Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ — Restaurant in Santa Clarita

One of the worst dining experiences I’ve had in recent memory. The grill was malfunctioning, the waiter was combative, the pre cooked food was cold or watery, and the flavors were off.

Our waiter put 3 foil packets on the grill to start and told us to keep them on the grill for a few minutes, then began filling our table with starters. When the chicken karaage hit the table, because the waiter was literally tossing things on, the color was oddly dark and there was a distinct lack of crunch. We all joked that it was probably microwaved and dismissed it as a fluke.

As we waited for the foil wrapped veggies to cook, we moved them to the side of the grill to make room for some meat, but after 15 minutes nothing was cooking at all. We hovered our hands over the grill and there was a lukewarm radiance that could be felt if your hand was 1cm from the grate. We flagged down a server and asked about the issue and he admitted that the table we were sitting at often malfunctioned and that he’d grab our waiter. A different server came to apologize for the issue and she also said that the grills can sometimes be finicky. We asked her if it was possible for us to switch tables since it was clear this one wasn’t working, she said she would get our waiter.

Our waiter arrived and we told him what was going on and he said that we were suffocating the flame because we had too many things on the grill. My friend asked him what he meant by too many since we only had a few, now very poorly cooked, slices of meat and the foil packets that he had put on our grill. She proceeded to point out that it was he who put the foil packets on and told us to leave them there. His voice started to raise as he took the ventilation ring off and began to argue that the packets needed to be taken off and opened. When we opened them they were clearly undercooked even after being on the grill for at least 20 minutes. Our waiter then loudly said that we need to put fatty meats on the grill to stoke the flame as if we were the ones who caused the problem in the first place.

After our waiter left my friend politely asked the hostess if we could speak to the manager because the situation was unacceptable. When the hostess came back she told us the manager was unavailable and that everyone was really stressed out, as if this would excuse the waiter’s bad attitude?

Without the ventilation ring, the grill started functioning more normally and we proceeded to eat the rest of our food. Our waiter came by here and there to check on us and gave us 2 comped plates of meat and a free drink. Unfortunately our experience was completely soured because he was yelling and blaming us for his mishap only moments earlier.

We paid the bill and still left a 15% tip because “everyone was really stressed out”. It all came out to over $200 for 4 people. I would have rather gone to McDonald’s if I had known all this was going to happen. I would have happily thrown everything up to get...

This review will focus on the take-out aspect of this restaurant. I uneventfully placed my order for me and my wife from my phone—no big deal. I received texts and emails confirming my take-out order and the pickup time. I planned accordingly. When I arrived, I received another text message informing me that my order was ready for pick up a few minutes earlier than the original forecast. I went in the front door and let them know I was there to pick up my order, and they said that it was still being prepared and that I should wait outside. 15 minutes later, I went in and asked if my order was ready as it was later than projected, and my messages said it was ready much earlier. They asked me again to wait outside and said they would check. The girl returned and said another door-dasher must have picked up my order. I informed her that I was not a door dasher and only wanted to pick up the order I had placed from their website. She was apologetic and sent the manager out to apologize as well. 20 minutes later, the manager brought a bag of food to my car, apologized again, and told me that I would receive 50% off my order from DoorDash. This is really poor quality control of their restaurant and delivery/take-out services, but to compound the miserable experience, the food was utterly lackluster, devoid of nutrition and flavor. My wife and I ordered 2 item combinations. I ordered the pork and beef, and she ordered the same in a different upsell variation. Speaking for my combination, it was completely horrible. Dried pork and beef slices, tough, chewy, overcooked, and tasteless, on top of white rice with a few specs of red/green pepper. You couldn't destroy the flavor of meat any more than Gyu-Kaku. There were zero vegetables besides those couple specs of pepper. Complete garbage, which is where my dinner ended up. I will never eat at Gyu-Kaku again, and neither...

I waited several minutes to be even be greeted and then seated on a Wednesday afternoon at 2pm. They were not busy at all, nearly empty. The server was a lovely, polite young woman, but to be honest, the service was not great... just barely passing. All of this can be easily overlooked if the place has great food. I frequent a few places with horrible service because I know the food is great as are the prices, and I'm going to leave happy. Unfortunately, that was not the case here. The prices were great, however, THE FOOD WAS AWFUL. I went for happy hour - a cocktail and small plates. I ordered the Shio Cabbage, Garlic Edamame, Gyu-Sushi, and Fried Pork Gyoza. They Gyoza was not HORRIBLE, although the sauce was terrible - as was everything else. HORRIBLE. The garlic edame was inedible. I don't knownwhat they put on it, but it wasn't garlic. It was awful and tasted heavily of aome aort of chemical. The Lychee flavor Soju cocktail I ordered tasted like lighter fluid with a Lychee nut floating in it. I wanted to just pay the bill and leave, but I had a coupon for $10 off $30, so I had to order something else or I'd have ended up spending more. I chose the Chicken Karaage. I figured, how can you mess up fried chicken... well... they did. Overcooked breading, odd, gamey tasting chicken that was so chewy & rubbery that I couldn't bite a piece off and had to put the whole thing in my mouth. They weren't HUGE pieces so it was manageable, but based on yhe experience of the other four dishes, i was hesitant to commit to a full piece in my mouth before testing the waters. The dipping sauce was okay... pretty sure it waa just store bought Yum-Yum sauce (thank God). I couldn't finish that either. Horrible experience. I won't go back. 2/10 would...