Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ

Wow. We just drove in from GR Michigan
What a treat! The Kobe was melt in your mouth as was the diet minion. Service was excellent
No WiFi — disappointed there
Sake was smooth as water
Great place to eat! Ambience very Japanese.
Ada Mame was free! Woohoo!

Good portions and nice prices. Had the Lunch combo with Skirt Steak and Toro Beef, comes with a small house salad (#yummydressing), miso soup (HOT and lovely), CUP OF RICE — made it perfect! Ordered garlic shrimp, pig belly, and one more toro beef. finished off with their yummy Tokyo tower cocktail, Choco Lava Cake with Green Tea Ice Cream and Mochi Green Tea Ice Cream Filling!!!

Nice restaurant. The food is nice but expensive and sort of tiring to eat actually… because of the yakiniku sort of style of cooking stuff and all. Sauces good. Not much to say. Cozy warm atmosphere. They have Japanese newspapers there to read.
You get free edamame sometimes. I don’t know why… which is fine. I can’t eat edamame though.
They have fun specials and menus that probably more or less get you to spend a lot but kind of remind me of Japanese-​style menus with specials and lots of promotions and the like.

The selection of food here is decent. The food my family and I ate that evening was just OK. The meats are supposedly seasoned? I could barely taste the flavor of any of our meats. Maybe I came on a busy night and the meats they had left must’ve been marinated for just about 30 minutes before serving. It’s a great atmosphere here. The staff here are really friendly and helpful. They guide you on how long to cook a certain meat you choose. The last part to the dinner is dessert. I really enjoyed it, it’s really cute. S’mores! We as a whole group was roasting our marshmallows. It was fun and really nice. Overall, I’d come back just for the s’mores fun, but if they can season their meats a bit more; i’ll be back. Also, the prices for their food is reasonable priced; not so high as other BBQ places.

Met a friend for dinner prior to a movie. We got in around 6pm and there was a minimal wait. Service was fast and friendly but the food was only ok. After placing our order the server returned immediately with two bowls of white rice and placed them on the table and left. The bowls sat on the table for about 15 minutes and were cold by the time we were ready to grill. Why wouldn’t everything come at one time? We neglected to mention it to the server.
We ordered the steamed dumplings, Kalbi short rib, pork belly and assorted vegetables. The dumplings were probably my favorite part of the meal. They were soft and flavorful. The rest of the meal was average. At the same time, I don’t think it’s a particularly great value.

Where is the liability waiver? I’m kind of shocked that we didn’t have to sign one to eat here. Combine alcohol and a hot grill directly in front of you and you’ve got yourself a risky dining experience. But, we took our chances and lived to tell.
This was such a great restaurant! Go if you love to BBQ and when you want a leisurely night.
We had to laugh a bit because there is a sign warning you of the hot grill and to keep your babies off the table… and we still managed to singe our fingers. It was well worth it because it was really an engaging dinner. They kind of trick you because as you are grilling your own dinner, you realize YOU are doing the cooking. Well, that’s the fun. Make sure you put the timer on your phone to help you remember to turn the meat, even a couple minutes can quickly pass you by and burn your food.
The service is great. They replace the grill grate frequently and add oil so you get the perfect grill each time. We got one of the combos for 2 and it was plenty, almost too much (really it was for a famished couple who haven’t eaten all day or a party of 3).
Great location downtown, so if you are in the area for a conference, just want a fun dining experience, or want to get your grill on, reserve your spot here!

This place is amazing — we happened to be in Chicago on our anniversary so decided to have a nice dinner before the company holiday party. Food was great, service were amazing (really amazing and quick) !
My husband and I order Samurai set, it was sooo much of good food. Appetizers were awesome, we bibimbap and spicy tuna volcano were fantastic. Meat was fresh and plenty. My only wish was that we did not have too much filing before the meat came so that we can enjoy the meat a bit more.
Food is a bit costly — $ 50 each person !

My girlfriend and I stopped for a late night snack after watching the Lion King broadway musical at the Cadillac Palace (check out my other reivew, a must see show!). We were staying over at a Marriott property a block away, so it was an easy pick. Also, I was craving some warm soup, as it was a cold night in Chicago. It was pretty packed, however we were seated within five minutes of entry. We started with some dumplings and led in with a couple bowls of ramen. We didn’t want to eat too heavy as it was late, so we decided to dine lightly and return another day for the BBQ portion. The dumplings were good, not the best I’ve had but certainly not the worst. The ramen was also good, again similar to the dumplings, very average. I got the spicy kalbi ramen and the spice level was perfect. My girlfriend got the nagi which was heavily underseasoned, but still good. We will be back for the BBQ, at which point I’ll have to update this review, so see you soon!
Best,
Charlie

Super concept, mais viande pas toujours très bonne

This was my favorite place we dined at during our most recent trip here. I loved the short rib and skirt steak. They were mouth watering!
Each table has a mini BBQ stove in the middle so it was very easy to grill our food.
Four of us split the shogun dinner for four which came with soup, salad, rice, and a variety of tasty veggies, seafood, poultry and meats. I was stuffed by the end. It was plenty of food. It also came with s’mores which was a fun way to end the meal.
Our waiter was attentive and knowledgeable which made our experience enjoyable. And I enjoyed the atmosphere as well.
This is a great place for groups and I can’t wait to come back!

