Gyukatsu Rose — Local services in Orlando

This is closest experience you'll get to what it's like to eat at a little corner joint in Japan. In Orlando anyway. The King opened this place up recently, a little eight-ish-top counter restaurant in the middle of one of the busiest food halls in town. I'm hoping it's a roaring success, because I loved every minute of my time here.

The counter is lovely. Plenty of space for the cooktops and your tray of food, as well as all the seasonings and sauces they keep on hand. Everything behind the counter is pretty simple. Those little curtains cover the doors and windows, like in Japan. Your host is with you chit chatting with you pretty much the whole time. It's a nice experience.

The service was exceptional. You get a little tutorial on how to cook the meat, with a wide range of cooking times. Anywhere between 10 seconds and one minute, they said. I'll tell you right now, if you cook these little cutlets for a minute, it's gonna be jerky. But, it was nice to have the tutorial.

The food itself was phenomenal. The way they do things in Japan is provide you smaller portions of higher quality stuff. If you use chopsticks, it makes you eat everything more slowly, allowing you to really enjoy the ingredients. The menu is pretty simple. You get a Wagyu beef set meal, or a tuna set meal. That's it.

I ordered the Wagyu Single Cutlet set meal, which included Hokkaido Barley Rice, Suimono Soup, Cabbage Salad, Potato Salad, House Pickles, Onion Sauce, Yakiniku Sauce, and Fresh Wasabi.

A ton of little components. No wrong way to eat it. A little of this, a little of that, dipped in this, dipped in that, add a little finishing salt, maybe a little green sauce. Just dig in. You're gonna have to fine tune the time you cook your beef. You want it to me long enough to have the fat loosen up a bit, but not too long to where it gets tough and chewy. All part of the fun.

Everything was delicious. Amazing, melt-in-your-mouth Wagyu, the rice was simply delicious, with hints of that barley, yummy soup, a refreshing cabbage salad, nice, acidic pickles, and two sauces that really pack a punch. Solid all around.

After our lovely meal, we ordered the Matcha Ice Cream Brulee, and surprise, it was also delicious. Sweet ice cream, with the bitter brulee, and the texture of the crisp sugar post-brulee. Just lovely.

Overall, yes, this was lovely. You gotta come...

Food is the best poke you'll get in Orlando, but the main concern is the lack of hospitality within the nearby restaurants, that of which is all operated by the same company. Rion's never disappoints, me and my wife come here several times a month and have nothing bad to say about them. The issue lies in the nearby restaurants, who apparently decide where customers sit down. $40 for 2 bowls of Poke and an $8 tip (I work in hospitality as well) is what we are accustomed to, however what we are not appreciative of is workers from Gyukatsu Rose kicking us of a table in the shade midway through our poke. I understand that's a table designated for their service and operations, what I don't understand is why they can't allow two people who are halfway through their food to finish. We moved after he disrespectfully asked us to, and I was suprised that he showed attitude. The most baffling detail of this entire encounter was that he informed me that they started service at 3:00...and upon asking us to move it was 2:20. We ended up moving to another table and I noted to my wife that they finished setting up for service at 2:23. As someone who works in hospitality, I understand enforcing preparations to make sure a restaurant is visually ready for service, but setting aside 40 mins and also moving a couple eating lunch at their sister restaurant seems crazy to me. Are we prepping for surgery or are we merely placing 2 menus across from each other with some napkins and hotpots? This whole interaction could have been avoided by using common sense and realizing we would have been done in 5 minutes regardless. I'd love to try out Gykatsu Rose in the future as I LOVE Edoboy, Rion's, Domu, Tori-Tori, and ALL their establishments, but on second thought I'm good if that's the hospitality...

Gyukatsu Rose holds its own in a long line of Domu Dynasty excellence. They didn’t pay me to say that but somebody should. You’re in and out in under an hour, food quality is amazing (as it should be), concept is fun and interactive. I actually appreciated that it’s a “small” menu so you don’t get overwhelmed. This is a great spot for a date night or to bring your out of town parents and intro them to the amazing Asian food scene we have in Orlando without full on intimidation. The katsu style, cook your own adventure feels high end without insulting the fact you may or may not know how to pronounce Gyukatsu. I do have to say the rose of this place is truly the service. The staff is knowledgeable but just plain excited about what they are doing. I like being around that. I like being talked into dessert by a server who learned my name 2 courses ago and already spoke to me about the quality ingredients they use. I dinged the atmosphere because you are literally sitting in the middle of a food hall, but if your date and server were as great as mine, you won’t even notice....