Prefecture · Hokkaido
Hokkaido Wagyu
Hokkaido Wagyu, including the Snow Beef and Chateau Uenae lines.
- Region
- Hokkaido, northern Japan
- Breed
- Japanese Black (Kuroge)
- Notable lines
- Hokkaido Snow Beef, Chateau Uenae
- Character
- Cold-climate, small-batch
Where to eat it29
Alexander's Steakhouse - Pasadena
Pasadena, CA
Alexander's Steakhouse - Cupertino
Cupertino, CA
The Pines Modern Steakhouse
Highland, CA
Old Florida Fish House
Santa Rosa Beach, FL
RPM Steak
Chicago, IL
Nicco's
Las Vegas, NV
Palladino's NYC Steak & Seafood
New York, NY
The Lobster Club
New York, NY
Nick&Sam's Steakhouse
Dallas, TX
The Metropolitan Grill
Seattle, WA
Makoto Vail
Vail, CO
Bourbon Steak - Washington
Washington, DC
The H Orlando
Orlando, FL
Prime & Provisions
Chicago, IL
Anthony's Chophouse
Carmel, IN
Supper Club
Baton Rouge, LA
Hiroki-san
Detroit, MI
SW Steakhouse (Wynn)
Las Vegas, NV
Jean Georges Steakhouse
Las Vegas, NV
RingSide Steakhouse
Portland, OR
Bourbon Steak - Nashville
Nashville, TN
Bourbon Steak by Michael Mina
Nashville, TN
Tango Room
Dallas, TX
Al Biernat's North
Dallas, TX
Wicked Butcher (Fort Worth)
Fort Worth, TX
Dakota's Steakhouse
Dallas, TX
BOA Steakhouse
Austin, TX
Wicked Butcher (Dallas)
Dallas, TX
Carnevor
Milwaukee, WI
Where to buy it5
Crowd Cow
Japanese A5 (Kagoshima, Miyazaki, Hokkaido, Iwate, Olive/Shodoshima), American Wagyu (Mishima Reserve)
The Wagyu Shop
Japanese A5 (Hokkaido, Kobe, Miyazakigyu, Motobu Gyu, Olive Wagyu, Takamori), American, Australian
Grand Western Steaks
Japanese A5, American, Australian
Kai Wagyu
Japanese A5, Australian, American
J. Morten's
Japanese A5, Australian
The prefecture
Hokkaido is Japan's cold northern island and its agricultural heartland. Its Wagyu is less a single brand than a collection of regional and single-farm lines, produced across a landscape of dramatic temperature swings and long winters.
Snow Beef and the rare lines
The best-known Hokkaido specialty is Hokkaido Snow Beef, produced by the Chateau Uenae farm near Lake Utonai. The "snow" refers to the appearance of the marbling, a fine, lacy web of intramuscular fat, and not to any snow-aging process. It is exported in very small numbers and often marketed as one of the rarest Wagyu lines, a superlative worth treating as marketing rather than a measured fact.
Do not confuse Hokkaido Snow Beef with Niigata's Snow-Aged Wagyu, which is an entirely separate concept: an aging method carried out in traditional snow cellars.
Common questions
- Is Hokkaido Snow Beef aged in snow?
- No. The name describes the snowflake-like appearance of the marbling. Snow-aging as a technique is a Niigata tradition (yukimuro), which is unrelated to Hokkaido Snow Beef.
Looking for the U.S. ranches that raise Wagyu? See the farms · The Kobe list · How to spot authentic Wagyu