Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ

Not a hell hole but more like a hot hole!
Wow this place was so hot inside and we were smoking hot on Father’s Day. The only good thing was the macaroon ice cream and pretty good quality beef. The rest of everything else was really just ok and the appetizers weren’t a foodie’s paradise. It’s below par even against fast food Japanese take out :(
It was so hot in this place with no smoke ventilation and it smelled musty inside like mold was growing from the heat. The bathrooms were filthy and parking was a nightmare.
They play old school 90’s hip hop and love songs and rock uggggh. Why?! Shouldn’t any business owner know that love songs aren’t meant for dining?
Almost $ 300 for 8 people and still not worth it. Very disappointed in the bland food and sauces
coupled with the fact that they skimped on ventilation and AC. Would not come back.

Good:
— Friendly front desk and servers.
— Lunch menu available every day 11:30 am-​5 pm offers best values. Happy Hours everyday 11:30 — 6:30 pm.
— Server will change the grill pan when it gets sticky upon request.
— Cooking your own food is fun.
— Accepts reservation via Opentable with points.
Bad:
— Some thick meat pieces are very hard to cook through. I had to put them back on the grill over and over after biting into pink areas. Wish they offered knives.
— More ventilation would be nice.
— Grilled meat is generally considered unhealthy. I was very careful not to but still charred my meat here and there.
Next time, I’ll go with the garlic shrimp and beef tongue or thinly slices beef (Yakishabutoro?) only.

Best happy hour I’ve ever been to for a restaurant. Clean place, great environment. Only reason I’m giving this a ⁴⁄₅ stars is because they tend to lack items from the menu. Toffee nuggets are hard to order here because they either run out quickly or don’t have any.

Ok service
Line is so long even if you make appointment to eat.
Food is fresh this is why I give them 3 stars.
My 1^st time writing reviews.

Late review. I’ve actually been wanting to try Gyu-​Kaku for a couple years now and finally got my chance when I discovered they were participants of the OC Restaurant Week. I pitched this place along with several others to my friend and secretly hoped he would choose this one. :)
We met up on a week night and let me first say that parking is tight here. I maneuvered into the next lot thinking the restaurant shared parking with the acupuncture shop, but nope don’t even bother stopping there. Heck, even I decided not to be risky that night. If you’re planning a group meal, I highly recommend carpooling. Unfortunately, there is no street parking, so hopefully someone pulls out when you’re arriving.
Reservations were made so we didn’t have to wait too long. We were seated and Jake was our attentive waiter for the evening. I asked for recommendations since we were both first timers and he kingly obliged. He was very thorough with his explanations.
Starters: Miso soup — standard. Gyu-​Kaku salad — refreshingly good. Love that they added slices of hard-​boiled egg, grape tomatoes, and even jicama! Gave it such a nice texture. The house dressing was so tasty! I found a strand of hair sticking out from underneath the bed of lettuce (definitely wasn’t mine since I had my hair clipped up that evening) and asked for another plate. Jake was apologetic and promptly brought me a second plate.
Appetizers: Spicy Tuna Volcano — Four pieces of fried tofu wrapped rice (reminds me of inari sushi?) topped with spicy tuna. Tasty and quite filling. Steamed Chili Pork Dumplings — I prefer boiled dumplings over deep fried ones and these were yummy with a good amount of kick from the chili. It’s better to consume while it’s still hot, but certainly still palatable when cold.
Entrées: Bistro Hanger Steak Miso — Tender with just the perfect amount of miso marinated in. Went so well with the grilled zucchini! Beef Tongue — thinly sliced and full-​flavored. I understand not many would find this appetizing, but this is actually quite delectable. There are three sauces provided at each table. I personally liked it with the ponzu sauce. Harami Skirt Steak Miso — I can’t remember exactly how this one tasted, but I’m sure it was just as delicious as the others.
Vegetables: I chose broccoli and zucchini, but Jake informed me that they had ran out of broccoli (Ah, at 6:50 pm? Must have been a popular choice with the other patrons!), so I opted for the spinach garlic. It came encased in aluminium foil and we were instructed to grill each side for about 2 – 3 minutes. When we peeled back the foil, a mouth-​watering aroma immediately permeated the air. The spinach was bubbling hot and it looked like algae topped with sliced garlic, but it was oh so savory! Definitely not a bad choice to fall back on.
Dessert: S’mores — Lemon Meringue and Peppermint flavored marshmallows, Hershey’s milk chocolate bars, and honey flavored graham crackers. Roasting the marshmallow over the fire made me really want to go camping. I don’t usually eat marshmallows, but these flavored ones were different. One bite was more than enough for me but I forced myself to finish both s’mores just because I wanted to.
My dining experience at Gyu-​Kaku was very pleasant (despite not receiving my requested hot water and discovering a strand of hair in my salad). The OC Restaurant Week special they offered for dinner was such a fantastic deal. My friend and I were completely satisfied with the evening’s meal. Yes, our clothes did smell like the BBQ smoke that many are accustomed to, but the odor wasn’t as strong and didn’t linger as long. So, I’ll be seeing you again, Gyu-​Kaku!

