TikTok Isn't Impressed By Marbled Wagyu Beef Or How It's Cooked
Wagyu beef is regarded as one of the world's most exclusive foods, with an average 8-ounce piece going for $60 on restaurant menus (via Fine Dining Lovers). Like many fancy foods, its high price tag and luxury reputation leaves people feeling intrigued. That's with good reason: Wagyu beef is known to be extremely tender and flavorful due to its high-quality marbling.
Marbling refers to the white streaks of fat within a piece of meat, and when these streaks are plentiful and evenly distributed throughout the protein, it generally indicates a cut with extraordinary flavor, per Wagyuman. Marbling is impacted by a cow's breed and diet. Wagyu beef is highly marbled, as the farms breeding the cows aim to produce meat with a rich, almost creamy consistency. Originally produced (and especially renowned) in Japan, Wagyu also comes from American Wagyu cows, bred in the U.S. for just three decades, according to FarmProgress.
While most carnivores seem to swoon over increasingly popular restaurant dishes of seared Wagyu beef, some TikTok users recently expressed doubt about the meat's supposedly phenomenal taste.
The meat's marbling turned some people off
Food Network recently posted a TikTok video filmed at Esora Omakase in New York City, which specializes in Japanese A5 Wagyu beef. Since "A5 is the highest possible quality rating awarded by the Japanese government" for beef, per Crowd Cow, the network likely thought the Wagyu cooking demonstration would be a hit. While some people said they'd love to try it, others were less impressed.
Many people immediately wrote off the fine piece of meat for its no-doubt high price tag, with one user commenting, "I'm not posh enough for this." Another said that no matter how good it tastes, the money to pay for the steak "can feed my family for a couple days."
While Food Network touted the extremely generous marbling of the steak, some viewers found its white-ish color excessive. "I think there is such thing as too much marbling. Give me an angus ribeye please," one person wrote. Finally, others said they find Wagyu to be downright overrated. "I don't get why people like Wagyu. Too much fat and too oily," one user commented, while another agreed that it's "overhyped." Though plenty of the naysayers appreciated that the steak looked well prepared, they made it clear that they wouldn't shell out big bucks for it.