Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ

My friends and I absolutely love this place!!! The food is always on par and the service is always attentive. This place has now been thrown into our rotation of favorite restaurants to dine in weekly. I love the kalbi the most. It’s just so juicy and tender. The chili steamed dumplings are to die for as well as the bottle of champagne that we get.

I love the place. It is very busy and it took a while to sit us even after we had a reservation (40 minutes after our time) would had gave it 5 if not for that.
Food is great. Atmosphere is great for groups. The prices are according to the quality so no complaints on that part.
The combos have a lot of food so great to share.
I will be coming again. Many times in the future with more friends. I noticed they have lunch especials. So maybe i will try that if I am in the area at lunch time.

I’ve been going here ever since it opened last year I believe. And it has not once ever disappointed me! I think I’ve eaten here more than any other resturant and it’s just never fails to be amazing. All the waiters are absolutely great as well. But the person I usually get is Caesar, and he by far is the best waiter there. He is super nice and amazing at his job.
I would recommend this place to any and everyone!

A splendid experience the multiple times I’ve visited this place. Besides the ridiculously long waiting time if you didn’t make a reservation, especially when you have a large party, plus the cringing high prices, then this could be considered on of my favorite restaurants in Houston,
As a meat lover, how could I not fall in love with a BBQ restaurant? Especially one that lets you cook your own meat, which I love because I can control the «doneness» of each piece to my liking. Not only is their meat fresh, but the sauce it’s marinated in gives it so much flavor. The juiciness that gushes into your mouth when every piece is cooked medium rare is just mind blowing (especially with the Kobe Short Ribs!!!).
The appetizers they have on the menu tasted just as beautiful. I thoroughly enjoyed the Chicken Karaage, Gyozas, and Bacon Chips. They also have a Mushroom Medley and Broccoli that are wrapped in foil so you can steam them over the grill. And besides dishes of raw meat, they also have other entrees. Our favorite was the Garlic Rice, and it makes my mouth water just mentioning it. I have also tried the Garlic Noodles but found it rather salty.
Just a heads up, do not wear any fancy/​expensive clothing into this place. The overwhelming smoke and smell of the BBQ will cling on strongly to your clothes and hair.

We came here to celebrate my birthday, one day late. Reservation was made for 6:30p, and we arrived 20+ min early… We ended up getting seated a little after 6:30p however. It was super crowded in the waiting area, so I’m glad we reserved ahead of time.
Our server was pretty attentive and helpful. We ordered a set menu for 2. I was impressed by the amount of food. It was a good variety of appetizers and different meats to grill table side. The quality of meat was OK, not spectacular. Some bites were a bit chewy, and I like to keep my meat on the undercooked side. I’m glad the set came with spinach and mushrooms, but didn’t exactly need the edamame, which came out with the meats. Honestly, there were so many plates, I didn’t know what to do! It would have been better to have all the appetizers first. Also, and maybe this is more of an Asian thing, but grilled meat begs for a side of rice, and I had to pay $ 3 extra… Pretty pricey for a bowl of plain rice! Overall, I enjoyed the dinner. My Sapporo came nicely chilled, I was impressed by how well the vents controlled the smoke, and it was a lot of food for the price. Loved the idea of smores for dessert.
One tip: wait for the waiter to grease up the grill before grilling the meat. We learned the hard way. Our meat stuck to the grill, and we had to get our grill replaced. It takes time for the grill to become sufficiently hot.

