Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ — Restaurant in Oʻahu

Saturday, 7/26/2025 - went to eat lunch at Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ. Address is 4450 Kapolei Pkwy, Ste 510, Kapolei, HI 96707. Located in an area with lots of other stores like TJ Maxx, Ross, Target, Marshall, and other stores. Upon arrival...

Pros

1. lots of parking. Easy for us to find parking.
2. upon entering the restaurant, there were two friendly hostess. We had to wait 5 minutes ish for our table some they were short staff. Which is fine.
3. they seated us and the fire was already going on in the middle of the table.
4. our server, Kalani, was very nice and helpful. He checked on our table several times. I notice he constantly checked on all his tables. Very professional.
5. we did the all-you-can-eat buffet for lunch. It's $27.95 per person. Kids up to 12 is $19.95 (FYI). You cook your own meal. The shrimp and meats were nicely seasoned and flavored. There were 3 sauces we can use to dip our foods. All good sauces. Shrimp tasted fresh. Beef, pork, chicken all good. Weren't chewy. The garlic spinach and the garlic broccoli were delicious. Zucchini were good too. We got a bowl of rice with it. Rice was soft and warm.
6. server made sure our water cups were filled. Water tasted good.
7. at the end of our meal, we get smores. We toasted our marshmallows over the grill.
8. bathroom was clean and smelled good. Two stalls in women's bathroom with 2 sinks.

Cons

1. none. This is a great place.

Conclusion We loved this restaurant. Staffs were very friendly and professional. Tables, chairs, utensils, plates, cups, etc were all clean. They did not try to rush us out. Our server was very patience with us when we were reviewing their many menus and options. Love all the options they had. Again, plenty of parking. Glad no issue with parking. We'd go here again and...

My family had a party of 4, they sat us right away but everything slowly went downhill after that.

Appetizers were ordered, took a while to get to our table, and gyoza was brought at the very end of our meal when we were trying to leave. After getting our appetizers we were asked if that was all we wanted or if we wanted to order meats too. Weird question, but ok. Because we had to wait to put our order in, we had to wait even longer to receive it. Meats were brought to the table, but no rice. By the time our rice was brought, most of the meat was cold. My 6 year old ordered the tonkotsu ramen, after waiting for half an hour I asked multiple times throughout the meal when it would be ready because she was hungry and watching the rest of us eat (she only wanted ramen). Was told “couple minutes”, “5 minutes”, and “pretty soon”. A whole hour passes, we got most of the food excluding ramen. At this point my daughter is crying because she’s starving and tired of us telling her it’s coming. By the time we got the ramen we asked for it in to go containers which I wish I took a picture of considering we waited a whole hour for a small container of plain noodles and broth. No meat, boiled eggs, or any of the toppings it’s supposed to come with. After paying and packing our food, the missing gyoza that I cancelled was brought to the table. We asked to cancel 3 items total since they were not delivered for different reasons.

Overall we were offered some free items that were brought out late even though I asked for it to be cancelled. Nice gesture, but not really appreciated since it doesn’t really compensate for the...

I’m here on a Tuesday and Gyukaku Kapolei is out of gyoza and steamed dumplings On their all you can eat menu. They have three tiers of AYCE $45,$55 & $65. I do want to say this: I am a frequent diner and I’ve never had problems here before. That said, I came in for the $45.00 AYCE, I ordered gyoza and dumplings (really wanted these damn dumplings) but our waitress explained that they ran out. I normally would understand that happens sometimes…but we were not paying Ala Carte…We are paying for ayce. When I asked the manager at the store if we could get the fried wonton on the $55 tier in the place of the steamed/fried gyoza, she proceeded to tell me that she cannot do that as it is not fair for people who pay for the $55 tier AYCE. I told her I don’t see how it’s fair for people on the $45.00 tier who only have 4 options for apps on the menu and 2 of them are out. I could see if I were trying to order a filet mignon but all I was asking for was 1 fried wonton on that menu. She said that the only time they allow a substitute was for take out orders because it’s a “requirement.” She told us we could order them Ala Carte and pay extra. I’m really trying to understand the logic behind this. I’m disappointed that they weren’t able to accommodate us. I could see if we asked for something outrageous but we weren’t! Take this as a warning ⚠️ they don’t give you what you pay for. Honestly How can you do business in this manner? Also I repeat it’s not like we were asking for free things!? I guess times are tough when the price of a wonton is soo much higher then ethics. I guess that’s the service we get when we only pay...