CUT Beverly Hills — Restaurant in Beverly Hills

I love a good steak. It starts with the grade and cut, then aging and how you cook it. Rare, black and blue, cold cut center, purple center, whatever you call your temp style it's the only way to have a steak. Prime is also the only way to go as Choice is acceptable for human consumption and Select is to me dog food.

Aging be it dry or wet adds flavor, depth and tenderness, but I prefer the dry and they offer both here.

Before I go off on my carcass conversation the décor is class, impeccably designed and somewhat minimalistic. Befitting the BH location. It's not the traditional east coast leather booth clad style were used to. It's brighter and more contemporary a place than anything in it's price range. My previous favorite is Maestros which is more traditional I came here for the meat. I still prefer Maeastros overall and their sides.

Frankly I don't care where the beef is from, whether it's corn fed or corn fed and grass finished. This isn't back home where organic and non gmo meats are as demanded as I can only imagine what the costs would be then. American Wagyu Porterhouse cut, 35 day dry aged organic, local, non gmo grass fed and finished for $200 a pound. I like to eat healthy and have cut down on my red meat intake, but why not go all out if you are gonna eat meat. We each got ribeyes cooked identically to see if we could see the differences and they were not miniscule. We could clearly taste the dry aged was more dense in flavor, uniform in texture and had a more buttery fat flavor.

I prefer the NY cut over the Ribeye because to me at home I can make it as good if not better despite the lower fat content, but when I eat out I prefer Ribeye. I plan to next try the NY tasting to sample some of the exquisite American Wagyu and Japanese Wagyu.

The lettuce avo vinaigrette was well balanced and was a great set up texture and flavor wise to the rich beef. The crab cake and shrimp louie cocktail (everything on the side) also set things up perfectly. Not too crisp each realty needed no additional flavors except a quick hit of lemon juice. Mac & Cheese to be tasted like a cross between the Wisconsin White cheddar used by Panera bread in their mac & cheese and the smoked gouda béchamel used by others and to me one of the best, stayed gooey and consistent with just enough crust. The chimichurri sauce went with the mashed potatoes as we dared not have it touch the steaks.

Service is excellent, but not impeccable. Part of the reason I only prefer their steak is the almost martyr like service at Maestros, but seeing as I met Chef Wolfgang here and shook his hand to me makes it a 5 start restaurant and honestly my new favorite steakhouse, very close to the best I've ever had with only Luger's being above them. You are very close to other patrons and it's barely enough.

Price is well above Maestro's which makes Maestro's seems almost affordable, but is among the highest dining experiences in LA. Considering the price of the meal we decided on going against drinking too much here and take our chances at Nokia for getting our level change on. Forget the wine list, to me the steak is so good most drinks will take away from that. Valet parking is offered and preferred. I'm glad I was fair warned of the classy dress code. Though jacket and tie are not mandated, at least the jacket is preferred. Actually a much younger crowd than I expected from the staff to...

Honestly, I unfortunately ended the night frustrated. For me to have spent $600 on just me and my girlfriend i had hoped we left with a huge smile on my face. But that was not the case. Let me start this off by saying we are both black, foodies who love spending on a good meal. So this isnt our first rodeo at all.im 28, she is 27, both far from broke and very well dressed. It started at the beginning with valet. You turned on a side street off Wilshire and you will end up in the middle of the hotel. Super cool looking. But valet pretty much ignored me, but service the cars in front and behind me. I sit in the car for awhile before embarrassingly I get out my car to ask one of the workers to help me out. He gives me a ticket and I go on the other side to get my girlfriend from the other side. Sucks to be ignored, but here we are. We go into the restaurant and we are greeted with smiles. We proceeded to be sat in the back, and in the corner where the white tablecloth seats are. Mind you. Our reservation was for 5:15pm. So it's not even the crowded yet. Not like it's the worst seats all time, but damn we are walking past open tables in that same section to be put in the corner. When our server came my girlfriend asked us to be moved, he went to the front to ask and they moved us one table over. Although irritated the food was actually good. I think the fact that WOLFGANG was actually there was a cool moment and that was quite the highlight. Same with the tuna tartare. Both our $165 steaks were coo too. Fast forward to when we leave, once again we are ignored by valet and not greeted. I walked instead to the pay booth and was met by a cold older lady. While trying to pay, my servers comes running out. Weird. He proceeds to tell me oh, I took the wrong receipt. We check and I didn't, he has the signed merchant copy and I have the customer copy. He says that's its incomplete, I'm like huh? What are you talking about. After a couple seconds of silence I say tip? He is like yes. I told him I left some cash on the table and he is like oh, " I didn't see it". What the actual hell. I should've walked back in and took my few dollars i left because that was ridiculous. After I pay for valet and await my car, next 3 people to come out are greeted by valet and either walked over to pay booth, or helped. I finally get my car after about 10 minutes and leave. Not worth $600 to not feel welcomed. Wolfgang was nice though, and the lady with the blonde hair who was helping in the back. Don't know her name but she does her job well. I would not come back at all, and would advise people of color to avoid. Super disappointed, and wish we had a better experience. First time I actually wanted to ask for...

After my work was done in LA I decided to visit what is reputably the best steak house in the USA.

The waitstaff were friendly and was directed to the lounge where I had the Big Eye Tuna Tartare. This starter was excellent and light and experiencing the real wasabi for the first time was a delight. Quite different from imitation wasabi.

When it was time for my reservation I checked in and once I was seated I was presented with Gruyere gougeres which were a delight. A little later on was a bread selection with butter, the onion focaccia was my favorite.

I was later assisted with the wine list by the glass with the waiter choosing an excellent wine that would pair with the rich entree and starter I was going to order. Harlan Estate the Mascot is a powerfully earthy tannic wine that helped cleanse the palate and was delicious in it's own right.

The Bone Marrow Flan was delightful being served in the long bones and paired well with the bordelaise sauce it accompanied. Mushroom marmalade was also very good being served with brioche toast points. Only thing I thought would've probably been more appropriate was if there was fresh gremolata to cut through the richness as it was topped with sauteed shallots and parsley while delicious was very rich as well.

I was then presented with an assortment of mustards and finishing salt I could use for my steak. I knew they had A5 Miyazaki and inquired about the rib eye but unfortunately they didn't have any and only had NY Strip left. In hind sight I probably would've preferred the Gold Label Ribeye from Snake River Farms if they still didn't have the A5 Ribeye in stock.

Medium rare NY Strip is NY Strip even if it's A5 and it has that characteristic initial chew. However after that it began to dissolve in my mouth which was intriguing. The bordelaise I had with the steak matched well with it however wasn't on the same level of bordelaise I've made at home with veal demi and red wine done as a quick pan sauce after searing proteins.

The summer truffle hand cut fries were delightful but by the time I got to them they cooled down a bit. I guess I should've gone for it first before the steak. Also by this time my eyes were larger than my stomach and was incredibly full so was unable to finish the fries.

The waitstaff were attentive and quick and I had 3 tiny delightful chocolate before I left. I would think of coming to dine again if in LA again except getting a ribeye/ribeye cap instead and trying other...