Got beef? Nikutoieba Matsuda does, and plenty of it—in the literal sense. Co-founded by Yasuhiro Matsuda and Shinji Masuda, Nikutoieba Matsuda is a Wagyu-centric kappō dining experience hailing from Nara. Having garnered a stellar reputation, the restaurant is listed in the Michelin Guide and received remarkable ratings on popular review platform Tabelog.
Notoriously difficult to book, dining at Nikutoieba Matsuda, whether in Nara or its second outpost in Osaka, requires some planning ahead. Excellent news, then, for Hong Kong—the Wagyu specialist has made Gough Street its third home, so you can jump the queue.
With a name that translates to “When you speak of meat, you speak of Matsuda,” it’s clear that these folks take their beef seriously, though for CEO Yasuhiro Matsuda, opening Nikutoieba Matsuda was a happy accident. From car dealer to restaurateur, Matsuda arrived in the hospitality industry on an unusual path. Not so in Shinji Masuda’s case—the head chef turned his lifelong dream of cooking professionally into a career and had trained in Italian restaurants and Japanese steakhouses across the country since he was 20 years old. A mutual customer introduced them, and the two struck up a friendship that led to the first Nikutoieba Matsuda restaurant in Nara in 2015, built on their shared love of Wagyu.
Hong Kong has more than its fair share of teppanyaki and omakase sushi joints, but a restaurant focusing solely on Wagyu as its hero ingredient is a fresh sight for hungry eyes. Following the success of its sister locations, the Hong Kong outpost, led by head chef Hitoshi Ishibashi, intends to match the menus served in Nara and Osaka for a consistent experience.
An understated façade on Gough Street, neatly tiled in black with only a square plaque subtly signifying the identity of the restaurant, gives way to a small dining room dressed from head to toe in pale wood. Even paler armchairs surround an L-shaped counter that seats just nine. Décor is sparse; a gilded canvas depicting an abstract interpretation of a tree with verdant leaves and red blooms hangs on the far side of the room.
Nikutoieba Matsuda’s carefully crafted aesthetics are minimalist and zen. Matsuda tells Robb Report Hong Kong that the restaurant design is intentionally kept “very simple” to avoid distraction from the food, allowing the meal to “really shine while guests get a front-row seat to watch the chefs” as they prepare and cook each dish, emphasising the kappō philosophy of the restaurant and encouraging connection between chef and diner.
In keeping with the kappō style of highlighting seasonality and the peak freshness of ingredients, Nikutoieba Matsuda’s menu changes monthly, save for two items that have become distinctive hallmarks of the restaurant’s beef-fuelled identity: the yukhoe-like Wagyu tartare sushi, served chopped and raw in a piece of roasted nori seaweed like a taco, and the irresistible Wagyu fillet cutlet sandwich, a dainty square of Chateaubriand dressed in homemade tartar sauce with narazuke pickles, a Nara speciality.
Dishes that have come and gone read like a meat lover’s wish list: salt- and charcoal-grilled Wagyu tongue, roast beef with sansho and aubergine with balsamic vinegar sauce, simmered Wagyu daikon, Wagyu sirloin sukiyaki with matsutake mushroom, Wagyu curry, Wagyu wonton soup, homemade raw Wagyu ham… we’re salivating at the memory of it all. Ishibashi guides us through the experience, presenting different cuts, preparation techniques, flavour pairings, and textures in efficient succession—a mesmerising Wagyu showcase of simmered, grilled, roasted, boiled, and sautéed meat. Most surprising of all is the simple fact that, despite the repeat appearances of Wagyu, no dish felt repetitive in flavour or execution. Nikutoieba Matsuda sticks to the basics: precise cooking methods applied to top-quality produce.
Matsuda and Masuda also insist on “no fillers”—almost all of the 14 courses on the dinner menu are designed with a Wagyu component to showcase the remarkable quality and flavour of the ingredient. Meticulous in their search for the perfect Japanese beef, the co-founders travelled across the country and tasted Wagyu from almost 100 suppliers, before deciding on their favourite: Kuroge Wagyu raised in Nara prefecture, also known as Yamato beef.
“Nara has the perfect climate and land features for raising cattle, and the prefecture has been known for its quality beef for many years in the past,” Matsuda explains. Yamato beef, considered “ultra-high-class,” is the result of cattle “raised with careful attention to the cows’ pedigree, feed, and living environment. [It also] has plenty of the oleic acid said to produce a melt-in-your-mouth texture, making the meat soft and elegant while at the same time having a strong, deep, and savoury flavour.” Limited in production and high in demand, it only takes a bite to recognise that Yamato beef tastes appropriately luxurious; the fat and meat ratio is carefully cultivated to create a delicately marbled, impossibly tender product.
Pursuing an international expansion, rather than domestic, made sense to the co-founders as the next step of growing their restaurant brand. Not only did the duo find the right business partners, but the audience felt right, too. Matsuda shares, “We believe Hong Kong customers have the palates and understanding to truly appreciate Wagyu kappō cuisine and we don’t believe there are any other Wagyu kappō restaurants in Hong Kong doing things like we do.”
Nikutoieba Matsuda is now open for lunch and dinner. Newly introduced and refreshed on a monthly basis, the lunch menu presents the dinner experience in an abbreviated form, though at least one signature dish will always be featured. As one might expect, securing a booking for either seating already calls for some speedy action. Good luck out there.
G/F, 39 Gough Street, Central, Hong Kong
Tel: (+852) 6060 5447
All images courtesy of Nikutoieba Matsuda.
