Wagyu restaurants in Tacoma, Washington

Tacoma has three published Wagyu restaurants, two of which clear the full sourcing standard, and one of those two is the clearest small illustration on this site of what the Kobe badge actually requires. A single venue sits in the menu-only tail, and zero rooms carry the Certified Kobe badge.

That room holds a licence on the official Kobe Beef Association registry and does not carry the Certified Kobe badge, because the badge is a conjunction: the licence, which is standing permission to buy, and Kobe actually on the menu we verified. It was serving other Japanese beef when we last read it. That is entirely ordinary and not a criticism. Kobe is scarce, expensive and often seasonal, and a licensed restaurant can go months without it. It does mean that anywhere counting licences would tell you Tacoma has a Kobe restaurant. It does not, today, and that number moves.

The other verified room names Davis Family Cattle Company, an Idaho ranch that keeps no website of its own and is listed on this site. The same operator's Seattle and Boise dining rooms name it too, which is a useful thing to see: a restaurant group buying from one small ranch across three cities is a real supply relationship rather than a line of menu copy.

Both verified rooms price in the top tier, both serve Japanese A5, and between them they offer hot stone and by-the-ounce service. Zabuton appears on one menu, which is a shoulder cut that only turns up when a kitchen is breaking down primals itself.