I tried Cawa Coffee's new Wagyu Beef Croissant after its fish finger croissant went viral

The French were up in arms when journalist Julien Hoez shared an image of the fish finger "monstrosity" sold by a Sheffield-based cafe company in 2022.

Since then, Cawa Coffee have found immense success with their filled croissant creations - now going all in on the product and opening La Croissanteria in place of their Cawa cafe on Division Street in Sheffield.

It's a total commitment to the croissant craze and with it a number of wacky, yet wonderful, cross-cuisine croissants have been born - including Chicken Shawarma, Lamb Donner, and Falafel versions.

However, last week, The Star paid a visit to the recently opened La Croissanteria, mainly to film and see the new interior (they've added a mezzanine floor), but when Business Development Director, Deon Jacobs, offered me the chance to try the Wagyu Beef Burger Croissant - I was never going to say no.

It came on a nice plate, with three sauce options to dip on the side. In front of me was a croissant, baked that morning, sliced horizontally and filled with gherkins, lettuce, tomato, burger sauce and a Wagyu beef patty.

The company made a point to source the halal beef locally, teaming up with Wortley Wagyu to produce the burgers. Many people have heard of the pedigree associated with this particular cattle, but for anyone who doesn't hear are some numbers.

Wortley Wagyu produce a number of products from their cattle, including Wagyu sirloins and ribeyes. For 500g of Japanese A5 Wagyu, it is being sold at £90 - and that is good value.

The upmarket London department store, Harrod's, sells a Wagyu beef sandwich for £28.

As I began to tuck into my croissant, I wasn't expecting to find much beef in it - purely due to how much it costs for the company to buy - but I was pleasantly surprised to find a good sized burger in there. It was much thicker than I had thought it would be.

Deon told me eventually they will have the patties made triangular, to better fit the croissant vessel it is in, but for now they've got round ones.

It was absolutely divine. It tasted like a burger, as expected, but you could taste the beef, even through the burger sauce and gherkins also in the mix.

I looked at Deon, who said the Wagyu burger croissant was one of his ideas, very impressed with the accomplishment.

At the end of the day, there will be those folks who will tell us "it's just a burger" and, yes, it was a burger and it tasted like a burger, but it was absolutely lovely - a burger made with a real high quality beef and you can tell.

For £7.50, that beefy croissant is absolutely worth it and I think our French friends would agree as well.