The "Wagyu Burger" Scam: What You're Actually Eating

I need to talk about Wagyu burgers, because the gap between what restaurants claim and what they actually serve has become absurd.

Here's the scenario: you see "Wagyu Burger" on a menu for $24-$32. You imagine that richly marbled, melt-in-your-mouth Japanese beef ground into a patty. You order it expecting something transcendent. You get... a good burger. Maybe. Not $32 good. Not life-changing. Just a burger.

What happened?

What "Wagyu" Usually Means on a Burger Menu

In almost every case, a restaurant "Wagyu burger" is made from F1 crossbred ground beef — 50% Wagyu, 50% Angus. Sometimes it's not even that. The USDA has no regulation on using the word "Wagyu" in restaurant contexts, so a burger with 25% Wagyu genetics can be marketed as "Wagyu" without legal consequence.

The cost math is revealing. F1 crossbred Wagyu ground beef costs restaurants $8-$12/lb wholesale. A 6 oz burger patty costs them roughly $3-$4 in raw product. Add a bun and toppings ($2-$3), and the total food cost is $5-$7 for a burger they're selling at $28-$32. That's a 75-80% profit margin on the word "Wagyu."

For comparison, a ground beef patty from high-quality USDA Choice chuck costs $2-$3 at wholesale. The "Wagyu" premium at the restaurant level is adding $15-$20 to your check for perhaps $2 more in actual ingredient cost.

Could You Actually Make an A5 Wagyu Burger?

Sure. Japanese A5 ground Wagyu costs $25-$40/lb at retail. A 6 oz patty would cost $10-$15 in raw product — expensive but not insane. The problem is that a pure A5 ground beef patty doesn't actually make a good burger. The fat content is so high (50-60%) that the patty essentially melts on the grill, falling apart into a puddle of rendered fat. You'd need to blend it with leaner beef to get a patty that holds together, at which point it's no longer "A5."

The best Wagyu burger I've ever made used a blend of 70% fullblood American Wagyu chuck (naturally around 80/20) and 30% American Wagyu brisket trim. Cost: about $15/lb. Result: genuinely the best burger I've ever eaten — deeply beefy, incredibly juicy, with a richness that regular beef can't touch. But that's a $8 patty at home, not a $32 restaurant burger with a $3 patty.

What to Do About It

• Ask what "Wagyu" means. What percentage? What source? Most servers can't answer, which tells you something.
• Buy Wagyu ground beef and make burgers at home. American fullblood Wagyu ground at $15-$20/lb makes a burger that's better than anything you'll get at a restaurant for $30.
• If the restaurant is serving genuine high-quality Wagyu, they'll tell you. The few places that use actual fullblood or Japanese Wagyu in their burgers are proud of it and will specify the source, the genetics, and the BMS range.

I'm not saying restaurant Wagyu burgers are bad. Many of them are good burgers. I'm saying the "Wagyu" premium is mostly a marketing tax — you're paying $15 extra for a word, not for a meaningfully different product. Save that $15 and put it toward an actual A5 steak experience that will genuinely blow your mind.