Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ — Restaurant in Bellevue

TLDR: delivery is very safe! Build your own bento is bomb. Shio Tare Marinade is my fav.

I ordered delivery.

First off, packaging was immaculate: soup containers were bagged and the whole order's bag was stapled shut. Very safe feeling.

Build Your Own Bento: WOW. The proportion is satisfying--comes with rice, miso soup, and a half salad. Since it comes with a salad already, if I were you I'd chose the proteins as the sides in the bento for the best bang for your buck. I was surprised that you get the option to choose how much rice (8,12, or 16oz) to go with your meal. Being the carb addict I am, of course I chose the 16oz option. Rice is always a good palate cleanser for any meal, especially meals with lots of variety like bento boxes. Gotta cleanse that palate between sides! The things I chose for the bento are as follows:

Toro Beef and the Yakishabu Beef---I couldn't really tell which was which to be honest when it arrived but both were tender and tasted great with the marinades that I chose. Some slices were slightly chewy (probably slightly overcooked) but not inedible.

Takoyaki: 3 balls, the dough was a bit on the soft side for me but it still tasted great--especially with the marinade that comes with the protein choices.

Chicken Karrage: I was expecting fried chicken--this was a little different, there was no breading, just dry dusted chicken chunks. The flavor was good but the chicken was a bit on the dry side inside and out.

Shio Tare marinade: nice blend of flavors! You can taste all the flavors individually--first you get the sweet, then it fades into salty and then the kick of garlic. I felt like I was Remy from Ratatouille. I ended up using this marinade for the majority of my beef slices.

Sweet Soy Tare marinade: a little on the sweet side (kinda like teriyaki sauce level sweet) for me. Tasted good but the sweetness overpowered the other flavors in the marinade.

Other things I ordered are listed below:

Pork Chashu Shio Ramen: honestly not the best ramen I've had--lacked default toppings (it just comes with a hard, not soft, boiled egg, and chashu---no bamboo shoots, nori, etc.). The noodles were also all stuck together as opposed to being "Naruto Style Slurpable", which takes away from the whole ramen experience. This dish is most likely better ordered as a dine-in item instead of delivery.

Miso Yaki-Udon: The flavor is nice and the udon noodles were delightful, even when reheated as leftwovers. However, the protein to noodle ratio was very poor--there were only 3 pieces of pork and the pieces are smaller than the chashu in the ramen! I was a bit disappointed in terms of the money spent for 3 pieces of meat, but maybe that's just me.

Salad: very fresh veggies, the radish adds a nice crunch and I love the sesame dressing! This is a great side to have along with all the cuts of meat as opposed to just having it as a dish by itself because it isn't too filling. It's a nice palate cleanser in between bites of protein.

Spicy Addicting Cucumber: very refreshing and crisp cucumber chunks. The crunch is very satisfying. It's also not as spicy as it looks. Even wimps like me can tolerate it (as long as I chase it with a bite of something else). It's something to have if you don't want to justify getting a salad but need something other than meat and carbs...

Everything about our Mother's Day visit was great... except the service.

Booking: I made our reservations a week in advance, having learned from a previous visit when they had no available seating. Thankfully, this time we were immediately seated upon arrival at around 8:00 PM, and the staff promptly greeted us with water and menus.

Atmosphere: The restaurant had a fairly modern ambiance with an exposed ceiling design. Since the kitchen was not far from the seating area, especially the tables away from the windows, there were occasional loud noises from the back of the house. While it could be overwhelming at times, we found it tolerable.

Food: The food was excellently prepared and delicious. My family and I enjoyed every bite, and we left the restaurant feeling pleasantly full. Multiple plates arrived simultaneously, so as long as you ordered several dishes, hunger was not an issue.

Service: Now, let's talk about the service. Unfortunately, early on in our visit, we asked about the Happy Hour pricing, scheduled to start at 8:30. The server explained it somewhat haphazardly before abruptly leaving our table. It seemed that this inquiry triggered a negative response from the server for the remainder of the evening, as his service became mediocre at best.

He blatantly ignored any attempt at eye contact whenever he passed by our table, and he left all the dirty plates behind, despite us pre-stacking them for him (see photo). Moreover, both my son and daughters had their water glasses empty for a while before he finally offered to refill them. If it hadn't been for the attentive back house staff graciously taking our order, we might have been overlooked for even longer.

On the other hand, the back house staff, particularly the janitorial service members, were extremely kind to my wife and kids. They joked around, spoke clearly, and even knelt down when addressing us, adding an extra level of care to our experience.

I don't mean to nitpick, but the server's performance truly detracted from our overall dining experience.

Since the only positive aspect of the service was the back house employee who unnecessarily went out of his way to clear our table and take our order, I ended up personally giving the tip to him. He declined it several times before reluctantly accepting.

Overall: The food was solid, the atmosphere was decent, but the service left much to be desired. It's unfortunate that the back house janitorial staff provided better service than the actual server. In fact, they might be the only reason why I would willingly consider returning to this...

A group of 6 of us went on a busy Friday night and had a great time there. My friend made advanced reservation a week ahead for the 7:30 dinner, but couldn't get in until the last friend arrived around 7:45. The line was out of the door, which suggested how popular this place was.

We were debating between ordering two 2-person combo plus some dishes or a 4-person combo plus some, but ended up ordering the 6-person, "Shogun", combo plus garlic noodle and extra orders of pork bellies because we were 6 hungry guys. We were very satisfied at the end of this feast.

There was 3 types of sauces you can use to dip the meat. I liked them all but my favorite was the spicy one. You couldn't really say that's a spicy sauce, because it's more of a sweet sauce with a hint of spiciness in it. If I were to rate the spiciness, it's between a 1.5- to a 2-star, but I liked it for not being so overwhelming that you lost the flavor of the barbeque, and it provided that hint.

If you haven't been to this type of semi-self service barbeque restaurants, the waiter would bring you pre-marinated raw meat, and you cook them by putting them on the gas grill addy the center of the dining table. Your waiter or waitress would bring each dish out to you and tell you how long to wait before flipping the meat so both sides are cooked evenly without burning them. It was quite the experience, if you haven't tried it.

When we were about half way through with all of our meat, we decided to go all the way and order the "harami secret pot" (pictured). It was a huge piece of steak which our waiter brought and pulled out of a pot of marinate sauce. It was almost as long as the grill net! Our waiter cooked that one for us and cut it into equal-length pieces. We all loved it and would agree that was the highlight.

After the meal, there was the s'more for everyone. Grilling s'mores on a gas stove was one of the best no-mess experience you could have. Just don't overcook it. One of us came to this restaurant for the first time and he enjoyed as much as the rest of us. We will definitely come back again for another gathering. Hope you'll enjoy it with your friends and family as much as we did.

Oh, one more thing. The evening happy hour is from 8:30-10:30pm. I only noticed that as we came out of the restaurant, so I didn't ask what's being special, but I'd imagine some discounts on side dishes and drinks...

They had Japanese beer but since each of us was driving our own vehicle, none of us ordered any alcoholic...