Food was decent, service was good… Flavors could have been more exciting. I tried most the things I wanted to try (multiple meats, a few appetizers and ramen) Glad I tried it, but not bold enough of flavors to call a favorite. It will appease the masses, not really spicy and not really salty. Dipping sauces for the meats were good… I love condiments!
Parking note: parking is terrible and there are not many options if the parking lot is full

What sets Gyu Kaku apart from other cook it yourself BBQ styled joints is the quality of the meat. I’ve gone a few times now and each time I’m impressed by how tasty the meat is, no sauce needed! The portions are well sized, the fatty cuts are fatty, the lean cuts are tender and flavorful. There are great deals on lunch specials, happy hour, and special meat cuts that won’t break the bank. That’s how BBQ should be!
I’ve been very underwhelmed with Houston’s Korean BBQ selection (it’s definitely no LA) so I’ve been gravitating more to Gyu Kaku, which never fails to disappoint. I’ve had the «meal set for 2» which IMO was more like for 3 people. There are a ton of included sides in a meal set which fill you way up so don’t indulge too much before the meat arrives! I liked that they told you how long to cook each meat, although with so many plates of meat coming at us at the same time, we probably forgot their careful prescriptions and took it off the grill whenever we remembered to. The waiters can help you with grill changes as well which is nice.
The only thing they could work on is the service. My first time there we had a waiter who had a «trainee» waiter with him and our service was very spotty during the night. They forgot to bring out some sides and were difficult to get a hold of. The second time I was there we had some kids with us and our waiter was very accommodating/​helpful about that but they ended up mischarging us on our tab (they actually undercharged us). But don’t let this deter you — the food is worth it!
Given the variety of price points (I’d estimate you could spend anywhere from $ 15-​$ 30 per person depending on how much you order), this is a great place for a date night, a group of friends hanging out, or a family gathering. Try it!

We came for the experience. And what an experience it was! My husband and I had lunch here on a Friday. The food was tasty, but so many distractions kept us from enjoying it. Not only was it extremely loud with staff yelling orders, but everyone seemed to be running around like crazy. The food came to us out of order and incomplete. Our waitress never came back after we ordered, and once we asked multiple other staff for assistance as well as necessities like tableware and napkins, we learned she was dealing with a complaint from another table.
It was pretty busy, which is usually a good sign. I really hope it was just an off day for this place, but the staff we dealt with seemed to be undertrained or just plain unaware of their impact on customer satisfaction.
Been there, done that. Not planning to go back.

Imagine Korean barbecue, except Japanese style. I got the lunch special for $ 12 with your choice of 3 meats. It also came with a generic Japanese salad and miso soup.
The meat was a little fatty for my taste, but the flavors were great. Not like your classic kalbi and bulgogi marinade from Korean barbecues, but more of a teriyaki flavor. What really makes it is the three dipping sauces: Ponzu sauce, spicy sauce, and a sweet soy sauce. I had fun dipping my meat in all kinds of combinations of the sauces and it all tasted delicious!
Happy hour is also great for beer. We got a couple pitchers for a great price. It’s definitely a great place for social gatherings with friends. I left smelling like smoke and bbq, the best cologne you can get.

Flashback to me walking down the streets of Manhattan, walking from my hotel to one of the Momofuku joints — woah, Gyu-​Kaku? In Manhattan? I’ve driven past this joint in Houston so many times (and have been meaning to come for ages…)!
Now, Manhattan has its fair share of mega-​corporation chain restaurants, but this wasn’t near any of the touristy locales, so I looked into it — who knew that Gyu-​Kaku was a NYC/​LA thing that’s expanded inward (I’m sure many people did, but roll with me here)? After seeing it in Manhattan, I made a lunch date with myself to come and enjoy grill-​your-​own Japanese barbecue.
Gyu-​Kaku is intimately arranged but has a very lively, vibrant atmosphere — perfect for groups to catch up over a grill plate. But, being by myself, it was still a lot of fun and very active — I thought I could read while eating lunch, but I was too focused on cooking everything and shoving it in my mouth.
I opted for the Samurai Lunch Set ($ 12), which includes in total 8 ounces of meat, rice, house salad, and miso soup; I also ordered a seaweed salad. Salad and soup were the perfect bookends to my meal (salad first, soup last), and the seaweed was the perfect way to break up my meat spell.
My favorites of the Samurai set were the spicy pork belly and the toro beef tare. The pork belly had an incredibly tasty sauce that caramelized beautifully, and the toro… oh my. One of the most beautiful pieces of meat I’ve eaten. SO tender, SO flavorful, SO GOOD. I’m so glad that was the last piece of meat I ate, ending the meal on such a high note.
Now, that being said, I would only come back to Gyu-​Kaku for lunch (11am — 6pm every day, also the same time as their happy hour). I’ve seen the prices for dinner, and while I understand you’re getting heaps of meat, I’m not sure I could wholly justify the cost. 8 ounces of meat was just enough for lunch; I’d definitely need more for dinner.
If I felt like eating somewhere special for lunch during work, Gyu-​Kaku is probably near the top of my list! Even then, I think it’s pretty affordable for everything that’s included in the lunch combos — it just feels special to get out of Downtown :)

