Meet the Wagyu Cocktail, Now at SushiSamba

SushiSamba — the restaurant serving a blend of Japanese, Brazilian and Peruvian dishes at the Grand Canal Shoppes — now brings its Wagyu cocktail out of London and New York in Las Vegas.

Parent company Orange Brands Management head of cocktail and spirit development Richard Woods created this concoction, a classic riff on an Old Fashioned. The drink uses Japanese whisky treated to a wash of the highest grade Wagyu before being stirred with maple and salted caramel. It’s all served over ice.

The restaurant also just debuted what it’s calling "the largest Japanese whisky list in Las Vegas, and one of the largest in America."

The revamped list includes selections from the founding fathers of Japanese whiskey — Shinjiro Torii of Suntory, Masataka Taketsuru of Nikka and Kiichiro Iwai of Mars. The list features 26 un-aged varieties up variations aged for 28 years. Single malts, pure malts, blends, sherry cask whiskey, variations distilled in the Japanese Alps and others distilled in the most northern island of Hokkaido all make the list. Rare award-winning selections include Akashi 5YR Sherry Cask, the Mars 3 and 25, Nikka Taketsuru 17-year Pure Malt — a line dedicated to the founder of Nikka.

Starting on Feb. 16, SushiSamba has a new menu featuring Japanese whiskey paired with dishes including crispy tempura minter sweet oysters with butter lettuce and whiskey-soy marinated robata pork ribs.