Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ — Restaurant in New York

This is a restaurant that has amazing food and excellent prices. I have been here many times before but unfortunately today was the day. The reason is that I’m leaving 2 stars and not one is because I can’t emphasize enough how good the food is.

Unfortunately on June 14th my girlfriend and I decided to stop by Gyu-Kaku; it was her birthday btw. Everything went wrong since the beginning. The hosts (because there were 2 people) seemed to be a bit confused however I understand there are days that we may feel under the weather or probably you are just having a bad day so we just let it pass. At the end we are humans and we make mistakes.

We didn’t have any reservation and we were three but the place was empty since it was not a rush hour. We seated at the table and suddenly I ordered three cokes. I asked if they had canned sodas and the server said yes we have so they brought the three cans. We just waited like 6 minutes to open the sodas since we were talking and suddenly a guy just appeared saying that the sodas were only for take out and he just took them away.

Working in the customer service for years, if you placed a wrong food on the table, you just leave it there. What would happened if I had already opened the soda? Would have you taken them away too? If they were already there it would have been much easier to charge us for canned sodas. I think it would have not bothered us. Neither I was asked or informed about it.

After that incident which could be very little but it really makes your experience bad since the beginning started in a wrong way.

Around 20 - 25 minutes passed after we were seated and then the server again came after that long time to be honest and said sorry for what just happened and asked us what we wanted to have for dinner.

The first thing I mentioned was: “We are gonna start with the spring rolls” just after that I was stopped and the server mentions: I’m sorry but our fryers are not working.

I said enough so we are leaving.

Almost 60% of their menu is FRIED FOOD. This is something that you have to tell the customer at the beginning.

This just ruined the afternoon.

We got up and we left.

I hope you can work on it. I understand that you have an awful day or not feeling well but this should not affect the customer’s experience.

Unfortunately there should always be at least somebody on the floor that is supervising what’s going on.

With that said I would definitely recommend anyone to try their food and hopefully you have a really nice and smooth experience because I do really...

The Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ restaurant is an amazing Japanese restaurant that offers guests incredibly delicious Japanese cuisine, and a delightful dining experience where the guests themselves partake in cooking and preparing premium cooked meats over a smoking grill located at their table.

In May of 2025, I brought and treated myself and my wife for dinner at the Gyu Kaku Japanese BBQ, specifically the branch based in the East Village Manhattan, to celebrate our Happy Eleven Year Relationship Anniversary!!!

Both my wife and I were graciously welcomed by the restaurant’s staff and were quickly provided with a very comfortable dining table.

Our server, Tan was incredible. She was very kind, welcoming and very attentive. She did a great job on explaining the menu options, addressing our inquiries and perfectly documented our meal orders. Tan also made sure to routinely check on us to see if we were enjoying our meals, and making sure our needs were met. We thank Tan for her superb hospitality and would love for Gyu-Kaku to recognize her outstanding professionalism!!!

In addition to the great service, both Kat & I thoroughly enjoyed our meals. I ordered the “Meat Lover’s” package for the both of us when dining at Gyu-Kaku. The “Meat Lover’s package is meant for 2 guests and comes with a considerable number of dishes, ranging from starters; salad, miso soup, sushi, chicken karate, and BBQ items; New York steak; Umakara ribeye, toro beef, sirloin steak and an a array of other dishes. In addition you get 2 s’mores for dessert.

Both my wife enjoyed steaming our seasoned BBQ items over the grill and found our meal to be very delicious from beginning to end. We found our meat dishes to be perfectly seasoned, very tasty and satisfying, and our grill cooked it perfectly!!!

My wife and I thank Gyu-Kaku for helping to celebrate our Happy Relationship Anniversary and recommend for everyone to visit and dine at this wonderful Japanese...

Honestly if the food wasn't as good as it is always I would have gave a much lower rating. The trainee host up front was extremely rude and condescending (can't remember her name). We had a reservation and due to nyc traffic we were 5 minutes passed the 15 min grace period. She proceeds to ask the actual manager (in front of us) "should we just sit them or have them wait" then turns to us and says bluntly "it'll be 45 min". Mind you plenty of seating clearly available (and reservation slots online available) even after seating those waiting. Proceeded to say is there anyway you can seat us sooner. We were stuck in traffic and we understand we missed our grace period by 5 minutes. She then takes the reservation pad, turns it around, slams it on the table and condescendingly says "you're late" aggressively pointing at the monitor and continuing with explaining why she can't seat us in an obvious and uncalled for frustrated tone. We got a drink and waited but not before being clear at how rude she was for no reason. We finally got seated and as an extra slap in the face seated us (3 men) in the corner by the waiting staff area where they dump used plates and food, on a 2 person table while there were multiple 4 person tables available. We had to ask for an extra seat to put on the side just to fit. Complete disrespect from beginning to end. Aside from that, this locations decor and cleanliness is questionable at best in comparison to the beautiful 3rd Ave location which I always go to. Needless to say I will never return to this location ever again and the managers should really take a strong look at their trainee because she clearly is not fit for the position. The food was delicious and 5 star as expected from gyu kaku. I will say our waiter, KK, was nice and polite The ambiance, manager staff, and treatment was horrible and would not recommend this...