Inside Brentwood’s New Palace of Wagyu Beef

Matu Kai. Matu Kai opens on April 6, serving wagyu steaks, meatballs, ragu, and more Beverly Hills wagyu specialist Matu gains a sibling soon with the opening of its sister restaurant, Matu Kai, in Brentwood on April 6. Matu Kai builds on Matu’s promise of all wagyu, all the time, offering the prized beef as steaks, thin-sliced in a carpaccio preparation, and even ground up into tender meatballs.

Matu (stylized as matū), which opened in 2021, is a collaboration between founders Jerry A. Greenberg, Michael Odell, Ryan Gianola, and Scott Linder — a partnership that continues at Matu Kai. The group developed the menu while Linder was charged with leading kitchen operations or anything food-related.



All of the beef at both Matu and Matu Kai comes from New Zealand’s First Light Farms, which Greenberg is involved in as an owner.Like its sister restaurant, Matu Kai offers a slate of set-course wagyu dinners, starting with a rich, but still delicate 24-hour bone broth that’s served in a taupe-colored ceramic cup from Chef & Sommelier. The meal then offers a steak tartare and an eight-hour braised beef cheek with celeriac puree.

The Matu Dinner, which requires two people to order and is priced at $87 per person, might be the best way to experience the restaurant, starting with the bone broth, before moving into steak tartare, beef cheek, and three-ounce center-cut filet served with the house ’47 salad. The meal culminates with a 12-ounce rib-eye or 11-ounce New York strip and grilled broccolini to share. Meats are cooked to what Matu Kai calls “warm red,” which is close to a medium rare.

Filet dinner. While Matu Kai shares a lot of its menu with Matu, there are a handful of dishes on the menu that are exclusive to the Brentwood location. Skewered rib-eye and New York strip brochettes are brushed with a harissa spice, which adds a kick of spice, while tenderloin is prepared as a satay and served with a crying tiger sauce.

Wagyu meatballs come in a set of three, resting on a shallow pool of tomato sauce with a dusting of salty Parmesan cheese on top, and maltagliati pasta with hand-torn noodles from Uovo is served in a rib-eye ragu. For a non-meat option, Matu Kai also exclusively offers a Caesar tahini salad, though the restaurant as a whole isn’t particularly vegetarian-friendly. For those who are looking for a more choose-your-own-wagyu-adventure, there are plenty of a la carte options for both mains and sides, including a shrimp cocktail, branzino, lobster tails cooked over a wood fire, and smoky maitake mushrooms with thyme and butter.

The steaks are also available to order outside of the set meals, including a 10-ounce center-cut picanha, a seven-ounce center-cut filet, and a 13- to 14-ounce rib-eye. Matu Kai doesn’t use dry aging or a marinade for any of its steaks, instead relying on the flavor from the wagyu, complemented by fire cooking, salt, and pepper. Matu’s now-famous wagyu cheesesteak is also available to order on the dinner menu.

End the meal with a light but very chocolatey flourless chocolate cake or creamy panna cotta. If drinking wine, make sure to try the Matu Reserve, a red from Napa, California.Architect Robert Tsurimoto Kirsten of A-RTK designed Matu Kai, bringing sleek accents into the 75-seat dining room, with an adjoining plant-enclosed patio.

A rectangular bar draped in greenery commands attention in the center, with bottles resting on shelves as bartenders below prepare Matu Old Fashioneds and martinis. Globe-shaped lanterns hang overhead, suspended in curved brass fixtures, casting light on the trees throughout the space. Curved walnut walls wrap around camel-colored booths, which offer a sense of privacy without being fully disconnected.

At the back of the room, flames jump off the grill in the open kitchen, which is lit from the inside so diners can watch the cooks at work. For now, Matu Kai is only open for dinner, but the restaurant plans to open for lunch soon. The restaurant is a welcome addition to this strip of Brentwood, which is home to Pizzana, Ospi, A.

O.C., and more.

Exterior of Matu Kai. Dining room at Matu Kai. Bar area.

Tenderloin carpaccio. Steak tartare. Shrimp cocktail, French fries, and brochettes with harissa spice.

Meatballs with pomodoro sauce. Maltagliati pasta with rib-eye ragu. Maitake mushrooms.

Bone broth. Filet. Picanha dinner.

Rib-eye dinner..