Asahiya’s Japanese Kobe beef croquettes have a massive wait list

Take a number and get in line (and maybe bring a tent and a sleeping bag) because Asahiya’s Kobe beef croquettes are almost impossible to get your hands on.

Would you wait 43 years for a really good snack? That’s what people across the globe are willing to do in order to try the perfect croquette by one of Japan’s most lauded Kobe producers. Apparently, it’s worth the wait.

If you were to order a box of frozen Kobe beef croquettes from family-run butcher Asahiya today, there’s a decent chance that you wouldn’t live to taste the fruits of your patience but that isn’t slowing down the mind-boggling waitlist.

Hailing from Japan’s Hyogo Prefecture, the waitlist for Asahiya’s Kobe croquettes was a modest 30 years back in 2022, but the butcher’s rise to internet stardom has led to an explosion in customers signing up, eager to taste what has become one of the rarest dishes in the world.

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The snacks have a 43-year waiting list. Picture: Asahiya

Dubbed the Extreme Croquette, the crunchy, crumbed patties are made from the world’s most exclusive meat – Kobe beef, which hails from the Hyogo Prefecture.

Shigeru Nitta, the third-generation owner of Asahiya, started selling the Extreme Croquettes as a trial in 1999, in the hope that customers would by the Kobe beef after trying them.

At the time, Nitta realised that consumers were hesitant to pay premium prices for beef products online so he made the bold choice to sell the croquettes at a loss. Charging around $3 per piece, the cost of the meat in each of the croquettes sat around the $6.50 mark. Using this model, Nitta produced just 200 croquettes each week to build up a fan base and limit the financial hit.

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The patties are made from the world’s most exclusive meat - Kobe beef,.

In the years since launching this money-losing idea, production has ramped up from 200 per week to 200 per day – a considerably modest increase given the high demand. The price of the croquettes has remained largely in-line with inflation too, with each box of five frozen croquettes retailing for just $28.

Luckily, around half of the people who try Nitta’s croquettes go on to order more cuts of Kobe beef, making the business sustainable. Just.

At the time of writing, there are 63,000 people on the waitlist, and customers receiving their orders this month have been patiently waiting for 10 years, giving new meaning to the ‘slow food’ movement. So if the business is barely scraping by, and customers are having to wait decades for their order, why would the butcher keep up the slog?

The motivation behind the obscure hustle is altruism.

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People travel from all over the world to eat the Japanese snack. Picture: Asahiya

Nitta realised early on that many orders for his Extreme Croquettes were coming from remote and isolated islands, where people had heard of but never experienced Kobe beef. A particularly memorable moment for the butcher was when he learned that a cancer patient on the waitlist was about to undergo surgery, hoping to live long enough to try the beef for himself. The patient survived and has placed many orders since.

Asahiya now has two locations, the original shop in Takasago City and one in Kobe city, where travellers can pick up their croquettes (the Extreme Croquettes are only shipped domestically) in a few decades. If you don’t want to wait, there are two takeaway snacks available in-store called the Kitanozaka croquette – made of lean beef and costs $3.60 – and the Tor Road croquette of short loin and chuck for just $4.70.

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Originally published as Asahiya’s Japanese Kobe beef croquettes have a massive wait list