I am a massive fan of Bloomberg’s policy on making cities more friendly places to eat, drink and be merry. Their restaurant rating system is brilliant: http://www.bloomberg.com/restaurant-ratings.
To encourage restaurants to make their service better, the City of New York has launched a website designed to rate restaurants using the following criteria:
The current list of top-rated restaurants are:
Recently Brooklyn-based chef John Besh’s restaurant—Besh Steak —was awarded four stars by Michelin Guide for the best “fine dining with a casual vibe.” The New York Times food critic Frank Bruni wrote that Besh had “set a new standard for how an American steakhouse should look and feel.”
Below is an excerpt from Bruni’s review of Besh Steak:” Everything about Mr. Besh’s cooking could be described as casual, from his wine choices (Pinot Gris) to his seating arrangements (bench seats around the open kitchen). But under his rough-edged exterior beats a chef who is singularly committed to serving quality ingredients in a manner that reflects their value.” Other critics have also reviewed the restaurant, which you can check out here. If you’re planning on seeing him in NYC, here are some valuable tips from Yelp user Maria S.: “For dinner, we went there on Monday night (June 5th). We wanted to enjoy the beautiful summer weather while eating great food and drinks! We asked if they had any outdoor tables or if we could sit inside with open windows. Immediately they said yes, and we were like, WOW, that was fast!! So we got there, and it was packed at 6:30 pm but not too packed where there was no place to sit down… They offered us some extra chairs outside since many people were waiting before
$300 to $1,000 per pound
Wagyu beef is a luxury item but is also not super rare meat. It’s one of the most common types of beef in Japan and can be found at any supermarket or convenience store.
The price can vary depending on where you buy it—but if you’re purchasing this specialty cut for yourself or a friend who may have never tasted it before, an average price would be around $300 per pound (or more).
100 pounds for about $2,000
If you buy a 100-pound sirloin, it will cost $1,200. But if you buy it from a specialty butcher or butcher shop and have them cut it up for you into steak slices about half-inch thick (the thickness varies), then the price will go down drastically.
If you want more than one pound of meat per month—and who doesn’t?—then that also helps bring down costs significantly. And if all else fails and finding great deals on top-quality beef is difficult for some reason, then there’s always the option of buying frozen supermarket beef!
1 cent a pound for about $1,000
The price of Wagyu beef is a little more than you might expect. The average price per pound is $1,000, and the minimum order is 1/8th of a cow. That’s right: you can get about a quarter-pound of meat for your money! But don’t worry—it’s still worth it!
Wagyu beef is exciting and trendy, but it’s still expensive.
Wagyu beef is exciting and trendy, but it’s still expensive.
While some people can afford the high cost of wagyu beef, others might need help. The price of this type of meat varies depending on where you live and how much you want to spend on it: a 150g steak at a restaurant will cost around $50 (£40) in New York City; in Tokyo, it’ll cost upwards of $300 (£240).
I didn’t factor in currency exchange.
According to the USDA – Foreign Agricultural Service, “the average cost of producing one hundred pounds of frozen beef” was about $340, but since we’re talking about eating authentic Wagyu steak here…
The chart below shows how much you would spend on the steak before you were out. Very quickly, $300+ ends up being much more than you expect! Whole steaks are usually at least twice as expensive as their retail cuts because they’re hard to come by and take so long to sell! So this is why I only included items under 50 pounds: I wanted people to spend only some of their money on sashimi…
If there were a way to order some excellent beef on SushiOnline (and there seems like there might be), then more people would be able to afford them, and then we’d have total profits! This is also why most restaurants won’t serve Kobe beef directly: if you order 5 ounces instead of 1/2 pound and it costs more than $130/ounce, your total bill would exceed their profit margin. If anyone knows differently, please comment below!
Remember: Buying top-quality steaks will cost even more than buying everything combined.
