Matū, the Beverly Hills steakhouse themed around Wagyu beef, had been open nearly a year and a half in November 2022 when the restaurant began lunch service essentially serving one item: a luxury cheesesteak. The craze has grown so fervent that a stand dedicated to the creation appeared across town in Pasadena this week.
The breakdown of a luxe cheesesteak
The original cheesesteak began with cooks searing and chopping a combination of Wagyu ribeye and sirloin on the griddle. They folded in diced onions that quickly browned to sweetness. A white version of Cooper Sharp, a sliceable brand of American cheese that’s been inducted into the unofficial lexicon of acceptable ingredients for cheesesteaks in Philadelphia, lined a baguette-ish roll crusted with sesame seeds. (Not every cheesesteak roll in Philly sports sesame seeds, but my favorite one, John’s Roast Pork, does.) The final addition: a charred, thin long hot pepper slid along one edge.
It was — is — a delicious, tightly constructed extravagance. Wagyu is admittedly not my preferred genre of beef, but its unctuousness suits a fancy cheesesteak. Local devotion quickly built around Matū’s creation. Not much surprise, then, that when a spinoff restaurant, Matū Kai, appeared last year in Brentwood, the cheesesteak became a staple on the bar menu and subsequent lunch service.
The midafternoon line on the second day of business at Cheesesteaks by Matū in Pasadena.
(Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times)
As of Jan. 14, amid the commercial density just east of Old Pasadena, Cheesesteaks by Matū has arrived with a short, focused menu.
Its ordering window shares a table-filled alcove with HiHo Cheeseburgers. Both are creations by Jerry Greenberg, the restaurateur also behind Sugarfish, KazuNori, Nozawa Bar and Uovo.
The scene in Pasadena
My colleague Jenn Harris and I swung by midafternoon for a first look on Thursday, the business’ second day of operation. The line reached the sidewalk. Every seat was taken.
In the same way that Greenberg has a reputation for duplicating the sushi experience between Sugarfish and KazuNori locations, he’s pulled it off right away here too with the cheesesteak: same proportions, same frizzle to the meat, same solid-molten consistency to the cheese, same racing-stripe of blackened green chile.
Signature cheesesteaks — made with wagyu beef, grilled onions and long hot peppers — at Cheesesteaks by Matū in Pasadena.
(Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times)
Customization is limited. You can ask for a cheesesteak with no onions or no peppers. As in Beverly Hills, Jenn attempted to ask for a second hot pepper, and as before, the staffer said, “We won’t do it.” Like all chiles, the long hots can vary in heat — and ours roared back.
My one complaint: To borrow Samin Nosrat’s famous equation, the salt, fat and heat boom from this thing in equal levels. What’s lacking is acid, some tang, to cut through the excess of richness. Cherry peppers or other pickles, sriracha, even the horseradish sauce I’ve seen now and again alongside cheesesteaks in Philadelphia.
To that end, the potato chips fried in beef tallow (the only side option) have a parallel greasiness and didn’t much appeal. I was more persuaded by the floppy, freshly cut fries from HiHo.
But is it, like its Westside counterparts, the best iteration of a cheesesteak I’ve had in Los Angeles? Yes. Should you join the line to decide for yourself? Again, yes, with the caveat that the fledgling storefront has been so overwhelmed after a few days that, rather than daylong hours, it’s switching for now to lunch beginning at 11:30 a.m., with last orders at 2 p.m., to accommodate the initial surge of interest.
Cheesesteaks by Matū: 625 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, www.matusteak.com/cheesesteaks-by-matu
View from the dining alcove at Cheesesteaks by Matū in Pasadena.
(Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times)
Eat (and drink!) your greens
This week, in the spirit of the January post-holidays reset, my colleagues went deep on the subject of greens. Food editor Daniel Hernandez shared his recipe for gingery, citrusy Mexican green juice (which also has a secret ingredient); Stephanie Breijo spotlighted Beverly Hills Juice, in operation since 1975; and Danielle Dorsey, Betty Hallock and Jenn Harris joined them in naming 16 of their favorite green juices around Los Angeles.
Food editor Daniel Hernandez’s Mexican green juice, photographed in the Los Angeles Times test kitchen.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)
Carolynn Carreño also has strategies for making all manner of greens, including recipes for easy sauteed greens, curly kale salad and a dupe of the Mighty Greens soup from Erewhon.
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Also …General Manager of Food Laurie Ochoa broke the news that’s all the talk of Los Angeles: Noma chef René Redzepi is bringing his world-famous Copenhagen restaurant to Los Angeles from March 11 through June 26, and the all-inclusive cost for dinner is $1,500 per person.Jenn Harris writes about Cinque Terre West in Venice, a beacon of hope for the thousands struggling to rebuild after the Palisades fire.Stephanie Breijo details the lineup of new talent and their dishes at Smorgasburg L.A., including a Taiwanese breakfast staple, a burger that riffs on Korean barbecue and a Southern-style fish fry. 