Here's Where You Can Find The Rarest Steak In America

If there were a textbook definition of eating like a king, an image of a nice, juicy steak might as well come up. But if you want something that's the rarest of the rare — and we don't mean its level of doneness — but rather an elusive treat for the palate, it's none other than the olive wagyu. Wagyu beef melts in your mouth, and the coveted olive wagyu? Perhaps even more so. It can be found on the permanent menus of Barclay Prime and the Metropolitan Grill, but you can also find it seasonally in other places.

Barclay Prime, a lavish restaurant in Philadelphia, offers its olive striploin for $210. It's characterized by its buttery texture and bold flavor, along with a nice hint of olive that doesn't feel overwhelming. The serving can be quite generous; considering its price and rarity, it seems like a good bang for your buck. Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Grill is a Seattle gem, which features a four- and six-ounce olive beef fillet for $140 and $205, respectively. It's pleasantly juicy (as you would expect from olive wagyu), highlighting its gorgeous marbling, which can impact your steak by making it exceptionally succulent and flavorful.

Once you get a taste of the rarest steak in America, you might just be surprised by how there's nothing quite like it. Its uniqueness is far from being a gimmick, and its process is what makes it even more unique. Here's exactly why the olive steak is elusive, and how a simple olive helped create an exceptional steak.

Wagyu beef is an expensive dish that hails from Japan, but in an understated island called Shōdoshima in Kagawa Prefecture, there's something even more premium: The olive wagyu. Only a handful of farmers in the prefecture are authorized to raise around 1,700 olive-fed cattle, which requires a rigorous process. Its controlled production makes it rare, and it reflects on the price tag.

Masaki Ishii was the one who started it all in 2006, when he had a lightbulb moment of combining wagyu and Shōdoshima's famous olives. It then became a three-year-long experiment of using pressed olive pulp as sustenance for cattle. The final product of slow-toasted olives became the catalyst to create tasty livestock, which also resulted in a premium yield. But of course, its rarity isn't the only thing that makes olive wagyu remarkable. It earned its prestige because the olives also boosted the peptides and glutamic acid found in meat, which are the culprits behind its heavy umami bite. The succulence is achieved thanks to the high concentration of monounsaturated fat, making it stand out from other pieces of beef.

Aside from Barclay Prime and the Metropolitan Grill, you can also purchase olive wagyu at Crowd Cow if you want to make it yourself at home. For now, other restaurants have only offered the dish for a limited time. So if you want to try it out, you'll either have to buy a piece from an online retailer or plan a trip to Philadelphia or Seattle.