Kobe - Wakkoku

I don't know which earthquake caused it, but I hear that Kobe Shinkansen station was entirely rebuilt anew because the previous one got thrashed by some natural disaster. This explains why the place is even more sparkling than usual Japanese places (which already sparkle, and when I mean sparkle, I really mean sparkle). At first when my brother and I arrived at Kobe we were intending on getting the famous Kobe beef, paying super-duper crazy expensive money for the finest beef in the world. So with that state of mind, evertyhing we saw around us in Kobe was like oooohhh rich. Ohhhh wow clean, high class. At first I thought, oh, could it be that Kobe is like a city of the elite, with rich people only and brands and designers everywhere? Well I actually did not get to verify that. We only stayed there the time of a super and a quick shopping spree for my brother, but the feeling I get from the high class mall the restaurant was at and the sparkling new station, is that Kobe people are rich.

The Place

So the restaurant is situated in the shinkansen station, that is connected to the mall, si very easy of access. I suppose that even for foreigner it is then quite easy to get there. Then, the fact that noone speaks English whatsoever complicates matter for people in general. There are expensive japanese wares on display all over the restaurant, as well as a big wall of different kind of wine from their large selection. We were out of the rush season so it might explain why, but there was only another couple of people at the time we went. The name of the place is Wakkoku Steak House <3. (the video showed pretty much what we had, except that we talked to our cook while he was cooking...and we chose two different piece of the meat, so we would have the meat's own fat to cook it with...)

The tables are basically immaculate plaques on which they cook the meat directly. I would have mistaken the tables for stainless had I not seen the cook make the food right on it. 

See my face reflecting in the mirror behind the vases?

The Food

We took a sort of full course meal, including the starter - we had a choice between two starters if I remember correctly. I can't seem to remember the other choices but we got a salad and smoked salmon. They were really fresh tasting and both simply and classily presented in nice plates. To be honest, we couldn't have cared less for starters, we just wanted the meat. I guess it was a good way to make us wait a little bit to appreciate more the rest. 

I cannot remember the names of the pieces of meat, but I think it was tenderloin and (?) loin? Anyways. We originally both wanted to get tenderloin, but the cooks told us that it was actually better to take half of both. Later we figured that mixing both was going to get us to eat the meat cooked in its own fat, and we got more to savour, being from different pieces.

Wow.

I seriously was not expecting much difference in taste and texture. I actually did not expect anything at all. My brother was clear from the start: being in Japan, he WOULD try Kobe Beef. That was it. For me, it was just treating ourselves to an expensive meal as we were in vacation. Never was so wrong. This. This meat is insane. You can see, even only on the picture below, the abnormal amount of fat in the meat. That, never making it chewy of gross to eat, that just melted in the mouth as soon as it touched it. It is a bliss of savour on the tongue, and tears came to my eyes as I was tasting. I actually decided as from then, to separate beef in two kinds: the Kobe kind, and the rest. I mean, steaks CAN be amazingly tasty, can be prepared in a way that throw off your feet, but Kobe Beef needs only itself. There were small amount of salt, pepper, mustard and the like piled up in the plates we used, but I think I only tried one. The meat needs nothing else to compliment its flavour, lest it'd be belittling it.

So Kobe Beef: definitely recommend.

Note here, as I said in another blog, Kobe beef is NOT exported. If you ever eat Kobe Beef out of Japan it's a fraud. They have had talks starting of this year, of exporting it to China eventually, but there are not a significant amount of that beef in Japan (country being so small) so they are reluctant to it. So long time until it actually goes to the US if at all. Don't get fooled.

The Mall

Here are a few sneak peaks of the mall and shops around there. After the beef we went to have a coffee in a very cute coffee place where they made latte drawings. Felt almost like treachery to take something in our mouths after the beef but well. They were cute... always a win for me in any case.