Wagyu is deemed a luxury product but is it worth all the hype and the price tag

I ordered a dish with Wagyu tri-tip and a young and naive me thought it was the greatest piece of beef I would ever eat.

Having grown up in Willow Tree, the whole town was abuzz when Jack's Creek was first awarded as the World's Best Steak Producer at the World Steak Challenge in 2015.

The winning steak was a Wagyu F2+ 75pc that was 450-day grain-fed. The judges said it was the marbling that helped it stand out from the rest and when they tasted the cooked steak they knew it was a winner.

Wagyu goes in and out of vogue on restaurant menus but most that feature it, the price tag makes you wish you had a higher paying job.

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But for what has been awarded internationally and is seen as a luxury product, is it really as good as it's made out to be?

Wagyu is a premium product - a breeder described it to me as the "Rolls Royce of beef".

In Australia it generally takes about 30 months from birth to plate so I can understand why it's an expensive product with the amount of feed needed. Several Wagyu farms in Australia are undertaking net feed intake trials to pick the best genetic lines to move forward with that require less feed but still produce that good quality marbling the Wagyu breed is so well known for.

The Japanese originally used Wagyu cattle as work animals because of their stature and endurance. This changed over time and the breed became so revered in 1997 the Japanese Government banned Wagyu from being exported to any other country and it was named a national treasure.

The genetics of about 220 Wagyu had been exported before then, and now Australia is the largest producer of Wagyu cattle outside of Japan.

However, in Japan historically the Wagyu cattle are treated like royalty.

One type Matsusaka Ushi, is famous for being fed beer to increase appetite. Special Matsusaka is fattened for more than 900 days. The condition of these animals is so closely cared for that breeders will massage the beasts to help soften the meat.

Relieving stress of the animal is important so some farmers play soft music and take them for walks, barns are separated to keep them clean at all times and there are fans and sprinklers to keep them cool.

But these aren't common practice in Australia.

So the question is; in Australia when this same royal treatment isn't given, should Wagyu have such a hefty price tag and are we really getting the best value out of these animals?

The other question is if Wagyu is such a premium product then why is it making an appearance in burgers?

Should something that's supposedly so good be shoved in a bun between a piece of lettuce and a slice of cheese?

Some people say that putting sauce on your steak is wasting a good piece of meat so surely putting Wagyu in a burger comes under the same concept.

There are obviously still cuts that are less desirable than others, like any other breed, but it still seems to devalue the luxury appeal of Wagyu regardless of the quality.

At that point in time the Wagyu I ate in Double Bay probably was the best piece of beef I had ever eaten but I've since had several dry aged Angus rib eyes that I think will live on in my tastebuds memory forever more.

I won't pass up Wagyu, and there's no denying it's high quality beef, but when it comes to taste and value for money this avid steak eater thinks you can't beat a good piece of quality Angus.