Flyloha

Has anyone tried, or is anyone a member of Wagyu Mafia? I had heard of the sandwiches, but apparently, they have a kaiseki and yakiniku restaurant experience too.

My wife and I will be in Tokyo in August and we are looking to have great wagyu coupled with a fantastic dining experience. I had my eye on the stand-up yakiniku restaurant, but there are very little reviews of the experience, so was hoping someone from FT had been. Also, open to other suggestions as well!

AlwaysAisle

As you have mentioned Wagyu Mafia is a membership only restaurant. Information indicates that need to be a member of a culinary club run by the owner of the restaurant, the membership fee of this club is 10800 yen per month (86 Euro or US$ 96).

Just about the owner of this restaurant, Takafumi Horie (堀江貴文)... Takafumi Horie was a former president of LiveDoor which was online based company. January 2006 he was arrested for illegal trading practice of LiveDoor stocks at Tokyo Stock Exchange. Takafumi Horie was found guilty and after number of appeals he went to jail on 2011 and was out on 2013. Company itself is no longer after stock was delisted at Tokyo Stock Exchange on 2006.

When Takafumi Horie was a president of LiveDoor he loved media attention and appeared on numerous TV programs, radio programs, and magazines. At peak Takafumi Horie appeared on many variety shows on TV, with online business and his love of media he has become well known even among young generation. He kept no secret about his lavish life style, vacationing on his private jet with number of his female friends. It was obvious that he loved to talk about that in media.

Lately Takafumi Horie started to appear on TV programs again, when he came out of the jail TV did not take chance on him, but seems like Takafumi Horie still has love of media attention and slowly made him way to TV programs. On a TV variety talk show he appeared, he mentioned about his membership only wagyu beef restaurant he owns, Wagyu Mafia, and suddenly this restaurant became known to people. I think he just loves to talk about his life style (or image of life style he "supposedly" has) to public.

Just in case you did not know where Wagyu Mafia came from... Another memory of Bubble Era of Japan.

nishimark

Thanks AlwaysAisle. I see future possibilities for Mr. Ghosn.

groovbusta

Wagyu Mafia is a restaurant concept made for the Instagram generation. Lots of hype, media and image and not much else. I've met the other partner Hisato Hamada and the guy is really pretentious. Don't get me wrong, the food and beef are delicious, but for the price, you can find as good or better elsewhere. I was at a small dinner with other food industry people and the guy just could not stop talking about how to use IG for marketing and how setting a "premium" price was important to attract IG influencers and consumers. He said their target market was foreigners looking for an "experience" they can share on social media and not Japanese folks, because Japanese would never pay for the hype. Again, the food is very good, and if you're willing to pay the premium then more power to you...

groovbusta

Almost forgot, for yakiniku, I would suggest yakiniku Nakahara or Jumbo. They are our regular, go-to spots for visiting foodies.

Flyloha

LapLap

Can’t fault Mr Ghosn in seeing a more equitable future in Hummus than in Beef steak.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-50952335

Pickles

He's way ahead of you, LapLap. His first wife, Rita, owned a Lebanese restaurant in Daikanyama, called My Lebanon: Secret Japan - Ebisu & Meguro restaurants - African/Oriental/Turkish fo

That's why he's Carlos Ghosn and you're not. On the other hand, jumping bail on the Japanese doesn't exactly scream "sound judgment."