Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ

We came today and had such an awesome experience that I wanted to update my review.

Glenn was our server, and he was fantastic. He was attentive and made sure we had everything we needed/wanted. Bacon chips, cucumbers, and spicy shrimp were the best. Glenn even made sure we had drinks to go, which was super sweet.

Thanks for a fabulous lunch!

This place has changed SO MUCH over the last 4 years. I used to loved coming to the bar for Happy hour, but now it is always closed. The restaurant looks like they started to do renovations but never finished.

I'll start by saying we did have great service. The hostess was friendly and our server was very attentive. He kept our water glasses full, and empty plates cleared.

Due to safety hazards, they no longer oil the grill so we asked to have ours changed more often while cooking. The protein we ordered was great, as well as the fried rice. Unfortunately, our usual favorite, the garlic noodles, came out looking more like a bowl of soup and hardly had noodles.

They also used to have a great variety of desserts but now its just smores, ice cream, and a sad new version of the green tea cake.

I don't think I'll be coming back. At least not to this location.

The food here is disgusting. Ordered dumplings, cabbage salad, garlic noodles and rice with beef.
Everything tastes the same. Like non of the dishes had any distinct flavor. Frozen gyozas from Trader Joe's are 10 times better than the the dumplings here.

The cabbage salad is literally a plate of chopped cold cabbage, with brown edges, with a rice vinegar drizzled on top.

I don't understand how anyone would eat here. We only came cause the food court seemed scary.

And.... the restrooms were horrible,. HORRIBLE. TERRIFYING.
Dirty, Graffiti everywhere.

and now as i look around I see how run down the interior is...
The walls are dirty, there are wires hanging down off the ceiling. The floor needs to be swept.

I hope we don't get food poisoning.
....

I haven't been to this location in years but I came here recently for a family dinner and I'll start off by saying
that this place is a bit on the slow side... maybe they are understaffed? I am honestly not too sure. When my family and I first arrived we have a reservation, it took about 15-20 mins to even get sat despite having a reservation. After being seated and greeted by our server. She took our orders and it took about 20 mins for our meats to come out. I would say it was a busy nights but not full house packed, but every order was super backed up. I had to order our second round before our first rounds came out and that took a while to come out.

Despite the slow service, the food is pretty good. My family and I did the supreme AYCE menu option. All the meats are well marinated and the side dishes and appetizers are good. I really enjoyed the prime kalbi short rib, the miso butter salmon, umakara ribeye, and garlic shrimp. As for appetizers/ side orders, the calamari and beef sukiyaki bibimbap was delicious.

They were out on a lot of side orders this night like edamame, salad, cucumbers, s'mores, etc. I think the server mentioned we even got the last of the spicy tuna volcano for the night too. They also ended up telling us they were out of the chili & yuzu beef after ordering it as well. For dessert we ordered the mochi ice cream and chocolate lava cake which was really good!

Bathrooms were dirty and the whole restaurant honestly needs a revamp. Overall, food was good, service could be better. I'll probably check this place out again sometime in the near future. I saw that they have happy hour every day during certain times too.

Love coming to Gyu Kaku for premium meats! We always get the AYCE option. We love getting most of their meats, especially off the premium menu, the filet mignon, beef tongue and harami steak is our go to! We came with a big party on a Sunday afternoon. We made a reservation online just in case it would be busy since it's the weekend before Valentine's Day. Our serve Manny was really nice and quick! He gave us some recommendations too when we couldn't decide. Thanks Manny for your great customer service! The ambiance was nice, it felt like lounge vibes. The music was very chill like it made us sleepy lol being full and listening to that made us tired.

Came here for the first time and had a great experience. Our server Jay was the epitome of a great server. He went above and beyond to make sure we were well taken care of. The food was also delicious, especially the garlic button mushrooms and the harami pot. I look forward to coming back soon!

I wanted to try some Korean BBQ when I remembered there is Japanese BBQ nearby. I have not been here in years so I was happy it was still open after the pandemic.

I was immediately greeted when walking in. I had made an appointment online. We waited about 15 mins meaning our reservation wasn't actually held but it wasn't the longest wait. They said they needed to wait for a table. The restaurant was pretty full.

The prices are on the medium side. It's $45 for the lowest tier of all you can eat. The higher tiers are $55 and $65. I thought the lowest tier was enough.

The waiter Rico comes over and gets our drink order and he explained the menu well.

After this, our service was completely sporadic.

Our server was switched from Rico to another man. This man gave us our first round of food. He said he was taking over for Rico. After that first interaction, he never came back. I just watched him in the back going from table to table for about 20 mins. Finally, we asked a different server to please can we order more food for our all you can eat. He brought us another round of food. Now he wasn't assigned to us so I appreciate he went out of his way to get us food. Meanwhile, Rico and the other server and now back working and just walking around to different tables but never coming to us.

I was so hungry because we only ordered a few meats since I am used to the servers coming back every few mins for these types of restaurants. Nope, they both walked around to their tables and in the back except ours.

Meanwhile there is a 90 min limit and the hostess kept coming to see if we are done. We refused to be done because we didn't get service and told her we weren't done yet. She just said okay. She probably should have asked, is everything okay or do you want to order anything else?? It had been about two hours but the service was so sporadic.

Finally Rico came back close enough to flag him down.


We were able to order. Then I spoke up and said, we did not get enough attention. I was very annoyed at this point and said, "just please give us every meat we ordered so far because we keep asking for a few things and no one comes back to give is any attention since you all were switching servers"

And this is the reason for the 5 stars. I always rate a place on how a business makes me feel but there is a secret bonus in my book for fixing issues. Everyone makes mistakes and every business makes mistakes. We are human. It how they fix the mistake or don't fix the mistake which makes all the difference.

Rico stayed calm and professional. He said okay.
At this point I felt bad for complaining because I am so passive at restaurants because I just like to have a good time.

Rico came back promptly with 6 sets of meats! Yessssssssssss!!! Finally I can eat! He came through will all the meats!! He changed the grill re oiled it and rushed to get us more food. I was no longer hungry and the whole table was happy and satisfied.

It's not the business, it's the people. Rico could have very easily given me an attitude, argued, or passed me off to a manager. But he resolved it himself and my tummy thanks him!

I'm sure the service was just a hiccup. The food is really great and the meats are fresh and marinated well. There is plenty of parking in the lot. The reservations make getting a seat here easy.

I will be back! But just to make sure I get quality service, I'll ask for Rico. :-)

So there you have it. Come support this local gem of the SFV

What a fun experience, grilling your own food! Of course they have prepared food too but the experience is the must! Yummy meats and sides! Plus sake and draft beer! Can't go wrong!

We came in today and the food was great. The service was even better. Our server was Mark and he did an amazing job. 6/5 stars

The worst service ever
Worst waiter ever
Food is good but waiter don't işiten to us
He don't bring all the orders
Ambiance was normal but the worst service ever
He forgot to bring spoon
Smores and vanilla
Never try it again and don't recommend just because of that waiter