Very nice Mother’s Day course with 4 starters, 7 BBQ items & chocolate lava cake with ice cream.

We hit this place up during the OC Restaurants Week event. We actually live nearby and just never made the time to pop in — well thanks to this event we will certainly be stopping by more often!
Previously we had tried Gen right up the street and had enjoyed the cook your own adventure there from time to time. When we saw the menu offering for Restaurant Week we figured hey its time to check out Gyu Kaku…
To start with — the servers are GREAT — they greet you, bring you in, setup the table, and field questions and make suggestions for different dishes and good strategies on planning your next visit. They have happy hour specials that are outstanding (not just drinks — the food too!) and let me just say the food here floored me.
The Harami Miso Skirt Steak is FANTASTIC — flavorful and tender omg!
The Garlic Mushrooms and Broccoli sides were a bit tricky the first time (they take a little time to cook but are wrapped in foil so its a learning curve first few times) but the seasonings made them memorable.
The NY Garlic Herb steak — was another of my favorites.
Dessert wise the Maccaroon Ice Creams are certainly worth trying and the Smores are wonderful and made me laugh about childhood campfire memories.
Certainly glad the OC Restaurant Week brought us here =)

The family and I have been coming here for years. I was introduced to Gyu-​Kaku Japanese BBQ when the HB location opened, then Tustin now we mostly hit up the Rancho Cucamonga spot. I love the idea of cooking my proteins and veggies just how I like them. The Ponzu and Sweet Soy sauces are tasty to dip and the beers are $ 1 come happy hour. The food never disappoints, but I cook it myself so the only one I could be upset with preparing the food is me. So I give myself and Gyu-​Kaku 5 stars!

Japanese BBQ def has it over Korean BBQ. I find that all of Korean BBQ meat is seasoned in the same flavor so they all end up tasting the same at the end. At this Japanese BBQ place they have so many menu items to choose from for the grill top it makes you just want to choose one of each and they are all seasoned differently. Especially when its happy hour where dishes are basically a dollar off, you got to order one of each! There are options from pork belly, duck meat, filet mignon, rib eye, scallops, Mahi Mahi fish, garlic spinach, mushroom medley, and more! Their clay pot rice is so0o0o0 amazing! It’s kind of like fried rice but crispy if you leave it sitting in the clay pot for a little bit. It is seasoned and flavored i think with some chicken in it if i am recalling right.
If one doesn’t want to order individual plates there are also combos to order per 2 people or 4 people and so on. In the combo choices there are appetizers and dessert at the end. We had a group for 10 and out bill came out to being around $ 220 and we were all stuffed. Japanese BBQ, I LOVE YOU.

The location kind of looks weird for the first time. Once you enter the place, it is very cute. I loved it. I ordered 2 King Kalbi Short Rib, 2 Angus Beef Ribs, and Spring Roll. The total was $ 25. The food was amazing and I had more than enough food.

More of a 4.5 star review.
My boyfriend and I got here around 6:45 pm and waited for about 20 minutes to be seated (no worries at all, I had a feeling we had to wait). It was also our very first time. The menu style (not food!) is somewhat like KBBQ. You can order meat a la carte, or you can select a specific column in which you get EVERY item on that column, but cannot order more (NOT AYCE). You are able to take food home and without charge for not finishing the food.
I liked the interior of the place: dim lights, good music (not super loud but not too quiet)
We finally got seated, and our servers were so friendly and knowledgeable about the menu. They explained every thing to us and answered every question we had. If you’re wondering why we didn’t have 1 server, it’s because others would come and drop off the food at our table, but they were all so polite and their service was great!
Food:
— Love their meat
— The burger beef bites (can’t remember the actual name of the dish) was a bit salty, but if it did not have as much salt as it did, then it would be so good!
— The meat was good and definitely not old
I also love how they oil your grill so the meat doesn’t stick to it and get so burned.
I would definitely recommend this place to others, and I would definitely come back here again!

