Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ

Service was amazing! our server was Miguel I wish more servers were like him. Definitely made it a better dining experience. 5 stars :)

Such an unfortunate event that happened that could’ve gotten this place such a higher review but I had to write a review for this. Keep in mind this is the BEST they deserve after what happened.
I was here with my older sister for a casual happy hour lunch and the price was fair and everything about this place is casual. Nothing special or unique from this experience other than what is making me be generous about a 3 star review.
We went with the special where you get Miso soup, salad, rice, and a choice of 3 meets to cook. I replaced my salad with an extra serving with rice and that is where I got lucky. Unfortunately, my sister got her salad and after half way with it she noticed a cockroach in it. A COCKROACH. How does that even happen?
The manager came out to apologize about it and said our tab would be covered. Yeah. I can’t imagine them trying to charge us after that. The worst part was what the manager said. I don’t know if it was intentional or just lacked experience on how to make us feel good about what we encountered. He said, not exactly since I can’t remember word for word:
«Right before this plate was brought to me I was just thinking about this problem that we have». something in that nature.
EXCUSE ME? How are you going to even say that. I was dying of laughter.
KC was our waitress and she was just wonderful. We tried to get another pitcher on our tab since it was covered but I guess that was pushing it. If you ask me, we should’ve been able to get a massage while eating from how awkward that experience was. My sister and I have never been in such an awkward position and we have been in the food and beverage industry for an exceptional amount of years now.

Cant get enough of this place. I even crave it sometimes. And nothing in particular, because everything seems to be good. But my favorites are the cabbage salad to start, bistro hangar steak, and the bacon wrapped asparagus and the garlic spinach. My kids love the cheese wontons. We’re talking an order apiece. And the corn is also a favorite of theirs. Parking at this mall sucks though.

place is whatever, good area but bathroom is all tagged up.
food is okay, service is okay
food is expensive

Service has gotten a lot better.
Came here straight from airport after picking up my new in laws from Korea. They liked the bubibomp bowls which for 8.95 are a great deal as they come with salad and miso soup. Happy seems like it’s every hour here lol so we also got some tacos, two if each. I was stuffed and I can chow down. Good deal !
Plenty of parking. 1^st floor location in topanga westfield off owensmouth street. The mall is huge now and with the village next door it’s like an extension. Thus, plenty of space for kids to loiter and do nothing all day if they ditch school.

Start off with edamame infusion. After done licking your fingers move onto beef tacos, cheesy corn, mushroom medley, bistro harami. Wash that down with delicious sake. Come at happy hour for half the price and this can be your home away from home. YUMMM
Only downfall service is slow and some employees seem to have an attitude and don’t know how to smile. But if you want better service than take the drive to the Van Nuys location.

Glen was a great server! Ordered two lunch combos. Switched one of the rice with sukiyaki bibimbap and it was delicious! The salad had a nice taste to it. The meats were 2 yakishabu beefs, filet mignon, and bistro hanger steak! We also ordered a side of sweet potato. After the meal we got the macaron ice creams, strawberry and green tea. Would defintiely come back again!

I’m a huge fan of Gyu Kaku! Every time my fiancé ask me what I want to eat, 8 times out of 10 I’m suggesting either sushi or Gyu. I know most people love their food prepared for them and my dad always ask me why I want to pay someone else to give me the meat to cook it myself. It goes way beyond that though.
It’s something about the whole dining experience that I enjoy about Gyu and it’s hard for me to explain. It’s almost like a sort of therapy for me and I really enjoy going by myself. First off, my fiancé doesn’t really like it so anytime she’s out of town or tells me to grab food on my own I’m heading to Gyu.
The last time I went I ordered the signature cut set (comes with 4 meats, edamame, miso soup, side salad and rice) for $ 12.95 and upgraded the rice ($ 3) to Sukiyaki Bibimbap which has become one of my favorite items on the menu. I also ordered a Lychee Blossom which was AMAZING! They actually brought me the wrong drink but told me I could keep it so I had two for the price of one. You can never go wrong with that.
As for the meat, I enjoyed all of them except for the angus beef ribs sweet soy. It was a little too fatty for me and I realized no matter how long I kept it on the grill it wasn’t going to make the fatty part go away. All the other meats were on point.
Overall, I understand this is a chain and some people don’t think there’s anything special about Gyu Kaku but I really enjoy the whole experience and I’ve had nothing but awesome service and the friendliest servers every time I’ve been here!
OOOOO
5 out of 5 Afros