Everyone is yelling all the time. Stop that! Our server spoke so quickly and softly AND apologetically that my boyfriend and I were grasping at words trying to create each sentence she uttered, nodding awkwardly to make it stop. Plus she’d dissappear and reappear at the most random times.
Anyhow, the food itself was well made. I ordered garlic noodles with chicken and although the chicken was miniscule in size, the flavor of the dish made up for it. We also received Christmas gifts and each got a free meal for our next visit. Thanks!

I randomly popped in to Gyu Kaku after hearing about a restaurant with the same name in Cali. Was in for a pleasant surprise when I found out it was a Korean/​Japanese BBQ joint!
This place is awesome, tasty, affordable, and definitely an experience. The staff is very helpful and explains the menu if you’re unfamiliar with the style, and the food comes out very quickly and in waves, which is helpful when you’re stuffing your face!
Gyu Kaku isn’t an «authentic» Korean BBQ place and has more of an Americanized feel to it, but the food still seemed very authentic to me. I’ve been to another BBQ place in Korea Town which wasn’t Americanized, slightly cheaper, and all you can eat. But for being in a strip in Midtown, you can’t beat this place.
Recommend making a reservation, especially if you’re planning to roll in with a group. Sake was on point, and I really enjoyed more of the gourmet meats. The s’more dessert is a HUGE plus and makes me feel like a kid at heart… but seriously, I looked forward to it throughout our entire meal.

I’m a huge fan of Korean BBQ so when I heard about this place from my family, we decided to come by to celebrate my husband’s birthday. My brother called a day ahead for reservations and were seated promptly upon arrival. Our waiter gave us very mixed service — on one instance he was kind and other times during the night seemed so annoyed when we needed something. A totally odd vibe that was enough for me not to come back if my family didn’t say that it’s usually pretty good here. At the beginning of the meal, he spilled water on my husband (oops? I guess that was his birthday present). Didn’t really apologize or anything, just cleaned it up quickly.
The food is what warrants the 4 stars. We started with bibimbap, which was SO SO good. They mix it for you to harden on the side of the bowl and become crispier. Let it sit for a couple minutes after and it’s even more delicious. We got two orders of the «feeds 2» options and a bunch of other items, such as filet mignon and kalbi short ribs. All really good! They also come by and swap out your grill plate a couple times over the meal.
Don’t hesitate to get them to instruct you on how everything is cooked, but each server was usually good enough to tell us how long each item took to cook probably. Dessert options are really fun — the red bean paste fish pastry is also cooked on the grill. It comes with fun variations of ice cream. Highly recommend the yuzu and black bean flavors. My nephew loved making s’mores with the flame after.
Parking: super limited, especially since there’s a Buffalo Wild Wing’s right next door, but make a few loops around for a spot or there’s also some street parking available.

I went here for a friend’s birthday. Each person gets their own set of tongs for the DIY grill, and individual tray for the three different dipping sauces.
I love the atmosphere– it’s chic and functional. The vent system is pretty impressive seeing as there was no overpowering odor of smoke from guests’ failures a la burning food.
Loved the Peach Saketini and the other choices of alcoholic drinks (warm sake, beer, beer pitchers.). The raw meats were marinated really well, and you can only blame yourself for things not being cooked to your liking. The servers come by and explain how long to cook each item before handing them to you.
I was not a fan of the veggie dishes; I feel like they definitely needed more flavor rather than butter.
Finally, we got two orders of Lady M’s green tea crêpe cakes. Phenomenal.

