Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ

Love this place. All day happy hr at the bar. Ordered bar food which was — wings, poke, edamame, and garlic fries. A mug of beer is only $ 1.99.
Friendly staff and bartenders.

I really enjoy this place! I like the whole idea of cooking your own food. It’s probably not the best idea to go to this place when it’s 114 degrees outside, since you’re sitting in front of a grill the whole time, but that’s exactly what we did. Monday’s are all day happy hour so that’s a great reason to visit this place. They have really good deals for lunch as well. I got the beef lovers combo and it was $ 10.95 and came with rice, salad, miso soup, and some pork dumplings plus your four different types of beef meat! It was a lot of food for one person so needless to say I had to share with my sister and fiancé. All the meat is very good and very well seasoned. We asked our server about his opinion on a certain dish and he was very honest and I really appreciated that! Our server checked up on us often and even refilled our drinks without us having to ask. Our meat came out very fast as well. I really love this place and I feel like I can have a great conversation with the people I’m with and have fun cooking! Parking is difficult to find as most of it is 15 minute parking or if you want you can have valet parking for $ 5.

Came for a after work drinks and a awesome meal by an excellent cook oh wait we cook it ourselves. (Yup!)

I am an EXTREME regular at the bar here. I am probably here 3 times out of the week. I go because of the 2 dollar sapporo beer and the amazing deals on their food. It has a great environment and I enjoy watching the games. If you are looking for a local spot to hang out with a couple of friends and have a great time I definitely recommend this spot.
I always run into local friends and I’ve seen several celebritjes walk in. The food at the tables is also great you get to cook your own meet and everything looks and tastes expensive but it’s actually pretty affordable. Don’t ever say I didn’t tell you guys lol

Okay, of all places. Saying I’m overdue for reviewing this Gyu Kaku is a huge understatement. Especially this location!
I’ve been going to this Gyu Kaku for years. Even more so when I turned that legal age so many of us get excited for. Been here for birthday celebrations, graduation celebrations, reunions, a first date, girls night, and those «I need a drink» kind of nights everyone knows all too well. This specific Gyu Kaku has provided enough memories to last a year– good & bad. It never failed to be a staple place for my friends and I.
Their menu has changed over the course of time. Happy Hour prices went up a tad and some old favorites are no longer but why talk about the past when its more important to talk about how it is in the present?
FOOD: Like all their locations, Gyu Kaku has quite a few fan favorites and one of mine are still their Spicy Tuna Volcano appetizers. Those suckers always have to be ordered at least once for the table. Other favorites: their tacos, beef sukiyaki & garlic chicken noodles (for those with a bigger appetite), and of course, the chicken karage (which is now just their fried garlic chicken?). They also have a grill for those craving to cook their own stuff. If you’re craving for some Asian Americanized food and just don’t need to think too hard of where to go on a Friday evening, Gyu Kaku is your place.
DRINKS: The cause behind all the extremely good & ridiculously bad moments I’ve had here. Let me say this, Gyu Kaku was my very first ever happy hour and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’d be my last one ever either. My best friend and worst enemy were sake bombs. Then for those sweet nights, Geisha girls were my runner up drinks. I have also indeed done bottomless mimosas here and goodness. Just as good and dangerous as everywhere else. It was never not a fun time but just handle and mind all your chaos if you’re going in there with a bang.
Service was never horrible, never sloppy, sometimes forgetful.
Majority of their servers were cool. Some brought attitude but there were way more better server experiences that outshined any of the not so good ones.
I’m still a bit retired from this location but I will always drive by this place knowing some of the more memorable times were from here.
Keep the merriment going, Sherman Oaks Gyu!

Very Americanized.
Great service. I suggest the garlic noodles and bacon wrapped scallops. Loved the short ribs! The beef tongue however was mediocre.

I love this location the best! Their menu absolutely caters to the foodie lovers as it apparently showed– the dining room was packed! Birthday celebrations abound
as I counted three parties during my dining experience.
Coming from Hawaii I enjoyed the spicy ahi poke along with the garlic shrimp, beef tongue and short ribs. I also ordered the bacon wrapped asparagus and broccoli. My son longed for fruit punch and while we waited to be seated, the bartender prepared a nice concoction with calpico, cranberry and pineapple juice that my son absolutely adored…
We’re here to visit Universal Studios and I’m sure when we visit again, I will definitely return to this location

Came here for happy hour on Sunday and it was awesome. Easy parking since it’s part of a strip mall. Their happy hour offerings are very attractive and we tried numerous of them. Our favorites were the lobster balls, the duck and the peppered chicken (man that duck was awesome)! My wife had a beer and once we finished we walked away pleasantly satiated with a meal that cost $ 25 for two… can you ask for anything better than that? We will definitely return here in the near future, only wish happy hour extended past 630PM hah!

