Yakiniku Gen

My bf and I absolutely love this place. The food is great. You grill your own meats, vegetables, seafood. It’s a great place to take a group of friends. The garlic rice goes great with all the grilled foods!

Called in for a reservation on Saturday afternoon (3ish?) for a same day dinner at around 7:30 for four people and was able to set that up quickly. I was really craving Japanese BBQ, but all the Gyu Kaku restaurants were fully booked. This establishment has SO MUCH potential, but service is severely lacking. There are about 1 – 2 waiters for the entire restaurant. They really need more waiters or waitresses to keep up with the pace of the restaurant and to get food out quicker. It was frustrating because the food is delicious, but having to wait such a long time between each dish made the experience not as enjoyable as one would like. Also, if you’re taking a while to get the dishes out, atleast give the table a pitcher of water. I felt annoyed because I was so thirsty and felt like I was annoying the waiter asking for water every 15 minutes! By no means is it the waiters fault, but he really did need more help!
The meat section of the menu was extensive, but on that particular day, HALF the menu was not available. The meat dishes that we did order was delicious. I would recommend the harami, beef tongue (thin slices), kalbi, and the niku mori (4 different types of beef). All were very good, tender, and cooked well on the grill. Out of the bunch, the harami is my favorite! My group also shared the seafood pancake and yukkejang soup with ramen noodles. I was not a fan of the seafood pancake. It was big, but the dried (?) oyster taste was overwhelming and overpowered the entire dish. If you’re into that, you would love this. It was def too «fishy» for me. The sauce for the pancake was very oily, so I opted to using the sauces given to us for the meats which IMO tasted a lot better. The yukkejang was delicious! I could see myself having that for lunch :) With the added ramen for $ 2 extra, it was well worth it! The ramen is fresh; not from a bag/​instant!

Love this spot. Actually I pretty much love the restaurants on this block…
Great quality meat and good prices (what more can you ask for a yakiniku — translation cooked meat — restaurant). Decent selection of sake unless you’re a connoisseur in which case you may be slightly disappointed but can’t hold that against them.
You cook your own meat (unlike most Korean bbq places) so you’ll need to know how long to cook each type of meat; else, you’ll be eating over/​under cooked meat all meal. With the that said the servers will instruct on timing of cooking if you ask.
I contemplated giving them 4 stars as opposed to 5 because the non-​yakiniku menu items could improve to provide some relief from the meat parade but that’s like criticizing a steakhouses’ chicken dish… I won’t be that guy.

I came here because Hide-​Chan closed early next door (new year’s eve) and we tried their Koh Ramen. The soup was good but a little on the saltier side. I like that they gave a lot of scallions but there was only one slice of cha siu. The ramen portion was good but the toppings were not as generous as other ramen places.

Their happy hour deal is best on town .lots of types of food Yakiniku Gen has. lucky to have u in Nyc

I love that Yakiniku Gen’s happy hours are something like 7−11pm on Mondays and Tuesdays. They have a variety of appetizers and bbq meats on the happy hour menu in addition to drinks. My personal favorite is plum wine on the rocks– $ 3.50 during happy hour!
The Koh Ramen is surprisingly good, which is very important to keep in mind if you’re waiting for more than half hour for either Totto Ramen or Hide-​Chan next door. It’s no Ippudo (which is still the best in my book), but I would actually prefer it to Hide-Chan’s ramen, which I consider too salty.
Yakiniku Gen is, however, a BBQ place, so we had to give the BBQ a shot as well. We ordered off the happy hour menu and got 3 beef dishes (the skirt and the flap). Couldn’t tell the difference between the two, but both were good! Very tender. I highly recommend the marinated option (the other option being salt/​pepper rub). They give you 3 sauces to dip your meat. It’s similar to Gyukaku down the street, but more intimate.
They have a separate dessert menu. We had the Taiyaki with green tea ice cream, which is basically a waffle fish stuffed with red bean paste over green tea ice cream.
The service is great, and even though we definitely overstayed our welcome by almost an hour, they didn’t try to kick us out (there were empty tables and it was 9:45PM), and even refilled our complimentary hot green tea.
Definitely keep Yakiniku Gen in mind as you wait with all the other unfortunate souls for a seat in the over popular Ramen places along the block.

Went there over the summer. Place was small. Service was good. Ordered all of their mori and ordered too much.