I went in on for Christmas with the fam at around 9:30 pm. We originally booked it for 9:00pm, but they were kind enough to save us a table to come through. I’ve eaten at Gyu-​Kaku back in the Bay area and their food quality, most of the time, is consistent. I highly recommend their happy hour (9 pm+) because they discount most of the appetizer, salad, noodles, and meat cuts. Depending on how much you eat, they give you x amount of scratchers and gift cards for $x off and free x item. They just gonna keep reeling in you with these and I love it.
Must Try Appetizer:
Garlic Noodles
Tuna Poke
Must Try Meat to Grill:
Bistro hangar Beef
Beef Tongue
Short Rib Kalbi
Toro Beef
Service:
It was a slow service with their drink refills, orders, and check. They might have been understaffed for Christmas, but I’m speculating. This place is a lot bigger than the one I went to in Cupertino, CA.
Keep in Mind:
Non-​Alcoholic & Non-​Japanese Drinks are unlimited refill
Squeeze some lemon on the cooked beef tongue. It’s amazing.
You might get scratchers or gift cards for your next visit.
Overall:
3.5 Stars
Good Food + Slow, but friendly and accomodating service
EDIT: Typos and grammar mistakes

The only reason I am giving 2 stars is for the food quality instead of 1 which this service deserves. We experienced one of the worst service ever.
First things first, ½ of the food that was cooked on our table was done only than the drinks came. When the server was very rough, she came with edamame bowl and basically threw it on our table, on top of silverware spilling half of it on the table, and just left.
At the end of the meal the server came and introduced a different server who will be serving our desert that was a part of lunch special. I asked for a check, which took forever to get, waited for our desert for about 10 more minutes. Neither of the server ever showed up so we left without it.
If I will be back, it will be to a different location for sure, like Van Nuys. Horrible service.

Went here for dinner, we got seated and we had this young guy as our server, he was great and everything was great until our waiter changed to «Mardi», she was distracted because her boyfriend was there sitting in another booth, she was very slow on our orders and it took a lifetime to get the check and pay for it.
We used to love this place but the fact that there was no manager around and our waiter was more interested in her boyfriend instead of the customers.

This place is alright. It’s not bad but not great.
I went during happy hour and there was a wait for 2 people. It’s convenient that it’s located in a mall though. However the service sucks and the staff seem like they want to get out of there asap.
With happy hour the meat isn’t that pricey. The meat is pretty good but there isn’t much. The portions are small. You pay for however much you want to eat and they charge you if they don’t finish. It’s really loud in the restaurant but I would say happy hour is worth it. The 2 of us ate up to about $ 60 so it’s not bad compared to the prices without happy hour.
They give you appetizers that come with your lunch set. A Japanese salad and gyozas to start. Then after awhile hour meat comes out in giant platters but the portions were so small. The grill was pretty good because there isn’t a way to get grease on it from other meats. They have a wide selection of meat too. I really liked the filet mignon and duck.
At the end of your meal they give you s’mores and they take out the grill so there’s a flame for you to roast your marshmallow. Sadly both of our marshmallows caught on fire so we just ate the chocolate. Biggest fail ever haha. Don’t burn your marshmallow! They won’t give you another one.

Portions have gone down. Quality has gone down. And you can see it in the amount of people in the restaurant. The server was very nice and accommodating but it’s not fun having to complain about everything. Consistency is so important in a restaurant and it sucks that every time I come here things taste different the the time before.
They have this huge saki bottle now… Too bad I drank the whole thing and didn’t even get a LITTLE buzz. What a rip off… Watered down saki.