This is one of my favorite places! If you’re looking for a relax environment Greg background music and amazing food with friends or even a date this place is killer!!!
Highly recommended the Gyu-​Kaku course!!! Just amazing

I remember the good old days when Gyu-​Kaku used to be all you can eat. Sadly, that’s not the case anymore. Regardless, I still love Gyu-​Kaku as an alternative to KBBQ. Meat quality is always excellent and their marinades and sauces are really good as well. The environment is already cleaner than a lot of KBBQ places. Even though there are no obvious ceiling fans or vacuums to suck up the smokey meaty air, you don’t feel as greasy and gross afterwards as you would from KBBQ. They also give you s’mores for dessert!
Service is good, but parking can be hard sometimes. They have a small lot that is shared with other businesses in the tiny plaza.

We came for the OC Restaurant Week lunch. It was such an awesome deal. We had miso soup, a beautiful salad with boiled egg, rice, an appetizer, 3 choices of meat, and smore for dessert per person for just $ 15. That’s crazy!
The fried pork dumpling appetizer was tasty. Some of our favorite meat/​seafood are toro beef, pork belly, beef ribs, and garlic shrimp. Love their ponzu sauce.
Service was friendly and attentive. There were a lot of people waiting, and they never rushed us. We also took advantage of the happy hour price for additional items and got sake and $ 1.95 draft beer.
Highly recommend making a reservation before. We had reservation, and was seated right after checking in. The walk-​ins who came in before us unfortunately had to wait.

First time trying Japanese BBQ so I was intrigued to find out if it was as good as Korean or Vietnamese BBQ. I thought Gyu Kaku would be the best place to experiment plus it also happened to be the first day of OC Restaurant Week so they had a $ 15 per person lunch deal. On a weekend, be prepared to wait even for lunch. The average time was about 30 minutes.
My sisters and I (party of 3) wanted to try a little bit of each thing so for the OC Restaurant Week deal you had miso soup, salad, a bowl of rice, one choice of appetizer, three choices of meat, and dessert. Out of the meat choices the only three we did not select out of the twelve were the Beef Tongue, Mahi Mahi, and Chicken Cheese Fondue. We decided to have a double of the Angus Beef Ribs instead. You grill your own meat and they have a selection of sauces on the side to dip with like the spicy ponzu, ponzu, and sweet soy sauce.
Top Appetizer:
–Pork Gyoza dumplings
Top 3 Meats (in no particular order):
–Bistro Hanger Steak Miso
–Angus Beef Ribs Sweet Soy
–Spicy Pork
Everyone received the same s’mores dessert but I don’t believe you get to choose a flavor even though it said it on the menu.
Overall, the experience was alright. The meats were good and had a very smokey taste because of the type of grill being used. The main reason I give it 3 stars is that for some odd reason we all had a small stomachache a few hours later. Coincidence? I’d have to try it out again to give it a fair judgement. Next time I’d probably go during Happy Hour since I’ve heard it has some very good pricing.

The prices are not justified.
I definately prefer a authentic japanese bbq restaurant.
& this place is far from it.
Most of the meats tasted like they were drenched in bbq sauce. if thats what I was in the mood for I would of went
to Lucilles. the fillet mignon was chewy.
The hot wings had to be from the frozen food section lol. Also our burner was so HOT, whats the point of having it on so high?. geesh. we were very uncomfortable. Our waitress was missing for the better part of our visit,
Blahhh.

Seriously I love this place. The bistro hangar steak lunch special is amazing. Beware that if you don’t go for lunch or happy hour it will be very expensive!!!
For the lunch special for $ 10;
Miso soup
Salad
Rice
Choice of 2 meats
Desert is not included so try these:
Coffee macaroon ice cream $ 3.95
Smores $ 1.95 for 2 on happy hour
Chocolate lava cake (small) $ 5.95
This is portioned perfectly and the flavor is impeccable. $ 1.95 Sapporo draft during happy hour which is during lunch and also late night happy hour after 8.
Location is in a bit of a weird area, but the inside is clean.

