Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ — Restaurant in Cupertino

When I first saw this Gyu-Kaku appear on Stevens Creek a great many years ago, I was filled with curiosity and excitement. All across North and South California, the Japanese BBQ franchise has spread its grills, and this location, had always lived in my mind as a flagship branch of the restaurant. No more. Through the slow grind of the pandemic, the wiles of Time, or sheer misfortune, this Gyu-Kaku has long since fallen from its place of prominence.

The Gyu-Kaku chain is a Japanese barbecue chain in which you are served raw meat which you then cook over a grill. It's not all you can eat, and the prices are a little high but the service is where Gyu-Kaku usually shines. My family had such good experiences that even though we hadn't visited in more than a year, we decided to go to celebrate my parents' anniversary.

Our server started our grill and set us up with some menus.

My father was the first to realize that a few seconds after the server left, the grill had gone out of its own accord. Our server eventually returned, and reactivated the grill, which went out before he even left a second time. Throughout the night, he, another server, or two separate people who look like managers came to check the flame out. They gave all kinds of explanations, be it the wind from the door, a lack of oxygen, some kind of oil buildup, or the sensor was broken, and nothing seemed to permanently solve the issue. None of the staff offered to move us to a different table, even though the table next to us was empty, and all we got for this endless trouble was a quick "sorry for the inconvenience".

Undeterred, we ordered several dishes including a variety of vegetables, meats, and a couple orders of miso salmon. My dad ordered a beer, and my girlfriend and I wanted to order the lychee sake, but it was out of stock.

The vegetables eventually came, wrapped in foil as is the Gyu-Kaku fashion, and we were told to cook them for about 3 minutes. It took at least six to get them to be mildly soft, and whether or not this was the grill's fault, it was strange to have the estimated time be so wildly off base. At one point the server even suggested that we might be choking out the flame by having so many vegetables on the grill at once, something I'd never been told before in any context at any Gyukaku, and that didn't prove to be relevant anyways as this was the one time the flame didn't go out.

As we began getting hungrier waiting for the salmon, the server remembered that the restaurant was completely out of salmon. This was not even truly the dinner rush on the first day of the weekend. But it was mostly annoying that he took 10 minutes to remember this was the case and we had to order something else. We got a few different meats and a single bowl of rice. They then brought two bowls of the rice and when we pointed out that we only wanted one they retreated in embarrassment.

It was not until later in the meal we realized he also completely forgot my dad's beer. That at least he gave us on the house. At that moment, while grilling some duck we ordered last minute, that the grill went out in the middle of the cooking. A fitting e

One of these issues could be overlooked as a bad night, but all of them together really paint a dour picture. I know the server knows things went wrong because they didn't ask 'how was everything' after the meal. We were never offered an explanation, a free side or even a coupon for all the inconvenience.

Gyukaku has some nice foods. There are reasons to go. But this branch does not deserve your patronage. For Gyu-Kaku is no longer rare, and this one is certainly...

We had been to the location in SF so wanted to try one outside the city. Made a reservation online so little wait time for a group of 5.

We got seated towards the back of the restaurant near the patio. Waited about 10 minutes for our server and ordered the AYCE. First issue was our grill. It wouldn’t work unless it was on high and it would make this loud clicking noise. Even then, the grill still would go out and we couldn’t re-light the grill ourselves. Why would you sit people at a broken grill? We told our server and he said sorry and that this was the only table that could fit us. We said the table near us (in a smaller booth) had 6 people on it so why couldn’t our group of 5 do the same. Mind you, we had a few bigger people in our group so we knew why we got seated at the larger booth but figured a working table was worth being a little squished. Waiter said he’d be back to see what he could do. He came back and was able to move us.

We thought okay, maybe they will give us more time for the AYCE because our first table was broken. Nope. It took 50 minutes from us ordering to actually receiving the food. That gave us 40 minutes to eat. You could’ve at least offered us more time or a discount since YOU sat us at a broken table and wasted over half of our AYCE time. On top of that, our waiter was not attentive at all and we would go multiple minutes between orders with no food or sight of our waiter. We started maxing out the orders just to make sure we actually got the food before we ran out of time. It still would take them 10+ minutes to deliver the food. Just felt like they were purposefully giving us less time so we would eat less. I expect better for charging nearly $70 a person for AYCE. The service did not match the price tag. Gen kbbq has better service at $30 a person.

Go to the SF location instead. Way better service, attentive waiters, and grills that actually work. Two stars is for food quality since it was...

Very disappointed. Came here to celebrate a birthday and ended up walking out with the party even before placing an order. It must have been over a decade since I last walked out of a restaurant.

We had a reservation and still had to wait about 20 minutes for a table.

They do mandatory forehead temperature check to let you in. This was the first warning sign.

When we were seated at the table, we were expressly told that face coverings must stay on until food is served. I guess the "thing that shall not be named" gets distracted when food appears on the table, but is particularly voracious all the time until then.

When our drinks came out, we were told we have to keep our covering on in between sips by the hostess. We figured the lady was a bit over zealous, but we were all very respectful and complied.

The hostess came, not once, not twice, but THREE times to our table in the span of about 2 minutes to tell my sister and me to put on the covering when not drinking. The funny thing was, we had it on the entire time and would briefly move it down to take a sip and put it right back on. By the third time and she came to harass my sister literally when she had just removed the straw out of her lips and had her hand on the mask to put it back up, we called it quits.

We were not going to harassed by these intellectually challenged cultists. The hostess is so dim that she believes that the "thing that shall not be named" is constantly active up until food is served and then you can take off and keep off your covering, because it magically disappears. Up until then, she kept coming over and harassing us in between sips, even though we were complying.

We all left. No regrets. The food selection was limited and the table was gross and sticky. We ended up going to Kobe Japanese in Santa Clara, which was delicious, had much better ambiance and decorations, and normal service, not some...