I want to base my rating on just the taste and give this place 5 stars (because IMO I thought it was perfect) but I’m going to give it a 4 based on the overall experience — — which was really good!
Now, I don’t give 5 stars often, but, if this place improves on its interaction with its customers then I would give it 5. They turned our grill on too high. Within seconds of placing the meats on the grill there would be so much smoke. There isn’t a lot of ventilation so we’re just stuck sitting around the aroma of smoke. The staff would walk back and forth a few times until finally helping us lower the heat. I don’t work there so I don’t know how to turn the grill on and off. You should explain this to your customers once they’re seated and ordering.
Now onto the food!
I suggest going during happy hours. It’s considerably cheaper and still has great options. We had the beef shoulder and some other cuts I don’t remember. However, i do remember how tender the meats were. Slightly sweetened and barely a touch of salt so that you can truly enjoy the taste and freshness of their beef. They really do put quality into it. However, i still don’t understand why it takes them a long time to bring the meat to table considering they’re not cooking it in the kitchen! Anyway, I noticed the salt they put on the side for flavoring is also unique. It doesn’t have that bold salty impression. It’s more savory and smooth than your average salt. Even their salt is good! All I needed was a few seconds of grilling my beef and lightly dipping it into that salt they offered.
The Koh Ramen was good flavor wise. The texture of the noodle however did not seem to impress me. It made the dish average. Go around the corner or even right next door for ramen soups guys. Don’t order there!
I do recommend trying their Cow Stomach coming from the 4^th stomach. Yes, they’re specific which stomach they pick from.
Anyway, try Japanese BBQ here. It’s pretty good. even if it’s not the best you’ve had, it’s still a good place and somewhat decently price for being in Midtown.

The liver sashimi is fresh and juicy… But personally I cannot stand the bloody smell. I also ordered their beef assorted and other assorted. The beef dishes are generally good but I am not able to tell the difference. The pot belly is way tooooo hard to chew on

A bit warm in here, especially with multiple bbqs going on at once but the food was excellent.
They have a omikase here but if you prefer more meat and less pickled stuff, stick to a la carte orders.
— Beef buns were pretty solid
— Beef tongue is really good but wish one order had a little more.
— Kobe short rib was tender and packed with flavor
— We also ordered the 3 kinds of meat that had a bit of everything. From Kobe short rib, chuck tips to other slices of beef I wish I could remember.
— Also ordered the bimbimbap that was quite good
All in all, food was great and the prices weren’t that bad. Reminds me of Yakiniku West.
Would definitely come back, but probably when the weather is cooler.

This was a fun place to go for a lunch. It’s a Korean? BBQ spot where you order the meat you would like and grill it on the fire yourself! It was a fun time, cheap, and yummy!
PROS: Cheap, good food, decent portion sizes, all you can eat rice, fun
CONS: smells funny on entry, tiny place may not be good for groups doing busy hours
There were six of us, we all ordered the three meat option, where you select three cuts of meat, they bring it out to you with some veggies to be grilled by you right at the table. I can’t remember the cuts I selected specifically, but they were all delicious! You can season the meat how you want, there are some marinades and salt and pepper. This three meat option also came with miso soup which was as expected. I HIGHLY recommend the spicy meat marinade. It was hands down my favorite of all of the options. We ordered this separately because it sounded so good.
We also sampled all of the ice creams for dessert. There was a red sesame ice cream that was BOMB! I’d go back here in a hear beat. I think it would make for a cool date night. However, I can easily see this place being too tiny for a large crown if it ever gets really busy, say during dinner when they have meat happy hour.
The service was fantastic, the waiters are more than generous. Tip was included and when we tipped him a little extra, the waiter ran after us telling us it was too much money! It was a very enjoyable, different lunch experience. Will return.

You get what you pay for. The quality of the meat was fatty and the spices did not make up for that. The food was good. but just that. It was merely ok…
The restaurant also did not seem very clean which was a bit concerning. It was cheap enough so I wasn’t expecting too much… but I feel like it was just basically a gyukaku copycat. I would rather go to gyukaku for their happy hour instead and pay a bit more. Worth a visit if you are on a budget

I love this place! Sure it has a lot of guts on the menu (the favorite of Japanese salary men) but my favorite thing is the pork cheek. I always order 2 plates of that. They also have happy hour so it’s great to go after work when the subway is broken and you’d rather eat than stand underground in an angry mob for an hour.
That said when they get busy, their staff becomes a bit overwhelmed and the service quality may vary. Overall though, I love the food, prices are great and it’s definitely a great place to go for dinner that’s close to work.

We didn’t know about their happy hour but we enjoyed it.
All meat was very fresh and loved the raw liver!

We liked this Japanese barbecue restaurant with a hint of Korean thrown in for good measure so much that we’ve returned three times for dinner in the past month, most recently with two friends.
Although we live two blocks away, we only discovered this Midtown East gem after my wife had lunch with a group of co-​workers from her company earlier this year. She liked it so much that she took me to Yakiniku Gen for my birthday, and I thoroughly enjoyed the entire dining experience.
Realizing that I was a newbie and required some help navigating the fairly exotic selection of Japanese and Korean dishes, server Vanessa immediately recommended their «Tasting Menu for Two» — reasonably priced at $ 65 — to get the lay of their culinary land.
What followed was a six-​course tour of some of Yakiniku Gen’s greatest hits, which Vanessa brought to our table and complemented with expert explanations of each.
We started with a large and exceptionally tasty «house salad» skillfully prepared with fresh greens, tomatoes, onion, croutons and with a rich, creamy «secret dressing» reminiscent of ranch dressing. While we were enjoying the opening round, Vanessa placed a very nice assortment of very good kimchi on our table.
While she fired-​up the cooking grill built into the center of our table, Vanessa next brought out two small buns filled with a delicious mixture of oxtail and assorted vegetables and spices. As we finished our oxtail buns, Vanessa placed a tray of four different groupings a raw beef, sliced into small bite-​sized pieces. She explained the different cuts, and suggested we grill each cut separately so we could enjoy the different taste characteristics of each. At the same time she gave each of us a three-​compartment dish featuring three different dipping sauces to use with our grilled meat.
Our «main course» was subsequently followed by two excellent rice dishes — Bibimbap and Soboro Don… I especially liked the Bibimbap. As we rounded the turn and headed for the clubhouse, Vanessa brought out two delicious cups of soup, before asking what flavor of ice cream we wanted for dessert — green tea, red bean or ginger. The ice cream was clearly high-​quality and premium, and was a very welcomed finish to this excellent dinner.
We wish to thank Vanessa for making our first visit to Yakiniku Gen a rousing success, and highly recommend this little Midtown East gem of a restaurant!
If you happen to live in Manhattan and don’t have a backyard grill, this is the closest you can come to genuine backyard barbecue… with a Japanese twist. With a friendly, knowledgable staff, excellent service, reasonable prices and great food, how can you go wrong? You can’t.