Love this place! It’s not unique, and it’s not perfect, but at the price level it is a total win.
The best way to eat here is to order a bunch of random stuff, and share it all amongst your group.
Make sure to get vegetables — the spinach especially was great.

Love this place. My daughter loves to cook the meat and veggies at the table. The s’mores are fun too. Prices are reasonable and food is delicious. Yummmmmy!!!

I’ve been coming here A LOT the past 2 years and why not do a review! I LOVE LOVE this place! Come here for business often! It’s a go to for me. The servers (so great!!) and food are awesome and they always have deals which I love since I’m a gold member (I go to this place maybe too much haha!!). But they always have good specials and you get a lot for your money! Was waiting to do a review so I could do a nice good one! But decided today was the day!
And sadly, and I hate to say it, I’m actually docking 2 stars for their valet. I totally get having a valet and I usually totally support that! I’ve been used to them for the past 2 years and they have always been friendly… till today. Sigh… I don’t like saying negative things but here we go!!!
My fiancé and I come A LOT and sometimes park near by before they open. And what I mean by early is like 11:10 (20 minutes before they open) so we get a space. It’s tough parking in this area at times and earlier the better! We don’t mind. You can totally park across the street, which we have done several times. But today at 11:10 a car Rudely pulled in front of us blocking us from parking near by the empty lot and I figured it was your typical jack ass LA idiot almost causing an accident because they’re stupid and thus, pulled into near by space…
No kidding within moments a door is flinged open from the car and behold! The valet comes storming over to us cars (there were at least 3 – 4 other cars near by and I cringe thinking of their dealing with her!) and we were all yelled at to leave. I was quite shocked not having her do this before let alone speak to me before like this and it was a little scary. So I parked else where near by. I could totally leave it at that and understand she’s just very passionate about her job. But being glared at and tracked the whole time I was parked near by and the fact that she went to VERY SINGLE BUSINESS there and made them put out parking signs or talked about who was parked in what spaces honestly pissed me off. Like seriously?
Sounds stupid but I was scared she was going to confront me about where I was parked when I exited my car and I honestly thought about driving back home. She kept looking at me and my car like I was a dirty thing and wanted me towed even though I was totally parked rightly in the lot. She should have been closer to her business then where she was going to every single other business. But you know what? Who cares?! What the heck, been coming here for so long and I’m not going to let an EXTREMELY passionate valet chase me away. I laughed when I saw her sitting by the valet putting on MAKE UP for an HOUR while we were there… Hey priorities! :)
Besides the valet I recommend this place because they have AWESOME food and service. LOVE the servers! GREAT happy hour! Parking across the street if you have trouble. Don’t let valet chase you away!

Expect over an hour long wait for happy hour on a Friday night (that’s the only thing that docks a star for me).
Everything else was great. Our server was Kevin & he is what all servers should be like. Attentive & made sure we were taken care of. He checked in on us to make sure to catch our refills & to change our grill. Great energy & humor as well. A+ for service
The prices for happy hour are also really good. On Fridays & Saturdays, they are from 10-​close.
We ordered:
9+ plates of meat (I really enjoyed the filet mignon)
A bowl of bibimpap (spicy kalbi is hella good!)
Garlic fried chicken
Chicken wings
Volcano roll
A tall bottle of lychee sake
ALLLLLL for a little less than $ 100.
For how much we ordered, happy hour is worth it. The bottle of sake was only 24 & for 4 of us, it went at least 4 – 5 rounds.

Went here at dinner time, wait time around 20min since its jam packed. Had the pleasure to try their shio ramen and sukiyaki beef bibimbap.
The ramen is one of the best I’ve tasted here in LA so far along with its very cheap price. Simple and delicious.
Sukiyaki bibimbap was average, not the best but just okay.
Verdict: I would definitely come back for more ramen and other items in their menu!

Get there early and make a reservation. We went to the bar first and grabbed a couple beers. As the restaurant was filling up we went to the host and said we were ready to go to the table and she took us right there, GREAT SERVICE!
The food looks as good as it tastes, It comes out to you looking like sushi and You cook a certain type at a time, then move on to the next type of meat.
This place is Fantastic for a date! or ever a friends night out. Highly Recommend !
They have these special deals, Go with one of those, a lot cheaper and more food. (see picture for menu of special)
Hours you looking at:
Plan to arrive at least 15 minutes before they open and there will be no wait, most of the time…
Lunch
Everyday: 11:30AM-5PM
Dinner
Mon-​Thu: 5PM-10:30PM
Fri & Sat: 5PM-11:30PM
Sun: 5PM-10:30PM
TIP — Valet you car for $ 5, fast service and no parking spot hunting…
Enjoy!