This place is kind of pricey and the service isn’t super great. The meat was good but not enough to feel satisfied.
Honestly this place is good for happy hour and if you just plan to enjoy drinks with a bunch of your friends.
Drinks are super cheap! Cheers!

It takes a while to get service. This is understandable due to the fact that they don’t have bussers or expos and they make their servers pool their tips so that they will buss and run each others tables and food. It’s disgusting. I’m a bartender and have worked in this industry for a long time and can not fathom sharing my tips as a server. These guys are overworked and seem forever frazzled due to these conditions which seems unfair.
I’ve given 4 stars because the food is good, prices fair, and receive subpar service but understand they are doing their best.

This place is for the good times!
They have good happy hour deals! I suggest coming here for that!
AMBIANCE:
The place gets EXTREMELY loud so be prepared to yell out to the homies. Not a good place if you want to have an intimate discussion.
Very causal but you can dress it up if you want.
Smells like BBQ
Tables may be a bit sticky
I am not very happy about how their chairs are set up for some of the tables. Because of the BBQ tables, they’re chairs are a bit awkward leaving no leg room or leaving a BIG GAP between you and your party therefore, splitting the group.
FOOD:
It is GOOD! Although it can get pricey, the food is very tasty. The meats are fresh and the sauces they have only add to the flavor. The meat portions are not impressive… it’s not like how they do it at an all you can eat kbbq… not at all…
Their SUKIYAKI bibimbaps are AMAZING! DO IT!
Desserts are creative but portions are small.
STAFF:
ALL at this location have been very friendly so no complaints here.
RESTROOM: moderately clean, small, it will do
PARKING: Shared parking with the mall…
They won’t seat you unless your whole party is there.
Overall, a fun place to eat, drink and be merry!

NEVER going back here again. So disappointing because I came here about a month ago and it was such a great experience. I came here on Friday night and it was awful.
My boyfriend called around 8PM to see if we could make a reservation and the woman who answered the phone informed us that they were no longer taking reservations, only walk-​ins.
We figured it was early enough that we wouldn’t get stuck with a tremendous wait time, and decided to go anyways. When I went to give my name to the woman at the front desk, I was straight up ignored for a full five minutes before she acknowledged me. It was insanely awkward, because I was just standing there staring at her while she had her head down looking at the computer. Then she finally looked up and took my information. Pretty unprofessional and rude, but I wasn’t too upset — maybe she was under pressure to finish something? I don’t know.
45 minutes later, I get a text message that our table is ready, and we walk to the restaurant to be seated. While we’re waiting to be seated, I hear something that irritates me. The same woman who told me they were not taking reservations is ON THE PHONE MAKING A RESERVATION FOR THAT NIGHT. She probably didn’t know that we were the ones who had called earlier trying to make a reservation, otherwise I’m sure she wouldn’t have done that in front of us. I was irritated but I tried not to let it offend me too much. I just wanted to eat.
We’re finally seated (around 9:45PM) and notice that we are given 1 menu to share between the two of us. We’ve just come to the conclusion that this restaurant is having a disorganized night, and share the menu. We decide what we want for appetizers, and the waitress comes to our table to take our order. While I’m ordering, I look up at the waitress and she is not even listening to me… she’s got her head turned to the loud-​as-​hell table a few feet away from us. Seriously. She’s just staring at them, and not writing what I’m saying down.
Finally she snaps out of whatever trance she was in and says, «Sorry! I got distracted. What did you want?» So I repeated my order. Who is in charge of training the servers here?
We give our order, wait about 10 minutes, and she comes back with another waitress and says, «Would you guys actually mind moving tables?» We’re both pretty shocked that they’d even ask us to move tables, but we reluctantly agree to move tables.
No explanation, no apology for the inconvenience.
We’re both super annoyed at this point.
They move us to a table that is right across the way, and it’s one of those tables where one side is a booth seat and the other is a bench… except this bench was broken and wobbly. There was a full booth table right next to it, and we asked to be moved there instead. They told us we could move there as soon as someone came to bus the table. We waited a good 20 minutes for someone to come bus the table, until the waitress just decided to do it herself. She could tell we were upset.
It’s about 10:30 at this point, by the way.
We then watch as the servers move this other group of people to the table we were sitting at. That’s right — they were already seated, and got moved to our table. Why? They didn’t like the table they were seated at. So they asked to switch tables, and WE had to move as a result. We were pissed. I was ready to just walk out of the restaurant at that point, and I would have — if it weren’t for my boyfriend. He wanted to stick it out and see if the night got better. It didn’t.
A different server took our order (he was much better than the first one) since we moved to a different section. While we waited for our food to arrive, we had the pleasure of being blinded by the kids at our old table who were taking flash videos and photos of themselves drinking beer THE ENTIRE TIME. Made everything that much more unpleasant. In addition to this, the table that had distracted our waitress from earlier was a table full of sports fans — everyone wearing jerseys. Every ten minutes, this giant table would scream «CHUG CHUG CHUG CHUG» and cheer very loudly. I couldn’t believe the restaurant didn’t ask them to stop. We looked at all of the other tables surrounding us, and it was clear that it was annoying everyone else as well.
Finally we get our first order of food, and it is disappointing to say the least. The rice sukiyaki was undercooked, and DROWNING IN OIL. I was getting undercooked rice grains stuck in my teeth, and I had to use my napkin to soak the oil up. It was that bad.
At one point, our server just disappeared for a good 20 minutes. We were just dying to get out of the restaurant already.
We were treated with such disrespect and I will not be coming back here. We would’ve gotten better service and food from Del Taco.