Bacon chips and steamed dumplings are my favorite items on the menu. That being said, everything we have ever tried has been delicious. On top of that the service is always on point. Have celebrated many events here and at different locations and there has not been a lapse in food or service. The only downside is that they don’t seat you until you ENTIRE party is there. So if you have friends who will be late for their own funeral, I suggest telling them to be there an hour before your reservation.
Please open locations in Oak Brook and/​or Schaumburg, as well as on the Big Island and Kauai

I’ve always like the concept of cooking your own meat and ordering as you go. This was my first time trying Gyu-​Kaku. Seeing the consistent 4 stars vs the 3.5 stars here in California, I decided to take my husband and sister here. I would give it a 3.5. Planning for lunch, surprised to hear they have happy hour at this time! A lot of the meats and appetizers were $ 1 – 3 cheaper. They also had set combos and lunch specials but I decided to just order what I liked. I ordered quite a bit. They have a top ten list. The first one on the list wasn’t so good. It was miso marinated and too strong to my liking. I like the marinaded kalbi and spicy chilli dumplings. The filet mignon was ok. The spicy ramen was pretty good. The garlic noodles were ok. Lets just say it fell short of my expectations. They were packed around that time!

Who doesn’t like to have some grilled meat and a hot noodle soup during a cold winter day. Heard this place for a long time.
We came by around the lunch hour after an event at the Navy Pier. The waiting time was around the half hour. It was kind of tortur sitting there with a hungry belly and smelling the wonderful grill. Need to remember to make a reservation next time.
The services were actually great. After the ordering, the food came out pretty quickly. The ramen noodle soup was pretty good but not the best one I have ever tried. The noodles tasted like home made and chewy but the soup wasn’t the best. The grilled meat was great however I was not good with the grill.
The price was reasonable for lunch. I definitely come back with someone good with the grill.

I was searching for the perfect place to celebrate my birthday with a big group of friends, and Gyu Kaku did not disappoint. Gyu was like a combination of a Korean BBQ house and a Japanese izakaya. They pretty much took elements from two of my favorite types of restaurants so I was super excited to try it. I’m usually a value guy and aim to get my money’s worth when it comes to Korean BBQ. Pretty much every good AYCE kBBQ restaurant I’ve been to has been some sort of no frills joint with non-​English menus, and my sole purpose in life was to cram as much meat into my stomach until I could barely breathe. While that still sounds like a great meal, Gyu Kaku offers a different type of experience that balances good food but also a fun environment.
Reservations: It didn’t start out too well because if you try to reserve a table for more than 10 people, they pretty much force you to get one of their group packages. It didn’t make sense for us though because there were various dietary restrictions within my group, and it would’ve been way easier to just order everything a la carte. That, and we didn’t wanna waste any of our appetite on crap filler items like seaweed soups and salads. To be honest they were pretty inflexible about making substitutions and made planning this dinner way too difficult. They pretty much forced me to break my group into 2 separate tables and then told us they can’t even try to get the two tables on the same floor.
Ambiance: They had trendy décor that you’d find in a lot of these more modern Japanese restaurants. The first floor had a mix of booths and regular tables. The second floor had more regular tables and also a bar, and the third floor had traditional style seating where you take your shoes off and sit at a lowered table. It was pretty cool. They had cushioned seats without legs that you just pull up to the table and then underneath the table the floor sunk down a step for your legs to hang down. Seemed great for larger parties.
Drinks: Who says you shouldn’t mix beer and liquor? Oh the sake bombs were flowing all night long. They had a pretty decent drink deal for bigger groups (or a small group of alcoholics) that included 3 pitchers of Kirin and two 750 ml bottles of sake for a hundred bucks.
Food: So the first thought that came to mind when I saw their menu was that it wasn’t all you can eat and I would probably spend a ton and still leave here hungry. While it’s definitely more expensive than a more traditional Korean BBQ place, it wasn’t too far off from what you’d expect in river north and surprisingly our group of big eaters left feeling pretty stuffed.
It was a bad idea allowing the guys with the biggest appetites to order for the table. The menu suggested you order 1 – 2 appetizers, 2 – 3 meats, and 1 – 2 side dishes per person, so I rounded up in every category and estimated that we would need 7 dishes per person. Based on that, we didn’t think it was a big deal ordering 45 items for our table of 6 haha.
Garlic rice — Definitely has enough flavor to stand on its own. I probably consumed a whole bulb of garlic with all the rice I ate.
Miso chili wings — Typical sweet/​spicy Asian spin
Bacon chips — Deep fried pieces of bacon that you garnish with rock salt. What kind of evil genius thinks of this? So delicious
Fried dumplings — A little bit crispier than normal pan fried gyoza, but the filling is pretty similar.
Wasabi crunchy shrimp — Tempura style battered shrimp with a creamy wasabi sauce drizzled on top.
Garlic noodles– Super thick noodles that weren’t too saucy. Reminded me of Filipino pancit canton.
Spicy kalbi ramen — I’m a huge ramen fan but I just wasn’t really feelin this. I’m not too big on beef based broths and the flavor just seemed a little off to me. Noodles were meh.
Grilled meats — It’s tough to describe the differences between each of meats, so let’s just say everything was DAMN delicious. Seriously how can you not love marinated meats freshly grilled right in front of you. The best was when a nice char started to form on the outside. We pretty much ordered a little bit of everything.
Harami skirt steak — Unique miso marinade. Cooks pretty fast
Kalbi short rib — The quintessential kBBQ meat. You can never go wrong.
Chicken/​shrimp/​salmon — Nothing too unique about these. Still delicious though.
Pork belly — These took a little longer to cook, but nothing beats the flavor of charred pork fat.
Toro beef — It’s described as beef bacon, so you gotta get it
Rib eye/​filet mignon — Thicker cuts of meat. Came out super juicy
Overall, I would say dinner was pretty fantastic, and I would definitely come back despite the whole reservation fiasco. Maybe it’s the sake bombs talking but everything was perfect. Food was delicious, drinks were potent, the atmosphere was lively, the 3^rd floor seating was unique, and just the whole experience of grilling your own meats at the table was a great way to enjoy dinner with a big group.

