in mind if this is your first time trying the "legendary" Kobe beef. While I do prefer the A5 "melt in your mouth" version, I get flavor/texture fatigue from that and can only eat small amounts. This version is closer to extremely good regular steak texture. I did not tire of this and kind of wanted more after eating the whole thing. As far as the difference between the Kobe beef and regular wagyu go, it was very hard to tell. It was subtle and I lost track of which cut was which. Ultimately, one was ever so slightly more tender and flavorful than the other. I don't think you can go wrong with either. Dessert is served with tea or coffee at another table. We physically moved for this. And it was just ice cream......a relatively normal but clean finish to a great meal.

I can easily recommend Kobe Steak Sai if you are looking for a sit down meal to enjoy Kobe Beef or even just Japanese Wagyu. I don't believe the lunch menu includes the "melt in your mouth" A5 cuts of beef but the price reflects that. I would expect the meal would cost 3 times as much for that kind of meat. The staff here are friendly and attentive and there is an English Menu available. I'd return for dinner next time to try the "real menu" out but lunch was...

Had lunch yesterday here for 4 adults and 3 children/toddlers. The children were very young and staff said we could share. One significant incident that made the dining experience quite sub-par, which I will go into detail below. Don't write many reviews, but this was frustrating enough for me to comment. My honest 2 cents below:

Pros: Atmosphere was great. Ambience and lighting was on par for a romantic date if that is what you are going for. Service was attentive for the most part Veggies were well done - not over or under cooked, just right

Cons: I'll go into a bit of detail here, so future customers can have some context. I noticed the servers did not speak much English, so when ordering, I gave them my order and then confirmed a second time by pointing explicitly what we want. There were two families, so I ordered for 2 adults while the other family ordered for themselves.

My family's order was: Marbled Kobe beef set for 160g and Regular Kobe beef set for 80g

The chef started cooking the steaks and before they were served, I noticed they were the same size and asked the staff if the order was correct. They talked amongst themselves and then realized the mistake and cut a second small piece out to make up for the weight. This resulted in 3 main issues:

All the steak are served together, so the first round of steak that was cooked is now getting cold.

The steak was significantly overcooked. This was due to the chef (maybe also the owner or manager) having to sort out what to do to remedy the situation, who happened to be our chef making the food.

Perhaps my biggest issue is that if you charge me for 160g then I expect to get a thicker cut like every other customer and not 2 thinly cut pieces that you messed up on. The thinner cut of steak affects the texture and overall experience. Even though it was clearly their mistake, no discussion was had.

When paying the bill, we finally figured out what happened. The other family ordered: 80g kobe steak 160g kobe steak

but was charged for 2 x 160g steak. In short, what happened was the staff who was grabbing the meat for the chef to cook incorrect placed the meat and lead to this whole fiasco.

However, there was never any apologies or indications of how to remedy the situation. Overall bill was over $500 for 4 lunch sets. Good luck on the ordering as we also confirmed the orders. My only suggestion is if you decide to come, just watch the size of the steak.

Won't be...

People pay top dollar for an experience at a licensed Kobe Beef teppanyaki restaurant. It must therefore deliver on two aspects: 1) the food quality, and 2) the showmanship of the food’s preparation. This place more than justified both of these aspects.

In set-menu fashion, we ordered a leaner cut and a fattier cut of Kobe steak (2 x 80 grams). The contrast in taste between the two types made the choice worthwhile. Appetiser dishes came in the earlier course and had tidy, fine-dining presentation. These were enjoyed as we sat back and watched the chef prepare the mains before our eyes.

The performance aspect of this dining experience cannot be understated. Between the precision cutting of the fresh ingredients, and the controlled but elaborate display of pyrotechnics, the skilful chef really knew how to whet our appetite. When our plated mains arrived, we knew exactly how it everything was put together. In particular, knowing how little seasoning was added meant we appreciated the flavour of each steak more.

We were escorted to a separate dining section for our dessert course, which enabled the next set of guests to take seats for their main course meal. The lower occupancy seating in the restaurant made for a pleasant semi-formal environment.

On practicality: it is imperative to plan well in advance with your reservation given the limited seating. This is true across all of Kobe.

For non-Japanese speakers, we suggest being patient about the lack of English communication. The good food and service is worth taking the time to understand them. However, knowing Chinese Mandarin helps, as they do have staff who could...