Hello, we ate tonight at a restaurant in Kobe and we ordered tenderloin 80gr for 15000 jpy + tax and sirloin 80gr for 13000 jpy plus tax. I have attached a photo of the cuts. The restaurant says they serve A5 kobe certified beef. The color and the marbling on the tenderloin especially doesn’t look like A5 kobe to me ( from what I have seen in the youtube videos and internet). What do you guys think? Many thanks, much appreciated.
by Healthy_Camel
12 Comments
Yeah, I agree: the tenderloin doesn’t look A5.
It’s a been six years, but this was about 1800¥ in Matsusaka. Weight, unknown.
[https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img921/7742/aNnXM1.jpg](https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img921/7742/aNnXM1.jpg)
It’s a little tricky to say. The tenderloin/fillet is leaner, and some parts of it are especially lean. I think [this picture](https://www.kobebeef.co.jp/products/hst) shows that pretty well.
Also, A5 covers a range of marbling. Many producers far exceed the A5 standard, but some producers just barely achieve A5. There’s a non-official rating called the bovine marbling score (BMS), which runs from 1-12. A5 covers BMS 8+, so sometimes you get A5 that’s BMS 11-12, but sometimes you get A5 that’s just BMS 8-9. Some producers advertise their BMS score, and some don’t.
I don’t think you can say the restaurant was scamming you just based on that picture. At worst you can say that they maybe didn’t give you the best part. The sirloin (striploin in the US) looks very good to me, though I prefer a little closer trimming.
Gross
I wrote a one star review for a place in Kobe i went to that served me a steak like the one on the left. 🤷♂️ might have actually been worse.
def isnt
I’d say the tenderloin is more like A3/A4. More fat than average but a little on the light side for A5.
I think the tenderloin looks like A4, maybe a nice A3. But there is some variation between individual cows as far as marbling per cut
My bigger concern is that this sounds more like US prices than Japanese ones. Did you go to a tourist trap?
RIP to a legend
Doesn’t look right
These feel like US prices. Did you go to a tourist trap? I went to a random yakiniku place and got a nice sample platter of like 7 different cuts of A5 for 9000 yen.
https://imgur.com/a/locmQv2
Idk if it’s fully true or not but every time I saw a place that didn’t have tax included in the menu price – it was a tourist scam. Judging how OP just wrote “+ tax”, it was one of those places.