Best places to eat Wagyu beef, Kaiseki & fugu

Hi,

My spouse and I would like to sample Wagyu/Kobe beef, Kaiseki and fugu. I would like to ask if anyone has any recommendations on where the best places are to sample these?

Thanks in advance!
Camille

You didn't say where & when you'd be visiting japan.

chowhound.com has detailed foodie reports on many restaurants.

short answer: kyoto for kaiseki,
and fugu is a winter fish.
reknowned fugu places are only open from october to march.

top level fugu (and the only place i have yet to be at the right time & place ) is

http://www8.plala.or.jp/tsukijiyamamoto/YAM99.htm

Whoopps you're right sorry

Traveling from Nov 24-Dec 8.

Going to as many places as I can. Satying 1 week in Shibuya, and 1 week in Yokohama. But visiting Akihabara, Osaka, Kyoto, Shinjuku, Harujuku, Gion, Tokyo, Hiroshima, to name a few

I am a Japanese and am not good at English so I might not understand the words "best" and "sample" correctly.

The "best" restaurants can be very expensive. The Michelin 3 star Kaiseki restaurant Mizai in Kyoto might be the best, as it is rated 4.78 in Tabe-log (champion of the Japanese restaurants in the whole genre), offers dinner at 30000 yen per person. "Best" Wagyu and Fugu restaurants are also very expensive (I think around 30000 yen is the fare).

http://tabelog.com/kyoto/A2603/A260301/26002279/

If you want just taste a bit (sample?), you might better start with not the "best" but affordable restaurants. As for Kaiseki, I recommend Manshige at Porta (JR Kyoto station) where you can "sample" Kaiseki style dinner starting from around 1500 yen.

http://tabelog.com/kyoto/A2601/A260101/26007276/

And though I have not experienced, Bento at Kyo-shumi Hishiiwa should be nice (starting from about 4000 yen).

http://tabelog.com/kyoto/A2603/A260301/26000950/

Enjoy your trip in Japan!

511 (http://www.bento.com/rev/3789.html ) in Akasaka, Tokyo, has excellent Kobe beef at good prices.

Roan Kikunoi (http://www.bento.com/kansai/rev/7108.html ) in Kyoto offers good-value kaiseki at reasonable prices.

Fugu is frankly kind of boring - see if you can sample a bit of it within another meal, rather than spending the money on an expensive and underwhelming all-fugu meal.

Fugu is frankly kind of boring - see if you can sample a bit of it within another meal, rather than spending the money on an expensive and underwhelming all-fugu meal.

Thank you for your straightforward opinion :). I have experienced Fugu just for several times, and the impression is that Fugu is not fishy :). One might better have all fugu meal after experiencing lots of Japanese fish dishes.

Thanks - I know not everyone agrees (obviously because expensive fugu restaurants are still in business), but I agree with you that there are more interesting fish to try before fugu....

I don't know where exactly you can find a restaurant that serves this but the general consensus from my Japanese friends is that Matsusaka beef is the best Wagyu. If you're not familiar with it, here's the wikipedia link as the marbling is just phenomenal: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsusaka_beef

I've only had Wagyu from Saga. However, it was delicious when I had it and it's very reputable for its quality and its sustainability. I've had it at a French restaurant called Pierre Gagnaire in Tokyo (Akasaka/Tameike-sanno district). What made it even more over the top was that it was topped with a very unlikely ingredient for steak: Hokkaido Uni; it was the best steak I've had yet so far. Here's my blog review if you would like to see its photos. With Japanese quality ingredients and French cooking technique, it's definitely ruined steak for this American.
http://themetropolitanlounge.blogspot.com/2012/07/pierre-gagnaire-in-t...

If you don't want to blow a whole load of cash as the others have mentioned how expensive fugu is, I would try this restaurant called Torafugu-Tei. They have many locations in Tokyo and are very reasonably priced. It's also opened year around but chances are that they use farmed fugu that are bred to not produce tetrodotoxin, the poison in fugu. The wild variant is available during winter as the others have mentioned.

Here's a link to their website, my blog review, and an interesting article about fugu from the NY Times.

http://www.torafugu.co.jp/en/

http://themetropolitanlounge.blogspot.com/2012/07/first-meal-after-lan...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/world/asia/04fugu.html?pagewanted=al...

thnx everyone. you're links and info are awesome :) cash isn't a problem. Figured as I was spending going all the way over there, it would seem kinda weird not to go all the way. I'll hit up some of those places that people have recommended. It's was the only two "special" unique items that I am familiar with so I that's why I asked, but if anyone else has recommedations on other foods, I'm all ears

As dzo suggested, you might want to poke around Chowhound a bit to get some ideas. Two weeks gives you lots of opportunities to try interesting food - I would check out some upscale izakaya that serve charcoal-grilled meats and fish; maybe a nice unagi (eel) restaurant; shojin-ryori (vegetarian temple cuisine, which you can find in Kyoto); some nice premium tonkatsu like Butagumi in Tokyo; a good-quality tempura specialist; and some nice sake bars. If you're adventurous, Bakuro in Ebisu will change your ideas about horsemeat (it's really good). Go to a top-end yakitori shop like Souten or Fuku (both in Tokyo), and try the grilled meats at Tetsugen Nikusho (they serve ten different kinds of meat, including wild boar, venison, and frog). Explore regional cuisines from Okinawa, Kyushu, and Kanazawa; they're very different from the typical dishes you'll find in Tokyo and Kyoto/Osaka.

A511.jp in Akasaka is a very good meal & culinary delight. The chef brings out the subtleties of kobe through 8 masterful dishes for a budget concious 16,000 yen

however, the ultimate in Waygu is http://dons-nature.jp/ it is the best 42,000 yen you will ever spend (aside from sushi sawada) nothing comes close to his magical 2 month aged kobe steak that is baked in charcoal oven.

if you want to sample the other regional beefs all under one roof, steakhouse satou is the place

http://tonkatsudelights.wordpress.com/2008/01/12/steak-house-satou-val...

i have only sampled kobe & yonezawa beef. It is all good and different from north american beef. Ain't no such thing as bad waygu.

instead of fugu, there is always the monkfish

http://www.isegen.com/

wow, nice links!! I'll swing by the monkfish place and the Wagyu beeg places for sure :) I'm drooling. THanks so much

I'll still probably try fugu as well but you have all given me some great ideas!!

Thanks again everyone