Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ — Restaurant in New York

I noramally go to other Gyu-Kaku locations and have had no issues. The only two times I have gone to the 3rd Ave location was the most unorganized service I've seen. I've never felt more compelled to write a review before.

My first visit. I had reservation set for a party of 10 people. Most of which arrived before the reservation time to let the receptionist know the rest of the group would be arriving shortly. They do not seat you until the entire group is there which is fine and I can understand. The enitre group had arrived 10 minutes after our reservation time to only be told our table had just been given away. There is a sign on the reception desk clearly stating a 15 minute grace period for all reservations and they tried sending us away. We had argued with the receptionist, showing our reservation time and that we were clearly still within the 15 minutes, so now they had to scramble to find us a table.

My second visit. Was a part of another reservation for 10 people. The restuarant called the contact three times 9 hours before our reservation to let us know our table was ready. They were informed each time the correct time of our reservation. Learning from our previsous mistakes, a portion of our party went to the restaurant 30 minutes before to confirm our reservation and ensure a table would be ready. Then our entire party was at the restuarant 5 minutes before our scheduled reservation. We were told to wait a few minutes and that our table was being cleaned. 30 minutes later, we were told again to wait a few minutes an that our table was just being cleaned. We were the last reservation of the night, so having a 30 minute late start meant halfway through our service, the bar was closed, everyone had gone home for the day, and one of my party members looked over to see what looked like the server recording us and sending a voice message to someone. I feel bad for having to stay past closing. I understand everyone wants to go home, and I dont blame any of the workers if they were feeling frustrated, but this is blatant disorganization on who ever is in charge of managing the dining room. I know customers are told they have a specfific time they would need to be done with their service by, because we were made well aware on my first visit. There was a reservation right after us and we had to be done within the hour. I just don't understand why the party before us was not rushed like we were to avoid this.

Coming back to this because I just realized we didn’t get all $700 of food that was ordered. Guess they really wanted us out.

To sum it all up, food is very good, service is bad. If you want Gyu-kaku I recommend going to the Flushing or Amsterdam...

Been going here for many years, it has been great. The entire chain delivered great food but this one was also really good. It turns out recently, I have came 6 times since the pandemic, their quality has dropped. The staff is okay, if you ask for recommendations they will not tell you which one is better but instead the most expensive option. Still pretty good staff though. They stopped caring too much about the restaurant as well. If you ask them a question on the phone they don't pay attention to your question and give a wrong answer sometimes. Also, the beef sukiyaki rice bowl comes ready and other things that the waiters did infront of you. In the past they used to make it infront of you and they still do at other locations but not here. The most recent time we came, I made a reservation for 8:15 and they called me to change it (even though they confirmed before) to 9:15. Keep in mind that the kitchen closes 9:30 (I didn't know they closed at that time, when we called to ask what time the kitchen closes they said 10:30. It turned out that was when the establishment closed altogether and they didn't really think about what I asked them). After sitting down and seeing the menu, it was already 9:30 and we had to order everything at once. Considering that we will definitely order more stuff later, it isn't right to feel rushed to order everything together. When we sat down and ordered appetizers first, we were looking to order the meats when the waitress came to inform us the kitchen was closing and we had to order everything then. We got up and left and went to eat elsewhere that night. Still, the food is good but I recommend going to another location. Times Square location is my favorite after what used to be this one. In the future I hope it returns to the old service and quality it used to be. Since the appetizers were already ordered, the manager (very nice lady) told us for the inconvenience we could take those appetizers to go, free of charge. That is a considerate move my the manager and I appreciate that, so we left a normal tip and left. Please fix the restaurant! It used...

I went to this restaurant for the first time with my sister. The food was ok but not better than another location I went to. The first thing they tell you as soon as they seat you is that you have to leave after 90 min but then also offering some all you can eat special. How can you have the all you can eat option and leave after 90 min? It's not possible. We ended up ordering what we liked and ordered dessert after and still needed a little more time. I'm hoping they meant 90 mins from the point the food arrives and not from the point you've been seated. Also, the grill at our table kept going out (at least 4 times before it was finally resolved). We didn't feel good to keep calling someone over but this wasn't our fault..this was the restaurants fault, after all🤷🏼‍♀️. Also, it was my sister's birthday and no one came to sing happy birthday. The waitress was horrible to me! She started off good. I ordered a few items and something was missing. I politely asked if it was coming and if not if she can send an order of it. My sister ordered several things throughout the time we were there. I didn't ask for much. Just my appetizer that didn't come and, at the end, a glass of water. She became frustrated and short with me. It's like she was struggling to keep up being polite with us, especially me. Although, I gave her the least amount of work and she was very rude with me...she didn't ask me if I liked the experience there but asked my sister only! She completely ignored me. I unfortunately tipped her more than she deserved. If you see her, she is an overweight Asian woman with a distressed face. She definitely hates her job and she takes it out on the guest. This location is in an upscale area and I was expecting at least the basic pleasantries of dining out. When you see people buying almost $200 worth of food coming in polite and happy, it should be so easy for you to provide us with the foods we order and happily because the tip could be very nice for you. I don't think I'll ever go back to this location and I will tell...