My group of twelve came here on a Saturday evening for dinner. We couldn’t get reservations for a party this big so we put our name down around 5:30 PM and went to check out Magnificent Mile (about 5 – 10 minutes walk) during our wait. We came back an hour later and still had to wait another thirty minutes for a table. So, we made our way to the bar area of the second floor and grabbed a few drinks. We didn’t get seated until close to 7:30.and since we had such a big party, they had to split our group anyways.
Once we got seated, we quickly ordered the Meat Lover’s package ($ 170) for six people (even though we only had five people at our table #fatties4lyfe).
This package is a lot of food for five starving people but surprisingly, we were able to finish everything! My favorites of the night were:
+fried bacon chips: so yummy and just melts in your mouth
+filet mignon
+chicken basil
+shrimp garlic
To be honest, they were all really yummy! The service was fantastic! The servers taught us how to cook each item as they brought it out. They were punctual with changing out grills and refilling our waters and clearing our plates.
A good way to wash down your food is with a few sake bombs and Sapparo. ;)
The total came out to about $ 50/​person but for that much food and fun, it was worth the splurge!
Definitely would come back for the HH deals!

My husband and I came here because we had walked by a year ago and hadn’t gone in so this time when we visited Chicago, we had this on our to do list.
If you go on a weekend, make sure you make a reservation because it gets super busy. We didn’t have a reservation so we ended up waiting about an hour.
We got seated just in time to order under the happy hour special. I can’t remember what it was called but we got 2 soups & salads, dumplings 4 different meats to grill, one vegetable and rice.
The soup, salad and dumplings were okay. There were nothing special about it.
The fun part for me was grilling the meat on the grill table. You are able to grill it to your liking. It was very fun & very good.
I also ordered s’mores for dessert — it was fun for me to grill the marshmallows on the grill. It has definitely been a while since I had a s’more so that’s why it made me happy.
We would definitely be back… and try some of the other meats they have.

I have mixed feeling about this place.
So I had made a reservation for 6 people but they refuse to seat us unless all our party are present.
Okay. That’s fine.
The service is great but slowwwwwww !
They bring the little plates like every 30 minutes so we were like so hungry there’s nothing for us to cook !
The food is excellent tho
And the green tea layered cake is really yummy !!!
However if you’re really hungry and need to be fed right away or don’t wanna have like a 3 hour dinner avoid this place !!!

Nada de mais! Além do que achei um pouco caro! Não voltaria outras vezes, considerando que em Chicago se tem melhores opções pelo mesmo preço!

