Gui BBQ Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Rowland Heights

Prior to COVID-19, I dined at GUI BBQ Restaurant & Bar a couple times with friends and with family.

The service and the food were great during both visits and I would gladly come back again.

LOCATION / PARKING: Located just south of the 60 Freeway in Rowland Heights off Nogales. You can actually see the building from the freeway. If you park on the corner of the building closest to their signage, there is a small elevator you can take up to the second floor. Turn left and you'll see a large door that will automatically slide open if you stand close to it.

INTERIOR / AMBIENCE: Once the large, sliding door opens, you'll enter a black and red space lit with neon lights and a huge statue near the bar. The atmosphere is filled with loud chatter and music, and the setting with the hot grills in the middle of the table is more suitable for groups and evening dining.

MENU: They have quite an extensive menu of different meat and vegetable skewers, soups, noodles, appetizers, drinks, and much more. I enjoyed the items we ordered, especially the Pork Belly Skewers, the Cucumber Salad, and the GUI Street Dan Dan Noodles! I really liked the pork belly skewers a lot and the "dipping powders" (seasonings) went so well with them. The cucumbers were so refreshing with the added cilantro. And the Dan Dan Noodles -- oh my goodness -- were so chewy, bouncy, spicy, and delicious! The best I ever had!

STAFF: During both visits, we had excellent service. For example, our server during the first visit with my friends was impeccable. He literally catered to us and was super knowledgeable. He was extremely attentive and made sure our drinks were refilled and our used plates taken away. The server at my second visit with my family was also great! Before ordering, we informed the server that one of my nieces has food allergies and she gave us suggestions of items that should be okay for her to consume. They made a special (plain) skewer and mild Dan Dan Noodles for her to enjoy and we were happy my niece was able to enjoy the food we were also eating.

BE CAREFUL I would strongly advise not bringing small children to this restaurant because the coals on the grills can get very hot. When transporting the hot coals, the staff does a good job keeping the hot coals contained in wheeled metal carts to prevent any injury or harm. Even as adults, take extra caution because you can feel the heat even when you sit as far back into your seat.

Overall, I am rating this a 4.5 because I thought the food was great here. The least enjoyable for me was the heat emitting from the grill. It was super hot, especially with me wearing contacts. I felt like they were going to melt in my eyes. Lol. It was uncomfortably hot against my skin but, at the same time, appreciated to keep the food hot. Also, the smell of grilled meat will permeate through your clothes. Make sure this is your last stop of the night, haha. Will I come back? Absolutely! It's an...

Edit (01/28/24) Came in right before dinner rush (645/7pm) and was seated pretty fast, which is a complete 180 from before. Upon leaving the restaurant, there was a long line (845/9) so extrapolate how early or late you want to come eat here.

This visit, tried more than just skewers, as they actually have relatively normal stuff, with pricing a little high for how much is on each skewer. The new dishes I tried that you can probably skip would be the pig ears, as they were just slapped with really strange chili oil. This is very unlike what you'll expect when you order this dish from other Chinese restaurants. Next dish you can probably skip would be the cold noodles. Unless you really like a strong vinegar hit, this dish would really "wake" you up on the first sip, some people may like this, so this is mainly up to preference.

The dish I never tried (or believe saw before) is the crawfish dish. The crawfish itself is what you'll expect, just eating the meat in the body. The biggest wow was the sauce it's just sitting in, it was some kind of garlic sauce that honestly, if you want to, should take home and do more seafood broil with it. They provide disposable gloves and a disposable trays for the shells.

The last new dish I tried is the spicy pork knuckles. Fair warning, this dish is actually pretty spicy, but it's also the addicting spicy. The meat really comes off the bone relatively easy, and the pieces are all bit size, so none of that really awkward shuffling on how to angle your mouth when eating the dish.

The food was pretty good and the price is alright. The wait however was atrocious. Got there at 7PM to get a table, was seated at 830PM. The restaurant itself had quite a few tables open. Mind you, these are skewers, so I'm not sure how intensive it is to seat one...

Skewer restaurant located on the second floor. They’re currently open for outdoor dine-in during covid. Located on the second floor of a plaza, there seems to be a good amount of parking and seems quite authentic.

My friend and I came here after a weekday hike at Schabarum and surprisingly, there was still a wait to be seated. There’s only about 7 tables, but it was only ~15 minutes before we were seated. There are bathrooms available for customers all the way in the back, to the right.

Food wise, I was most impressed by the skewers. The staff cooks them for you inside and then brings them out. The rest of the food came out very quickly.

Lamb skewers: get these; lots of flavor and some might find them on the saltier side, but the delicious fat crusted in cumin followed by a swing of some yogurt drink is a great match.

Barbecue squid: Disappointing. The squid was overcooked and rubbery, but I did like the barbecue flavor.

Chicken wings: Standard. They’re a bit on the smaller side and a bit too salty for my taste.

Jelly noodles with chili: the noodles are cut thickly and come cold as a heads up. The sauce had a slight mala spice and isn’t overwhelming.

Potato salad: The texture reminds me of slightly undercooked hashed browns and didn’t really have a flavor.

Bacon and enoki roll: a speciality skewer. I liked the crispness of the bacon (but who doesn’t like bacon tbh) against the squish ones of the mushroom.

Service was a bit lacking, but it’s to be expected. I’m not sure if they allow smoking, but the table next to us kept smoking and blowing the smoke over to our table, which sucked for my throat. They do accept credit card, and if you check in on yelp, you get 15%...