Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ — Restaurant in Los Angeles

You are in for an eating experience! I've come to Gyu many times before and have finally decided to review it after last night's visit. I typically come on Friday or Saturday for a late dinner around 8 or 9. Yesterday we got in around 9:30 and were told we'd have a 45 minute wait (usual for this time).

My boyfriend and I took a seat at the bar to enjoy a few pre-dinner drinks, we ordered a pitcher of Sapporo and large sake. I ended up getting a coupon for a free edamame that we snacked on while waiting. The bartenders were super nice and attentive, they kept checking to make sure we were doing well even though we were sitting at the end of the bar. I loved this! Often bartenders have ignored me when I'm on the end, it's like the forgotten spot.

We were seated earlier than expected, around 10 pm. We order they same thing every time so the food came out pretty quickly. We always cook our veggies first, then the meats or seafood. It's nice to spend time and chat and share in the preparation of our food, especially over beers and sake!

Our waiter was very nice, one of the dishes was late coming out and when I brought it to his attention he immediately went back and grabbed it from the kitchen.

Normally we take an Uber or a Lyft but last night we drove. Gyu is located in a big shopping center parking lot so there is parking avail, but sometimes it is scarce so you have to resort to street parking. There seems to be a lot of available street parking.

I continue to love coming here and know I will be back for my Japanese bbq fix...

Came here for my anniversary with my boyfriend and was super excited but left disappointment. Leaving it at 4 stars because Jonathan helped us with our first order and then Nico and Mathew were the ones that helped to make sure we were served in between their assigned tables and made sure our night didn’t become a horrible memory because of our main server. The main server was a short dark hair girl that had long styled nails. Wasn’t really around long enough to get her name. We were never served water or any drinks.. even got our main dishes before we got any miso and rice until we asked for them. We asked for our grill to be changed but felt like we had to wait until the grill became all black before we were desperate enough to wave another server (Nico) down to help us. Same goes for the matcha tiramisu parfait with strawberries, which actually made me sick all night. Not sure why we were assigned to her because it didn’t seem like she gave any of her customers near us and us the adequate service.

Food I recommend: gyukaku salad Value meal combo (great for 2-3) Bibimbap rice

I don’t recommend: matcha tiramisu parfait with strawberry Arnold Palmer (it tasted weird like it was expired..)

Bathroom is somewhat clean and is easy to find. They have 1 smaller stall and one larger stall that might be able to accommodate a wheelchair user.

Good for group, couples and kids. (Came here before for...

OK fine 4 stars really but I bumped it up one because it's one of my personal fave places to grub.

The good- Their happy hour is everyday during weekdays I believe until evening and later in the evenings on weekends. Happy hour everything is a bit less expensive, 1-8$ less depending on the overall price per item. The quality of the food here is a step up from most places and several steps up from all you can eat places of the same environment. Service has always been attentive and friendly, although not completely perfect. Over all fun and perfect for couples or large family parties, kid friendly too of course.

The bad- at this particular location there is mandatory valet parking, 8$. They occasionally run out of items and will generally let you know but I have had the server bring me dishes with missing key ingredients because they ran out of something, but they failed to let me know before hand. I would like to mention however, they didn't charge me for these items after mentioning it. I've come alone and felt rushed. I get it, the table could be used for more people spending more money but still, as a dude with a pretty big appetite, I eat almost as much as a party of 2.

The negative experiences were very few I want to say as I've been here probably close to 100 times and generally have fun and love the food. Definitely worth trying especially if you enjoy Korean BBQ...