Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ — Restaurant in West Chicago Township

This was the first time I had Gyu-Kaku on Randolph before. Given the limited space, they are very strict with making sure your whole party is there before being seated. They give you a 15 min grace period if some of your party are there otherwise your reservation will be released. The staff was friendly. The instructions for how to cook the meat were fine for me since I've been to a lot of Korean BBQ places but my older companions got a little lost. For newcomers it would better to slow it down a bit. For our rice dishes, I would have like it better if I could mix them ourselves so I could get the picture of it but we didn't get the option. On to the BBQ! Half of our table got a la cart meat (3.5 oz of meat for each type) and the $70 grill special for two. Every meat, including the chicken, was so flavorful. They had three dipping sauces too which complimented the meat well. The shrimp with mushrooms was out of this world. We also had a foil boat packed with at least three type of mushrooms which were full of flavor as well. My party loved the drinks and the $12 jumbo house sake was really smooth with a hint of sweetness. The grill special also came with smores so it was nice cooking them. I wish the flame was a little higher so we could have gotten a better toasted marshmallow but it was nice. The other two in our party got the chocolate lava cake and the green tea crepe cake. They both came with ice cream. I will tell you, after eating all that meat, it was a true delight to have those desserts. I love that they used a matcha powder (or matcha like powder) on top of the crepe cake and ice cream. The bittersweet combo was delicious. The lava cake was really rich so it's good that it was paired with an ice cream. I really like this place. I think it's worth the value. I want to go back and do family style with the 4 person grill special. I'd give this 4.5...

Gyu-Kaku is a must try. My husband and I noticed it on the way to an expo and it was highly recommended while we were there. Upon leaving the expo we got a whiff of the BBQ and we’re immediately salivating! We were not aware that it was reservation only as we arrived to eat but Karen the hostess was very nice and helpful to get us a table upon a tables early departure. We were sat fairly shortly and Luis greeted us soon after. He was awesome! He walked us through the menu and made a few recommendations based on what we were looking for, gave us time to look over everything and we ordered based on their Happy Hour Value Course. The miso soup and salad were out in no time: bomb! We tried each poultry apart from the pork and everything was super yummy. The Spicy dipping sauce was the star of the show for us. We used it with everything: the rice, chicken, and each beef. Our faves for sure had to be the teriyaki chicken, the hanger steak, and the Garamond skirt beef. Oh and the buttery corn! We ended up cooking up until closing time but everyone was so kind as we finished up. We definitely didn’t want to stay past hours but they ensured us we were fine. Luis was great to talk with as we wrapped things up as well! Overall wonderful experience and we are so excited to chow down...

We’ve been to the original Gyu-Kaku in Tokyo and were very excited to find a franchise so near home. Unfortunately, the local restaurant didn’t live up to expectations.

The BBQ setup and rules are the same (e.g. 90-minute time limit for all-you-can-eat). In Japan, if you reserve a table and don’t show up or show up late, they’ll charge your credit card for the price of the AYCE anyway. Fortunately, they don’t have that rule here.

The quality of the meat here was not that great. The seasoning was good but the cuts were a little coarse. E.g. some of the pieces were the size of burger patties (albeit not as thick) and very difficult to handle with chopsticks. I almost asked for a steak knife but I’m sure that’s not how Asian food is meant to be eaten.

Most of the servers were great but not all of them. Everybody was friendly but we had to ask for water twice and forks twice also. Food was served very promptly, which was good.

We had Gyu-Kaku all-you-can-eat in Tokyo on a weekend for ¥3,000 (~$27). Here, it was $40. It’s one of the rare instances where food in Tokyo is cheaper than in the U.S.

Overall, we had an enjoyable lunch and will come back to this restaurant. It would have been better if we didn’t have the original restaurant to...