Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ — Restaurant in Bay Lake

I do not ever find myself writing a review for a place as soon as I get home from the dining experience ever, but this place is so shameful here I go;

Gyu Kaku is a popular Japanese BBQ chain that I have eaten at several hundred times in Japan metro areas where I am a commercial real estate investor. It is a very popular place with excellent service and I often take large groups of employees and friends to both the gas burner and hot rock locations and have never had a bad experience. We will sit and dine for hours having many drinks and ordering several rounds of food to cook. Its a very festive atmosphere and a great place to celebrate over a 2-3 hour meal. Usually I spend 80,000 JPY - 150,000 JPY on a group and its always amazing.

I noticed that they have started to have locations here in the USA. A few days ago I took my wife and 2 kids to the turkey lake location and found it to be a great experience comparable to experiences I have had in Japan.

I had family visiting from NY state this weekend and we wanted to go out for a big group dinner. I thought that there would be no better place than Gyu Kaku which they have never been to.

I chose wrong. We had a party of 7 and they tried to squeeze us in to a table large enough for a party of 4. When we first showed up the table was completely loaded with the dining plates and the sauce plates for 7 people to such a degree that there would be no place to even set ordered food or drinks. Right away the server had to take away all of the sauce plates for us to even have drinks. It was a crowded chaotic mess and since my guests has never eaten there and I was too far away from the single grill in the middle, my wife had to end up cooking all of the food for our entire party. Every time the server came to the table with a set of food, we had to quickly figure out what to move around to even let her set down the food items. It was ridiculous for this type of dining.

There was no chance to sit and dine for hours ordering several rounds of food or drinks because there was no room for the server to even set anything down and it was too cramped and crowded. It was work to make sure you didn't spill a drink on yourself trying to shuffle the plates around every time the server brought more food.

The table they put us at was in the back private room with 2 grills large enough for 8 people, but instead of giving the entire table to our party, they put a divider in the middle and had just under 16 people squeezed in the room. It was an insult to anyone who is familiar with this type if dining.

I made it quite clear to them that I was very displeased and that this is not the kind of experience I expect to have at Gyu-Kaku. they had nothing to offer but shallow apologies but they did not do anything to display that they cared. It was shameful and I have never had anyone in Japan act this way delivering such a terrible and insulting experience for the money paid and thinking a weak apology makes it better. Actions speak. Shallow words are weak.

In contrast to my usual large bills spent eating a large meal at Gyu Kaku we only got thru $275 worth of ordering before I had to get out of there it was so infuriating and terrible. I could barely stand to leave a tip it was so awful. With a group of 7 I would expect to sit and dine to the level of $800 at minimum, $1,200 if the drinks were great. (they dont seem to make Japanese highball here or have liquor)

I would recommend against going to this place at all costs and the management needs to learn some level of excellence and quality expected for this type of dining before tarnishing the Gyu Kaku name any further.

I would never dine at any of the locations in USA again with a party larger than 4. They do not know how to handle it and you will have a terrible time being squished into a small table meant for 4 people with a large party.

Usually its a fun experience and everyone has the chance to cook their own food. This sucked so bad I wont return to any location in the USA for a...

I've been going to gyu- kaku for ages both in California and more recently in florida after a relocation. Typically it's great, and predictable. That changed today. Upon entering the restaurant, the screen behind the hostess desk had an ad for a 10% discount offered to local residents, which includes me. It specified it applied to premium all you can eat offerings, and that it started in May 2025. We decided between the magical dining offer, and the regular all you can eat- with the discount on all you can eat, it seemed to make sense to skip magical dining (which typically discounts do not apply to). The food was fine, there were some items not available from the supreme option which was not told to us before we ordered, but we accepted that. Service was slower than usual, and we accepted that as well. The cutting of meats and veggies wasn't consistent like it is typically, but we accepted rhat as well. What was unacceptable is that when we got the check, they refused to honor the posted discount. The waitress claimed that ended in may 2025 (it's August 31 today). I asked to speak with the manager. Doris the manager came and spoke to me and said they discontinued that offer 2 weeks ago. I explained that the offer is still displayed on the board. I showed her a picture of the offer which I took after the check arrived. She then said the offer is subject to cancellation any time and it's not cancelled- then, the offer cycled back up on the board- we could both see it from my table. I explained you can't cancel it when you're still offering it before, during, and after my meal. Yes, it's a $15 issue, but it's the principal that they're fraudulently offering a discount, then denying it upon redemption. That's unethical. It may be illegal. Combined with the less than stellar food tonight, I have to really think about giving this place more business. It's very disappointing because I typically...

I was so excited to find a Gyu-Kaku nearby instead of driving all the way to Sandlake location. We got there at 3:45pm. There were two staffs and a manager at the greeter station. As we approached, the manager; Gregory looked up and saw us, but instead of acknowledging or greet us, he continue to chat away with the staff. Not a great 1st impression, nor a good example for the staff for that matter. After he’s done chatting, Gregory greeted us and asked if we have a reservation. And then he struggled to find us a table -even though we had reserved a table- because apparently they didn’t have enough servers until 4pm. The greeter only gave us one menu for 2 adults. I had to ask for another one. The food -thankfully- were great and the bussers are the best. They are most courteous, attentive and professional. I ordered ice teas but they never arrived. The ice teas showed up on our bills. When we showed the mistake to our waiter, she didn’t apologized but offered to have them to go instead. We refused and asked them to be taken off the bill. On the way out, the manager Gregory saw us leaving but didn’t say anything. No Thank You for coming. No have a great day. Nada. We love Gyu-Kaku but would never come to this location again. I’d rather drive all the way to Sandlake location. Better service all around. My husband and I have been working for hospitality industry for 25+ years. We notice things.

Edit on 07/10/23: We went back again for Mother’s Day dinner against our better judgement. Greg apparently no longer works for the company. The new manager is a bit better. I was told he used to be a manager for Japanese restaurant in EPCOT. We got the same waiter unfortunately. She was still slow with our order. And she brought our veggies during desert time sigh. The food were okay. Was hoping get more food for the Mother’s...