Beefing it up

[Photo by Mike Peters/CHINA DAILY]

The Spanish chef clearly sees salt's potential to make the most of his meats, and steaks are served with six different sea salts, including Nordic rosemary, black lava and a very sexy smoked salt. A little goes a long way.

There are also three mustards on offer, and while we didn't doubt their quality, it seemed like gilding the lily. We left our Wagyu unadorned, except for salt and a smidgeon of black-pepper sauce.

The shelled lobster was pretty as a picture, like the oysters, but plated next to the perfectly executed Wagyu it was short of the mark. (Translation: Tasty but a tad overcooked. A touch of the elegant salt helped us get over it.)

If you need to skip the Wagyu until you win the lottery, Char has quality beef options for more modest spenders. A 200-gram eye fillet of O'Connor grass-fed beef, also Australian, runs 368 yuan, while a 250-gram rib-eye－a cut which many consider to be the flavor king of steak－is a mere 258 yuan. Similar cuts of grain-fed Black Angus are similarly priced.