On the Friday that Wagyu Master officially debuted in San Jose last month, a line began to form outside the 35-seat, walk-in-only restaurant at 3:30 p.m. When the doors opened at 5 p.m., the waitlist hovered around 100 people. That night, the wait for a spot at its U-shaped counter, where diners could enjoy unlimited wagyu, stretched to four hours.
None of this seemed to surprise Charlie Chen, regional manager for Chubby Group, the parent company of Wagyu Master. After all, he told me, “It’s a great experience. It’s personalized for customers — and it’s a lot of food.” On that first day alone, the restaurant went through about 150 pounds of wagyu.
Thankfully, the wait times have eased up since then, with Wagyu Master expanding its hours to open continuously from lunch through dinner, seven days a week. Peak weekend dinnertime might still entail a two- to three-hour wait, but there can be a minimal to 30-minute wait on weekday evenings and little to no wait for weekday lunch.
As its moniker suggests, Wagyu Master specializes in the luxury beef known for its intense marbling and melt-in-your-mouth sensation. The restaurant’s two tasting menus center on the Japanese hot-pot cooking techniques of sukiyaki ($98), which involves searing the meat in a sweet-savory sauce, and shabu shabu ($88), where the meat is poached in broth…