How is that $120 sandwich at B&B Butchers, anyway? Here’s our verdict

Last week, Houston-based B&B Butchers announced that it would be introducing an A5 Wagyu Katsu Sando at its location in the Shops at Clearfork in Fort Worth. It’s not every day that an upscale steakhouse makes a big deal out of a sandwich, but this one is special enough that B&B is charging $120 for it (OK, you also get zucchini fries — which were pretty good — and some gherkins with it).

This week, we got to try it. This isn’t the royal/editorial “we” here: It’s Eats Beat columnist Bud Kennedy, Eats Beat podcast producer/co-host Steve Wilson and I, for part of a podcast we recorded at the Fort Worth restaurant. Yes, we paid. Well, we used a company credit card, anyway.

B&B says the sandwich uses “truly all Japanese ingredients”: A5 Japanese Wagyu ribeye that’s panko-crusted, deep-fried and served on toasted, buttered Japanese white “Hotel Bread” that is lightly spread with a house-made Japanese tonkatsu barbecue sauce. The “Katsu” part of the name comes from the crusting/frying process; you can probably guess that “Sando” is a Japanese term for sandwich.

It’s then sliced into three sections without crust along with zucchini fries and “a lemon citrus ponzu mist.”

Must admit, we missed the mist. But the sandwich ...

It’s a small-looking sandwich, especially when you split it three ways (although Bud, for some reason, only took one bite and let us have the rest). But the beef, sliced thin and cooked on the border between medium and medium-rare, is so rich that a little of this sandwich does go a long way.

Almost everyone who talks about the sandwich mentions its “melt in your mouth” quality, and we found that to be true, and it goes beyond the beef to the whole sandwich. Steve and I started taking smaller bites just to make it last longer. The “Hotel Bread,” thicker than most American white bread, was toasted and buttered in a way that called to mind the bread on the best grilled cheese we’ve ever had, multiplied by about five. The barbecue sauce gave the sandwich a little extra brightness.

So we liked it. Not sure if we would describe it as a “mythical” sandwich, the way Houstonia magazine does, but it’s an indulgence that’s worth it (the sandwich practically has a cult following and has been called “The Holy Grail of Steak Sandwiches”).

Sure, you can get less expensive steak sandwiches out there. They’re also less elegant, and not made with A5 Wagyu, which is rare and imported at only nine restaurants in the United States (that includes B&B, which features it in other dishes). This is one for treating yourself, or someone else (maybe someone who’ll split it — and the check? — with you).

If you’re in a less indulgent mood, B&B is one of many restaurants participating in DFW Restaurant Week (which at many participating restaurants lasts two or three weeks). B&B has $20 and $49 per person menus, with a portion of the proceeds going to the Lena Pope home. To check out the menus, go here.

This story was originally published August 16, 2018 at 10:45 AM.