The Meating Place PDX
Physical storefront
Tier 3 · Wagyu-Forward What the tiers mean
This listing's current published materials advertise Wagyu, but the offering does not meet our full verification standard for provenance. It carries no authenticity badge; undisclosed details remain explicitly unverified.
Authenticity flags
- The butcher counter advertises 'A5 Kobe from Japan'. Kobe is a protected designation, and the shops authorised to sell it are named on the Kobe Beef Association's own register. This shop is not on it, and it names no registered importer or distributor it buys through. Treat the beef as Japanese Wagyu, which it may well be, and ask who supplies it before paying a Kobe premium.
- Its Snake River Farms beef is listed as 'A3 Wagyu'. A-grades are Japanese JMGA grading and cannot be applied to American Wagyu, which is graded by the USDA and described by breed percentage. The cut is from a real and well-regarded American producer, but the grade attached to it is not a grade that exists for American beef.
Why it's listed
A long-established Hillsboro butcher shop with an attached deli cafe, carrying Wagyu alongside Painted Hills choice steaks, local beef, in-house dry-aged cuts and Umpqua Valley lamb. The Wagyu is a retail counter offering rather than a dining programme, and the shop names its suppliers by name.
It names its suppliers, which is the good news
This is a long-established butcher in Hillsboro, west of Portland, with a deli cafe attached, and it does something most counters do not: it lists where its beef comes from. Local beef, choice steaks from a named Oregon programme, lamb from a named valley, in-house dry-aged cuts, and Wagyu.
A supplier list is worth a great deal. It is checkable, it is a commitment, and it means a customer can ask a specific question rather than a general one. It is also why the two problems below are visible at all: a shop that named nothing could not have got the details wrong in public.
A3 is not a grade American beef can have
The list describes its Snake River Farms beef as A3 Wagyu. There is no such thing. A and a number are Japanese grading outcomes, assigned by the Japanese Meat Grading Association to carcasses graded in Japan, and they cannot be applied to American cattle.
The producer named is real and well regarded, and it does not use A-grades either. It grades to its own Beef Marbling Score ladder precisely because the American system stops at USDA Prime and Japanese letter grades do not belong to it. So this is the shop's own labelling rather than anything its supplier claims, and the beef behind it is probably exactly what it says apart from the grade.
A5 Kobe from Japan, on a shop that is not on the register
The same sentence advertises A5 Kobe from Japan. Kobe is a protected designation, and the businesses authorised to handle it outside Japan are named on the Kobe association's own register. This shop is not on it, and it names no registered importer or distributor it buys through.
That does not mean the beef is not Japanese Wagyu; it very likely is, and Japanese Wagyu is a good thing to be able to buy from a local butcher. It means the specific word Kobe is not supported, and Kobe carries a premium that ordinary A5 does not. Ask who supplies it before paying for the name, and note that the A5 assertion here sits inside the Kobe claim rather than standing on its own, which is why this listing carries no Japanese grade badge either.
Brands carried
Storefront
- 6585 NW Cornelius Pass RdHillsboro, OR
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Common questions
- Can American Wagyu be graded A3 or A5?
- No. A-grades come from the Japanese Meat Grading Association and apply to carcasses graded in Japan. American beef is graded by the USDA, and producers that want to describe marbling beyond USDA Prime use a Beef Marbling Score instead. An A-grade on American beef is a labelling error.
- Is the Kobe at this shop real Kobe beef?
- Unsupported. Businesses authorised to handle Kobe are listed on the Kobe association's own register and this shop is not on it, nor does it name a registered importer it buys through. The beef may well be Japanese Wagyu; the word Kobe is the part that is not backed.