I have been looking with anticipation at trying out cutlets of Wagyu for 4 days. Unfortunately the experience has been very disappointing.

I had a fantastic tonkatsu in Tokyo a week ago and the most spectacular dinner of wagyu 2 days ago. I've also grown spoilt of finding fantastic small specialized restaurants in Japan where the food is just superb.

Everything made me think a sirloin wagyu cutlet would have tasted amazing and instead it was just blend. The overall experience didn't help improving the satisfaction.

We were left queueing outside the restaurant for 20 mins (and today was quite cold) without any information.

While queueing we counted at least 15 people leaving the restaurant before they started calling us in. At that point they called in all the people they could fit, which luckily meant us.

Our luck continued as we had a seat at the counter. Unfortunately this time I didn't get particularly good vibes from the kitchen. That's ok, the chefs are not there to entertain us. I like less to see almost an industrial process for what I was expecting been a special food experience.

It took a good while for our beers to arrive.

Shortly after our food arrived too.

After dinner I had a short debate with my partner. I remember hearing "the meat can be eaten as it is. If you like it well done, we recommend using the grill" (something that was prepared for us on the table). I also believe I picked up a note of negative judgment toward cooking further what the chef had prepared. My partner remembers instead that there was a clear recommendation to use it.

Regardless, I tried hard to enjoy the meat as it was served and follow all the instructions that were present in a small poster with different ways to enjoy the meat.

The meat arrived cold. Which to me is always a negative start when it comes to cooked meat, with rate exceptions like ham. I didn't want to use the grill as I wanted to try the meat as the chef prepared it but I ended up starting to use it to at least eat warm meat. That helped me making a discovery toward the end.

The taste of this wagyu, supposedly the best meat in the world, was bland, barely noticeable.

The many sauces were uninspiring. If anything they covered the taste of the meat.

I didn't like the strong recommendation to pair the meat with the Onsen Egg.

There was an option to use a salt & pepper seasoning but for my taste the pepper was overwhelming compared to the salt. Starting to get a good but frustrated with an unsatisfying meal, I asked if I could get "just a bit of plain salt". I got answered that they didn't have it but only had the salt & pepper mix.

At that point I had expensive cold tasteless meat with toppings that either I didn't like or didn't add enough flavor. 3 slices from the end of my cutlet I started cooking the meat as I would have normally in an attempt to save at least the last bites. The flavor improved a lot but still it was nowhere near the wagyu I had 2 days before. And being sirloin, this was supposed to be the tastiest part.

Just as things started getting better I first ran out of salt & pepper mix (and due to the previous interaction I didn't want to ask for more), then the flame under the grill started dying.

I am left with an expensive disappointing experience that could have probably been easily improved if someone had checked on us during the dinner to see how things were going. Something particularly useful when the dinner arrives in a non complete status but it requires instead additional preparation.