Both Carmelo’s and Melo’s serve the same line of steaks—they import the meats themselves from Australia to ensure that they get the highest quality.

Wagyu is a Japanese breed of cattle known for its genetic predisposition to intense fat marbling. The best wagyu commands a high price, and is graded from one to 12 depending on the intensity of the marbling. The higher the grade, the more intense the marbling, and the more expensive the beef is. The marbling is what gives wagyu its signature juicy, melt-inyour-mouth quality. Carmelo’s adjusts its menu depending on what grades are currently available.

We were served a Certified Angus Beef Porterhouse, and a Wagyu Grade 8 Tenderloin in order to compare. Chef Cristina usually recommends Wagyu Tenderloin for first-timers. It’s not as fatty as the ribeye or sirloin cuts, but is still tender and juicy. Both steaks were cooked rare, with just salt and pepper—the only way to eat a high-quality steak to take advantage of its flavor and quality. The porterhouse was over an inch thick with a beautiful crown of fat around the edges. It was tender, but still with a bit of chew (beef with no bite just doesn’t feel like real beef), and had a good beefy flavor. Porterhouse steaks give you the best of both worlds; one side is tenderloin, and the other side is sirloin— lean, tender meat on one side, and fatty glory on the other.

Wagyu Tenderloin Grade 8 is on the higher end of the scale, meaning it has more marbling which is more equally distributed. It was served three inches thick and perfectly rare; while there was no discernible fat, it made its presence felt in the way our knives slid through the meat like butter. It felt like silk in the mouth, with a milder beef flavor. No gravy was needed, not even an extra sprinkling of