Palm Beach Meats: Kobe and Wagyu in SODO Orlando

Wagyu cheesesteak with fries at Palm Beach Meats in Orlando’s SODO District

Thick-cut Wagyu steak sandwich at Palm Beach Meats

Dining

In Orlando’s SODO District, Palm Beach Meats serves authentic Kobe and Wagyu without a hint of steakhouse pretension

Few businesses can credit a pandemic for their big break, but Eric and Meghan San Pedro can. When they launched Palm Beach Meats in June 2020, restaurants were shuttered and Wagyu importers had suddenly lost their biggest customers. Eager to move product, some of the country’s largest importers offered the couple wholesale pricing on even the smallest orders — they “were willing to sell us a single steak at the same price as a hundred,” Meghan recalls.

The early business model was refreshingly simple. The couple took preorders through Tuesday, personally texting more than 300 customers. Then the family spent Saturdays delivering Wagyu from Miami to Vero Beach. One stop might be a waterfront estate; the next, a parking lot where a customer couldn’t leave a shift. Those routes taught them the lesson that still guides the business: “Everybody eats, most people like to eat, and everybody deserves to eat well.”

A Home in SODO

Orlando, with its diverse culinary landscape, felt like a natural next step, and the San Pedros chose the SODO District for its neighborhood atmosphere. “We didn’t want to simply open another location; we wanted to become part of a community and grow alongside it,” Meghan says.

Today the shop on South Orange Avenue is part butcher counter, part restaurant and part gourmet market. Palm Beach Meats holds all three Kobe beef designations (retail, wholesale and restaurant) from the Kobe Beef Marketing & Distribution Promotion Association, and its cases are stocked with Wagyu from Japan, Australia and the U.S. Japanese A5 is prized for its buttery, melt-in-your-mouth texture, while Australian and American Wagyu offer a more familiar steak experience. “You don’t need to know anything about Wagyu to walk through our doors,” Meghan says.

“Great food should bring people together, not create barriers between them.”

Meghan San Pedro

Burgers and a Chapel

First-timers should start with the Wagyu burger, Eric’s pick, or the Wagyu Philly cheesesteak, Meghan’s favorite. “We took an ingredient most people associate with expensive steakhouses and made it something you can enjoy casually on a lunch break or with your family,” she says.

Tucked inside the Orlando location is the PBM Wagyu Chapel, an intimate private dining room for about 20 guests, where Executive Chef BJ Wright and the team stage multi-course tasting menus and collaborations. What makes it special, Meghan says, is “the intimacy, the music, the storytelling.”

That no-pretension philosophy has earned the West Palm Beach location a Michelin Bib Gourmand in both 2025 and 2026. This holiday season, the Orlando shop is spotlighting Japanese A5, Australian Wagyu and curated gifts for entertaining at home. Whether guests stop in for lunch or settle in for a tasting, the goal is the same: that everyone will “feel equally welcome.”