/​* DINE L.A. */
Came here for the dine LA menu. $ 15 for 2 choices of appetizer, 2 choices of meat, rice, salad, miso soup.(per person)
Food that are really good:
— Bistro Hangar Steak Miso
— salad
— Spicy Pork
Food that are just ok:
— Yaki-​Shabu Beef Miso
— steamed dumplings
The rest we dont care much about. Hehe
— Fried spring rolls
— miso soup
— Angus beef ribs in sweet soy
Best deal: 35oz Sapporo beer for $ 4.50

Man I remember Gyu Kaku being the shit back in college. Although it became really popular, the quality and everything else about it plummeted. The food used to be on point but now I feel like everything has cheapened and just doesn’t taste that great anymore.
This place has Happy Hour everyday but I honestly think they use that term to lure people in. You end up spending a good penny because all of the items are so small that you keep ordering more and more.
I actually like this place for the Sapporo and sake but I really can’t stand the food anymore. I might’ve had it too much but it just doesn’t sit well with me. On a brighter note, you’ll like this place if you’re a tapas person and don’t mind a Korean BBQ feel. There are many options for food such as soups, appetizers, noodles, meat, etc etc. I recommend the shrimp garlic noodles, shrimp, and the yaki shabu beef, Japanese sweet potato, and the mushroom medley. Many people get the spicy tuna volcano but I do not… I repeat, I do not recommend this! The tuna is never fresh and it makes me sick just thinking about it.
The last time I went, we got the Gyu Kaku course which came out to $ 60. I recommend this if you’re with 1 or 2 other friends. You can look at my photos to see what’s included in the course. I love the s’mores at the end!
All in all, this place isn’t terrible but I think I’ve had it too much. It’s definitely worth a try and a fun experience if you want to go drink with your friends.

Great Happy Hour menu/​prices and the Happy Hour is all day on the weekend! I came to this location many years ago when it first opened. I remember it was good but not memorable enough for me to come back. On a Saturday morning, I got an email from Gyu-​Kaku about Happy Hour all weekend so we decided to go. We got the Gyu-​Kaku Course for 2 ($ 60) and it came with a great assortment of appetizers and different kind of meats where it was definitely enough to feed 3 – 4 but my 4 stars is for how salty the meat was. It was pretty unbearable where I didn’t taste how good the meat can be so I just stuck to the appetizers and of course the ice cream macaroons. I should have just got the ice cream macaroons as my meal.
The service was great, our waiter was very attentive and made sure we got everything to our specifications.
I will definitely come here again but I will limit my consumption of meat and stick with the appetizers.