Went for a team lunch, food was alright.
My team members had some Barbecue, I ordered the Bimbimbap. The Bimbimbap was too sweet for my taste, I didn’t really want to finish it. So I brought half of it home, and had to add some of my red paste that I bought from K’town so that the left overs could be downed better.
I think my other team members enjoyed their food (?) I wasn’t quite sure, I didn’t hear any complaints, but at the same time, there weren’t any complements either. I do think someone mentioned the portion size wasn’t too bad.
I also remember I wasn’t too happy with the waiting staff. They didn’t really acknowledge us when we came in. We stood in the entry way for quite awhile before anyone took any notice. We had to ask for soup for like 10 times before we actually got it in the middle of the meal.
I don’t really think I will be back… But I guess if you are trying to go to Totto next door and they have a huge line… This place isn’t that bad of an option.

Went last night for the first (and probably last time) during happy hour: 5 – 7 pm on Sundays (don’t remember if it’s the weekend in general).
Beers were $ 2.50. Got Sapporo drafts and that was tasty.
Got the two person set meal which left us full, full, FULL.
Started off with the Sapporo drafts, three different types of kimchi that tasted more sweet than spicy, and a mountain of cabbage covered in dressing that looked as unappetizing as it tasted. Following that, one pork bun slathered in some kind of dressing/​mayonnaise. Had to cut that in half with the person I was eating with. Meat then followed.
Meat is TINY, TINY, TINY compared to the price (and yes, I’ve had yakiniku in Japan). We even ordered an extra dish of meat (tongue) and that was ridiculously small as well. Also got bibimbap which was filling, and miso soup.
One scoop of green tea ice cream included. tasted awful, like the stuff you get in an Asian supermarket. tasted like gum. Difficult to explain, but just GROSS.

Came here on a Friday night after work with a few friends.
We were a party of 8 and were able to get there early enough to get the «private area», which wasn’t all that private but it was still nice. The private area had two tables, each with a grill, and can seat about 5 people per.
Some of the notable things on the happy hour menu (ends at 8):
$ 2.5 Sapporo Drafts
Nakaochi — Kobe Beef Rib Finger Meat
Super Thick Tan — Tongue
Tsurami — Cheek
Off the happy hour menu (don’t be boring… don’t be afraid to try it):
Hatsu Sashimi — Heart Sashimi
Liver Sashimi
Yukke — Thinly Sliced Chuck Rib Eye Tartar
Overall in terms of the price and quality, this place definitely deserves a solid 4.

Service was EH:
— How do you not serve water when you first seat customers? And how many times do I have to ask for water for them to bring them?
— Also, I asked where the restrooms were, and the girl told me to go straight down… but like… if I took a step forward, I would’ve walked into the wall. Dafuq.
— And then when they brought the bill, we took our time to finish our drinks, and at least two people kept on taking it back thinking we already paid. Where’s the fire?
The garlic chahan (?) was EH:
— It was basically VERY BLAND «flied lice» that seriously needed seasoning. And the soup that came with it was EH, as well. Ridic salty.
The menu had some Korean dishes mixed in with Japanese. We ordered a Korean dish called Ssam Gyup Sal (delicious, btw!) and our waitress had a really difficult time pronouncing it. That was probably the highlight of the dinner. Truly comical.
The pork belly and meat were fresh and tasty though. And the drinks were strong and yummy.

My coworkers and I came here for a quick lunch since the other ramen shops were packed. The front had a small bar but as you walk towards the back, there were a lot of tables and seats. In the far end of the restaurant, they have the Japanese style seatings which you have to take off your shoes.
My two coworkers ordered the lunch bowls while I had the ramen. The lunch bowls looked small but they claim it was filling. My ramen was just ok, nothing special; it’ll suffice for a cold day. I suggest ordering from their BBQ lunch menu for something more satisfying. I’ll definitely be doing that the next time I’m there.
One thing, the staff here are a bit slow. Even though there weren’t many patrons, it was really difficult to get their attention for anything.