I love this place. As much as I love kbbq, I’m starting to reconsider and feel that jbbq is just 10 times better than kbbq. My friends would call that blasphemous but let me explain. First off this place takes reservations. So you’re telling me I don’t have to wait… bonus points off the roof right off the bat. Next the booths are super super roomy. Ok 50 points to griffindor right there. Finally, service is absolutely friendly, nice and on top of it all night long and the meat quality is heavenly. 100 points!
I came through with a party of 3. We glanced at the menu as they described how Japanese bbq worked. There are 3 sauces to dip with if you like. Ponzo, Sweet Soy, and Spicy. They had happy hour at the time so most of the meats and appetizers were knocked off in prices. Sweet! We ordered a couple of things and they were all the absolute delicious. We didn’t go with the AYCE option. Every meat dish is about 6 – 8 bucks each time.
Skirt steak– My favorite meat that we ordered that night. It was so tender and juicy. I had to order it like 3 more times after that.
NY steak– It was really good and would have been the highlight at any other place but there were some meat dishes that were just better.
Filet mignon– Absolutely tender and juicy. It just melts in your mouth. One of the best.
Sausage– I was skeptic on this one at first but once I saw it cook so perfectly I had to sample it and boy was it zesty… highly recommend
Premium sirloin– Another hit… I swear every meat here is tender and juicy
The Gyoza– I never got to try this dish but they told me it was pretty good. Just the right balance of flavors
The kalbi soup– So flavorful and warm. It was heaven for my taste bud. I’d definitely get this soup again… its not that spicy at all
The bibimbap– Has a bit of a kick to it. Great taste and if you let it sit, the rice gets more toasted which makes it so much better
Overall this was truly one of the best dining experience I’ve ever had. Great service, I can’t even tell you how incredible the staff really was here. They were super attentive and friendly. The food was of the best quality. The meat was one the best quality meat I’ve ever experienced. I gotta come back here again for special occasions.
PS happy hour ends at 6:30…great hh deals btw
PPS love the seating area… and that grill is amazing, only needed to be changed once
PPPS parking can be difficult as it is a small complex… very small
PPPPS I gotta come back to try the smores for dessert lol

Came in for Happy Hour Monday (happy hour all day). Service was very, super friendly and the food came out quickly. Beers on tap were very good in the chilled mugs. Table was clean. Seating was awkward at the high tables. Grill is HOT, and I mean can’t-sit-too-close-or-else-you’ll-get-burned kind of hot.
We ordered the Meat Lovers course for 2 ($ 55) and we were full when it was over, but we weren’t satisfied. The appetizers are quite terrible and the meat quality is not very good, but what do you expect for discount grilling? Meats were either fatty or sinewy, and though they were edible, we wouldn’t want to order a second helping of anything.
Garlic noodles ordered were terrible. Far too salty. I couldn’t continue after my second bite. Really bad. Don’t understand why these are so popular.
Don’t think I’ll ever come back, but that’s not to say this place isn’t good. I’d just prefer to go to a proper Japanese bbq restaurant. For what’s offered here, I’d rather just head over to KBBQ (Go Goo Ryeo) in Garden Grove.
Thanks Gyu Kaku, but you’re going to take a back seat to Manpuku (Kamnariya across the street is better than Gyu Kaku IMO).

All day Happy Hour on Mondays! We’re not only talking about alcohol here, plates of meat, sides, appetizers, you name it, it’s discounted. Best part? They take reservations. No one wants to wait so do yourself a favor and call ahead. All this applies to their late night HH as well which starts at 8:30PM to closing.
Think 2 – 3 dishes per person when ordering. If you ask me, my ultimate meal here would comprise of the following items:
Beef Toro ($ 3.95) — perfect marbling with the right amount of fat; tender strips of meat
Butter Fish ($ 5.95) — delicately soft and buttery with miso marinade
Beef Tongue ($ 6.95) — drizzle with lots of lime and don’t overcook, trust.
Garlic Rice Bibimbap ($ 4.95) — let it sit for that toasted rice texture and add more rice if you want
Spinach Garlic ($ 2.95) — eat your greens; it’s delicious
Sapporo 12oz ($ 1.95) — it’s HH after all; can’t say no to the price tag
Now, that’s obviously better shared between two people and if that’s the case, I would double up on the beef toro and maybe get a plate of their premium sirloin as well. Extra beer, too, of course.
Service has improved tremendously on my last visit. My only gripe would be the bibimbap being served too late because I like eating it with the meat. Good thing it was so good I can pretend this one time we had no issues. For their HH deals, I’m definitely one big fan!