At Nikutoieba Matsuda, chef Osato Kenichi has a singular obsession and makes no apologies for it. If you visit, prepare for 13 courses centred almost entirely around Wagyu beef – a point of pride for a restaurant that avoids padding meals with fish or vegetable interludes. Guests work their way through an entire herd: everything from Wagyu loin to Wagyu tenderloin sukiyaki to Wagyu torotaku, and more. Although dishes change throughout the year, the fillet cutlet sandwich is a constant, featuring chateaubriand paired with a tartare sauce made with Narazuke pickles, an elegant nod to the restaurant’s origins in Nara. A meal here is beef, start to finish. Expect little else.

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