The food was good. Light, tasty, well-​spiced, and grilled (by me) to my liking.
I had the Samurai Lunch Set for $ 12.00, and chose chicken, shrimp, and Angus beef. All were spiced well, and since I cooked the meat, done to perfection…(smile).
The server was attentive and helpful — she explained all our options and what certain dishes are comprised of, but the serving of the miso soup and salads was badly timed: well after we had finished our entrees.
Would have given it a five star rating, but this server needs to improve her delivery a bit.

I love Japanese style bbq (maybe bc I have a bias towards the Japanese culture)! But man did Gyu-Kaku’s food taste delicious!
We came around 12:30pm on a Saturday and were seated immediately (no reservations made). They have several meat plate options and I recommend going with the 3 meat combo Power Lunch option if it’s your first time (I chose the Angus Beef Ribs Tare, Yaki-​Shabu Miso, and Pork Belly Spicy Gochujang). From there you can decide which meats you like better and choose the 2 meat combo Quick Lunch the next time you come. My favorite meats are the Yaki-​Shabu Miso and Angus Beef Ribs Tare (great marinade and the meat is tender).
The experience is very much GYOM (Grill Your Own Meat) which was exciting to watch the meat sizzle on the grill. What better way to eat the meat with a side of Gyu-​Kaku salad, rice, and miso soup!
I definitely recommend coming here for lunch. I’ve heard the dinner menu is a little more expensive and the portions aren’t that much more than the lunch portion.
If you have room and are lucky, you might be able to try New York’s own Lady M Green Tea Mille Crêpe Cake for dessert (they tend to run out of stock though). Pricey but oh so good!

Came here last night to celebrate a birthday. For a group of six, two of the pre-​set «feeds 2» options was more than enough although other things were ordered a la carte. Very clean inside but parking sucks. Good luck trying to find a spot on a busy weekend night!
Appetizers: Miso Soup — ²⁄₅ chances are this isn’t made from fresh miso paste. so if you’re down to eat miso soup made from a bag, go right ahead.
Fried Calamari — ²⁄₅ i feel like you can eat this anywhere. It didn’t really stand out to me at all. Tasted just like every other asian restaurant offering it.
Edamame — ⁰⁄₅ its edamame, need I say more? I didnt eat it since I’m saving myself for the real deal.
Salad — ⁰⁄₅ i don’t really like the idea of eating salads. so I didn’t eat the sald.
Karaage — ¹⁄₅ didn’t really care for their fried chicken nuggets here. Plenty of other eateries offer a much better version. They also serve it with spicy mayo. bleh
Cheese wontons — ²⁄₅ not great not bad but not really an appetizer i’d order.
Spicy tuna volcano — ⁵⁄₅ THE BEST APPETIZER. Yummy flavors and awesome texture. spicy tuna sitting on top of a fried stick rice chunk. Highly recommend.
Bibimbap — ⁴⁄₅ I don’t generally like fried rice type of dishes, but this one wasn’t bad in the slightest. In fact, I actually liked the flavors going on in that stone pot.
Main Course:
Proteins: Don’t really know what was what since we ordered the combos, but realistically it was like 80% beef. I was very happy with that. The worst thing on their was chicken. Obviously chicken is a boring meat when compared to scrumptious, marbled beef and fatty pork belly. Shrimp was whatever as well. Regardless, everything tasted awesome. We also had an order of the butterfish. Not a HUGE fan of fish, but it was just okay. They also grill this one in a foil packet for obvious reasons. The fish was very flakey.
Veggies: After eating steamed spinach and mushrooms from a foil packet grilled over a fire pit, i’ll never go back to however I ate it before. Drowned in butter and garlic, I feel like this was one of my FAVORITE courses of the night. A nice retreat from meat, meat, meat.
Dessert:
Tried to over the Green Tea Mille Crêpe cake from Lady M but it was sold out. BOO. Settled for the s’mores that came with the courses since we were all pretty full. Smores are smores. You can’t really mess them up. Cute concept though.
Service: our waiter michael was really nice and attentive. Filled our waters when needed and was pretty helpful. Throughout the night other waiters dropped off meats for us as well and to grease the grill or change it out. There was a snafu and all of the meat entrees that were ordered a la carte were left off when they were bringing through the meats from the 2 courses. Michael let us know and profusely apologized. Meh, no big deal, we were all pretty full regardless.

