House of Wagyu Stone Grill

Andie's 11th birthday celebration with Lola Dee & the rest of the family was held at the House of Wagyu Stone Grill at the McKinley Arcade in Greenhills.  The spot was formerly the site Interbank, and just a few years back, Pilita Corrales, the singer, also had a restaurant at the same spot.  The interiors are still clean and well kept, and the dining experience was very pleasant.  We arrived at 12 noon on a Sunday, and we were still able to park (Greenhills is notorious for tight parking during Christmas time).

All steaks come with bread, soup and rice, so we each had our own plates.  Andie was delighted with the cream of mushroom soup, while the older kids feasted on our appetizers--baked mussels and gambas.

I ordered three kinds of pasta dishes--Alfredo, Bolognese and cream Marinara.  The kids just loved the pasta, which went around and was gone in 60 seconds!

We had almost 2.5 kilos of Grade 8 Wagyu Porterhouse, which is served on a special kind of volcanic stone slabs.  The stone retains heat, and when fresh steak is placed on top, cooking starts in an instant.  You can actually choose the timing of your slice when you see the pink meat turning brown, and you can get rare or wel-done cuts depending on how long you keep the meat on the stone slab.  The wonderful thing is that you have the fantastic aroma of cooked steak, with much less smoke than that produced by cast iron sizzling plates.  You can see the marbling of the steak in these pictures--the flavor was exquisite, and the meat was very tender.

We had some cheesecake for dessert--the management brought out a cake for Andie to blow out the candles!

The meal cost us a little shy of P1,000 per head, but that was understandable as Wagyu is in a price-class of its own.  Wagyu, which is Japanese for "cow," refers to several breeds of cattle that have a genetic predisposition to marbling (fat in between muscle tissue), and some areas in Japan market their Wagyu beef using the names of the area to identify the source of the cattle (e.g. Kobe, Matsusaka, Mishima, etc.).  Sometimes cattle are fed with beer and sake, and are hand-massaged, but I understand that this is more for the mystique rather than to achieve actual meat tenderness.  The House of Wagyu maintains a refrigerated display of their meats, which you can purchase by the kilo.  Overall, a good dining experience--Happy Birthday my dear daughter!