Preface
I recently checked out Chubby Cattle BBQ’s soft opening in Duluth, GA. I love their other restaurant, literally right across the street, that offers a Shabu. I will say, if you’re looking for a budget spot, turn back now. Chubby Cattle offers a premium experience with top-notch service. I usually never care about good service, but they always take the cake with knowledgeable, kind servers. After talking with someone who works there, they only hire people who are quite experienced in that particular sector (KBBQ, Shabu, etc.), and they have to prove it. The last part seems kind of sinister, but those are their words.
The Soft Opening Experience
Anyway, let’s talk about the actual soft opening. I’ve been to other soft openings, and they’re typically really busy. This was no exception. We waited an hour to be seated, so keep that in mind when you’re going during their soft opening period. Please also remember that the employees are still in training, so if you’re overly picky about stuff like that, first of all, relax, but secondly, please wait until after their soft opening period. However, I still found the service to be good, but they weren’t as knowledgeable as they typically are.
Tiers
Like their other locations, they offered different tiers that offered different proteins and dishes. I got the diamond tier, which was priced at $88 a person, but they also offer gold and silver. Diamond allows unlimited proteins and two special dishes per person per two different categories—so four total (gold allows one per category, and silver, I believe, doesn’t have any).
Chubby Cattle has a self-service unlimited drink section, and their two milk tea stations offered a delicious option. However, I did miss the “Chi Forest” sparkling water they have at their Shabu location. Wagyu is fatty, and sometimes you don’t want to wash it down with milk tea, which doesn’t really serve as the best palate cleanser. It is nice to have another option that is refreshing, and that isn’t soda. They also have a sauce station in this area, but I did not find the sauces necessary. Everything else is ordered and brought to you, so if you’re boujee, don’t worry.
Review
Pele was my server, and I got permission from him to mention him by name. He did a great job and gave me a fantastic suggestion right off the bat—the “A5 Wagyu Otoro Thick Cut”. It was definitely the stand-out of the night, and it made me wish Diamond came with unlimited everything like the Shabu location, because I really wanted to drown myself in this cut of wagyu. It was extremely flavorful and fatty, but it’s not gristly. I had this along with the “A5 Miyazaki Wagyu Short Rib,” and that was also great, but not as fatty and flavorful as the other cut. It’s still a solid choice. From this category, I also had the “A5 Miyazaki Ribeye,” which was good but not as notable, and the “A5 Finger Meat,” which was the only marinated one I had. I loved the marinade on this and had a familiar KBBQ taste, sweet and savory, but it was grisly and chewy in parts.
We tried all of the “Diamond Special Dishes,” and I was really pleasantly surprised they had Uni/Sea Urchin. While I will say it wasn’t as creamy as other places I’ve had it, more people will get the opportunity to try it. There were two scallop sashimi dishes (one with caviar and one with uni) that were great. The scallop was silky and sweet, but the dashi-like sauce was a bit too tart. They also had two wagyu “sushi” dishes that were good, but overall slightly underwhelming. One was uni and caviar, and the other had foie gras (fattened duck or goose liver if you’re unfamiliar). The foie gras was extremely decadent, but the rest was solid but unnotable.
For the standard dishes, the most memorable to me was the beef tongue. I loved it. I am a fan of tongue, but this was even more flavorful than normal. It comes with a lemon wedge, but I find it unnecessary. It is very delicious on its own. Everything else was good, but nothing else stood out significantly. The seafood was excellent as well. The salmon and yellowtail carpaccios were delicious, and even though I am a diehard salmon fan, I really loved the yellowtail due to the sriracha and jalapeno topping. The dashi-like sauce at the bottom of the salmon one was similar to the scallops’—it was too tart.
There is also soft-serve ice cream if that is important to you. The vanilla has good flavor, but it was a bit too icy for me.
Conclusion
I really do love the Chubby Cattle locations. I think it’s really easy for something like this to be a gimmick, but they make it a fun, memorable experience, and it’s always delicious. The “worst” things there are still good/fine, which is a win in my book. This location was no different. Even though it was a hectic, busy soft opening, they still managed to kill it (once again, shout-out to Pele). I do want to come back again once they’ve got a better groove going on. The Shabu location got better as time went on, and I hope this location does the same. I will say I miss the roasted bone marrow they have at their Shabu location, but I think this place is on a similar footing to their other location right across the street—and that’s a compliment.
Rating and Conclusion
Taste: 4.5
Value: 4
Memorability: 4.5
Total: 4.33
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