This “So Tender” Filet Mignon Is My New Favorite Date Night Dinner at Home

As much as I love to eat out, I also love when my fiancé and I can cook a really nice dinner at home together. Most of the time our romantic home-cooked dinners revolve around steak and/or seafood, like shrimp and salmon. We usually source our meat and seafood from our local Trader Joe’s, but we recently had the opportunity to try out some more higher-end steaks than what we would normally buy and make at home. And honestly, it’s where I’m going to be sourcing steaks for special occasions moving forward (looking at you, Valentine’s Day). 

For this, I’m heading to Crowd Cow’s website, where you can shop all sorts of quality meats, including pork, chicken, duck, bison, scallops, and, of course, steaks. I recently tested Crowd Cow’s Classic Wagyu Surf & Turf, though it appears the brand no longer sells as a bundle. But I couldn’t resist telling you about the oh-so-tender, juicy Wagyu Filet Mignon from that set (which is available online) because I think it’s totally worth keeping in your freezer for your next date-night dinner at home.

Crowd Cow offers quite a range of Wagyu products. You can grab everything from Wagyu filet mignon to burger patties to brisket. And you can even choose where you want to source your Wagyu from, whether that’s America, Australia, or Japan. The Wagyu filet mignon my fiancé and I had was from Mishima Reserve, which produces American Wagyu. It’s $52 per steak, which is definitely a little pricier than what we would typically spend on a steak from Trader Joe’s — or any other local grocery store, for that matter — but it is truly one of the best steaks I’ve ever had at home. 

And though Mishima Reserve’s cows are raised here in the States, their heritage comes from the notable Japanese Wagyu breed: Kuroge Washu. And you’ll notice that this steak has what Wagyu is so widely known for: really beautiful marbling throughout the steak (something your standard filet mignon won’t have in the same way). 

Originally, I was nervous about cooking Crowd Cow’s Wagyu Filet Mignon. What if we messed up a really nice steak? But my fiancé is quite good when it comes to cooking meat, so he did most of the heavy lifting here. He cooked it like he would typically cook a filet, which meant it came out to about medium-rare to medium. He seasoned it very simply, with salt, pepper, and a little garlic powder, so we could really taste the beef. After letting it rest, he sliced it up for serving. 

I was impressed by how tender and juicy this steak came out. For the fact that we’ve never cooked a Wagyu steak (or Wagyu anything, for that matter) before, this was much easier to cook than I had originally thought. And it was so succulent, with a savory, rich beefy flavor. I kept running my fork with baked potato on it through the drippings left on my plate. I truly couldn’t get enough and would happily order more of these to keep in our freezer for date nights and celebratory dinners. 

I love steak, and my fiancé and I eat it at home a fair amount. But this Wagyu Filet Mignon from Crowd Cow is easily the best one we’ve ever had at home — and I suspect we’ll be ordering more before Valentine’s Day rolls around.

Buy: Crowd Cow Wagyu Filet Mignon Mishima Reserve, $51.98