It was an interesting experience. The review is reviewing the food and not so much the experience.
Food:
It was amazing! I had the green tea crêpe cake which had green tea as a filling and my cousin and I got one of the specials. The meat were seasoned so well that you don’t really need the sauce. The appetizers were ok but since that’s not the main focus of the restaurant experience I’m not adding it to my rating. It was a good variety and I think it can honesty serve 3 people. Also, it’s cheaper if you go before 6 because everything will be discounted. An example is that the specials are 10% off during happy hour.
Experience:
It was interesting. I would highly recommend making a reservation so you will not have to wait. It got very packed after 6 so I would suggest going before then. When I entered it was a bit off putting that the host skipped over me to serve others first and he was not accommodating to a couple who wanted the private room instead of being in the public area. What was funny was that the waiter was giving my cousin more attention and would ignore me sometimes while he served us and looked shocked when I paid. (I think it might have been because my cousin was wearing more identifiable name brands then me) However, I’m not completely sure if he was really discriminating so I will leave this out of the review since he was very friendly and kept us updated on the status of our food.

For my first time trying Korean BBQ, I must say this place lives up to the hype. We originally came Friday but the wait was over an hour so we ended up making reservations for Saturday night at 10:30pm. Keep in mind they offer happy hour specials everyday from 11am-​6pm & 10pm-11:30pm.
We ordered the meal lovers meal for 2 which was $ 49.95. It make with a salad for 2, 2 miso soups, crab wontons, popcorn fried chicken, 2 bowls of white rice, 6 meats for us to grill, and snores for dessert.
I’m not a fan of salads so my girlfriend took one for the team on that item. The crab wonton were delicious although they lacked filling within. Unless they just make them thin. The chicken poppers were decent they reminded me of what you’d find at Kim’s tea house. The meats were a wide range of variety and they all tasted exquisite. You have 3 sauces at the table that go with your meats along with another you can ask your waiter for if you like a spicy kick.
The meat sizes aren’t huge in size but if you order enough you’ll get full. The meat lovers package was more than enough for the both of us. We had some leftover to bring home. Overall I spent $ 75 including tip. It was worth the experience. I will be coming back.

UPDATE:
As one of the biggest advocates for this place I have to revoke my five star rating. We went in and ordered Garlic noodles, bibimbap and 2 types of meat. Everything was brought out except the bibimbap. When I reminded the waiter my meat was already cold. It took them an additional ten to fifteen minutes to get one out. Keep in mind my whole party was eating, my meat was cold and they weren’t even
Busy. Very disappointed and safe to say I won’t be advocating for this place anymore. Also it seems they cannot keep staff; there’s a lot of turnover and people unaware of what their job is.
This is my go to spot for a casual dinner. The prices are awesome, the service is good and they are consistent with the portions.
Fellas: awesome date night spot! The atmosphere is just right and the whole dinner is an experience.
Happy hour is awesome too! Me and my girls love this place.
Just go!!! You won’t regret it.

Una experiencia diferente.
Pagas por cocinar tu comida. Carne de muy buena calidad, buenos cortes, buen ambiente.
Pagas por corte entre 5 y 10 USD. El corte más exclusivo es el cobe a 20 USD.
Nunca había probado un BBQ japonés pero incluiré este sitio a mí lista de cosas para hacer en Houston.