While the place is pretty big, I still recommend reservations as place was packed Friday night. FYI, they hold your reservation for 15 minutes after the scheduled time. Luckily our Über driver got us there just in time. Even with our res, we were told to wait about 10 minutes. Fortunately, we actually only waited maybe two minutes to be seated.
We decided to do the Geisha course. $ 55 for 2 people is such a steal, especially after being pleasantly surprised at the quality of meats. I’ve been to many Korean bbq places and either they are really good but expensive or it’s AYCE with lower quality items.
The only thing that was a major miss was the miso soup, but no biggie. It was pretty bland. The boo liked the fried gyoza dumplings while I didn’t care too much for them. I enjoyed the salad the most. Edamame was fine and plentiful. Bibimbap was pretty decent. We also ordered the garlic noodles, as I’m obsessed with garlic. Boo thought it was very garlicky while I begged to differ. It wasn’t bad, but flavors were sweeter than what I prefer.
I eat a lot, but I was honestly getting full already at this point. Our bbq stuff came next and honestly, all were very good and a decent amount of each too. I felt like we each had about 4 – 5 pieces of each meat. The assorted veggies were two zucchini slices, bunch of button mushrooms, tin of corn, and slices of onion. The corn was meh.
The spicy sauce was disappointing to me. While most of the meats really didn’t need additional sauce, I found the ponzu to pair well with them. I asked for a side of the advertised very spicy jalapeño sauce and am glad I did. It def satisfied my spicy fix. It reminded me of Korean gochujang with a kick of something else.
We also got a $ 15 pitcher of Kirin which was also a good deal as it equated to 5 beers.
Beyond stuffed at this point, we received our smores. What a fun idea and thankfully, it was just one piece pp.
Overall, our service was so on point. Food came out wicked fast. Our server checked on us regularly and was very helpful in instructing us on how long to cook everything. We found that we actually cooked the food longer than suggested as our heat wasn’t that strong or evenly distributed, but the meats were still very good and not chewy. All staff were very friendly and efficient.
Would love to try some other items, but the value Geisha set is such a good deal.

While I am a pescatarian, I came here with a vegetarian and I must say that,
if you are a vegetarian this not the place for you. If I knew before hand I probably wouldn’t have stopped in.
They have a tiny section on the menu for veggies that you can either grill or have steamed. I ordered the «mixed vegetables», which consisted of two thinly sliced pieces of zucchini, 2 tiny mushroom heads cut in half (I noticed), two large slices of onions (seriously) and a handful of corn.
Of course you have to pay extra and buy veggies like broccoli or asparagus individually.
I also ordered the veggie rolls which were hot and crunchy on the outside yet sort of cold and had a weird texture/​taste inside.
Most of the noodles/​soups have meat bases, we did order the garlic noodles without meat. It was ok.
I ordered the shrimp to grill thinking I could work with what I had, but of course what came out was just 4 pieces of shrimp that for the price just wasn’t worth it.
The staff was friendly and our waiter always came back to check on us, but again if you are a vegetarian I wouldn’t stop in.

This bustling restaurant serves Japanese barbecue (essentially the same as Korean barbecue), and lots of it. You cook the meats and vegetables yourself on the grill in the center o the table.
The combo meals are the best bet, because they let you try almost everything on the menu. We had the Samurai, which included three types of beef, chicken and shrimp. The toro beef was the best, although all were good.
The meal also come with a tasty miso soup (lots of green onions in it, which I like), salad, a so-​so tuna rice ball appetizer, and bibimbap served in a hot stone bowl. I love this type of bibimbap preparation, and usually order it at Korean restaurants rather than the barbecue, so it was nice to have it included. There were also vegetables for grilling, and a pouch of corn kernels.
Dessert, too, was included, and consisted of graham crackers, marshmallows and chocolate – a do-​it-​yourself s’mores kit!
Service was fast and efficient. The place is pretty noisy, so eating on the sidewalk would be a nice option, when available.

Excellent quality meat, service was adequate and I appreciate the grill being «greased» and changed out as needed.
Meals for 2 are the best value. I’ve tried the Samurai course for 2 and Geisha course for 2. Spicy volcano roll doesn’t live up to the hype — I don’t prefer the spicy tuna on top of the roll. Bibimbap is good but doesn’t have the crunchy rice. Harami skirt steak and Kalbi short rib are my favorite. Could do without the Garlic shrimp and Chicken basil. Sauces added a zing, but the beef is so tender, it’s not even necessary. S’mores were fun to toast and a nice top off.
The cocktails were too sweet for my palate, and not really able to taste the alcohol (tried the John Dale (ahem… named after John Daly’s cousin), Shochu, Shochu Gimlet, Geisha, Red Lotus, Peachtini, Beijing Bellini, and Cherry Blossom). However, the availability of common Japanese beers is good (Kirin, Sapporo, and Asahi (also now offers Asahi Black).
I’ve sat downstairs and upstairs and prefer downstairs for a more lively ambiance, while upstairs is quieter with more privacy. I’ve only gone with one other person and been seated in a booth that could accommodate up to 4, so I’m not sure what the larger booths are like for seating groups.
I recommend making a reservation.
Word is, there’s another location opening soon in the West Loop!