As you enter, the hostess greets you. She must be having a bad day or hates her job, because she does not smile. This doesn’t affect my judgement though.
The service however is extremely superb. The server have great communication when taking orders and presenting the cook time for each item for ideal perfection to their standards, which is very informative. We ordered so much food starting with garlic spinach (A+), tofu nuggets (B), garlic noodle with chicken (A-​), fried bacon chips (D), sukiyaki bibimbap (B-​) too sweet, harami miso skirt steak (A+) a MUST, prime kalbi short rib (A+), basil chicken (B), duck breast, mushroom medley, and portabello mushrooms.
One of the best features of this restaurant is that their ventilation system is right below the grill, which is absolutely genius. It’s unlike a lot of KBBQ places where you leave smelling like burnt meat all day.
Overall, I highly recommend eating here. Just be sure to pad that wallet, you can easily spend over $ 40 per person. I didn’t order a drink and it was happy hour and my bill was $ 40 split among 3 people.

It’s singles central here on weekends (and probably weeknights). The beer is stupid-​cheap, so I suppose it makes sense. But rest assured, if you’re a single who is looking to mingle this place is hoppin’ with other people like you.
My husband and I came here for dineLA and didn’t fall in love. For the same price we found ourselves wishing we had gone to our favorite sushi place instead. But… we’ve seen the line out of the door and around the block for a couple years and finally decided it was time to meet this mysterious eatery.
First, just know this is *not* a traditional Japanese BBQ place. Go to elsewhere for that. This is the Panda Express of japanese BBQ. It’s Americanized and overly sweet/​salty/​sauced. The food quality itself was only okay. The flank steak was actually really delicious (and dripping with sauce). My husband got the NY strip steak and it was almost inedible because of how fatty the cut was. The sweet onion and zucchini were good too, but it’s hard to mess up veggies. It was very 50 – 50 in terms of what was good and what wasn’t.
The service was sufficient but everything about the ambiance made me feel like it hasn’t been retouched since the 80’s. The bar is real sticky and the chairs are chipped and janky at the dining tables. For $ 35+/person, I guess I expected more. The service was choppy for us, sometimes being on point and other times not efficient. Our waiter smiled and was friendly. We felt a little rushed to get done with dinner though.
Even with the beer being so cheap I wouldn’t go back because it’s really loud and the obnoxious singles were a bit much for my liking.
Parking: Meters on surrounding streets. No lot. They also have valet.

This place is ok they never have parking and the valet outside want to park your car which is very weird since we are in Sherman Oaks and it is huge parking lot
When you get inside its long waiting even though they have empty tables .
The bar is really nice and the bartender is very friendly I guess this is the good thing about this place but the service is awful unfortunately.
The concept of this place is very special I wish they will have a better service.

Still one of my favorite happy hour spots close to home. Their discounted prices have slightly increased, but it’s still a lot less for a draft beer than anywhere else that I’ve been too. Their food is always great and I always make sure to come during their different annual festivals to try out new items that are featured during that time (and hopefully kept on after) and to try my chance at winning a trip to Japan, haha.
I’ll admit, more than I’d like to, that I’m at least here a few time a week and have had great connections with the staff. Probably because they might see me more than their coworkers. Charity kicks butt at the bar! She’ll take care of you and everybody else in a timely manner, even during those crazy, busy nights. So many friendly and able servers (Francis, Achara, Evan, Richie, etc.) who rock the dining area. Definitely my favorite Gyu chain from the locations that I’ve visited!

We’ve been to several Gyu-​Kaku restaurants throughout LA, food is always solid and it never seems to disappoint. We were actually planning on going to Benihana for dinner tonight, but they were booked solid, so we ended up here instead which was the best decision.
Obviously, this place is popular. It was bustling and pack when we arrived. Luckily, we made reservations and got seated immediately. Strip mall location with many businesses present make parking a challenge, suggest you valet park ($ 5) or streets.
I love the décor and dim lighting here. It set the mood for a fun evening of grilling. If you haven’t had this type of bbq before, you should know each table has their own grill in the center of the table and you cook your meat and veggies there. You set the tone at your own pace and doneness. If you’re not sure, ask the staff for assistance and cooking time, who are more than happy to help.
I prefer Gyu-​Kaku to most Korean kbbq joints because you have larger variety of selections, including non bbq dishes like noodles, ramen soups, salads and ample rice pot dishes. Prices are reasonable and portions just right.
We got started on some appetizers — calamari, spicy cucumber salad, fried cheese wontons, spicy kalbi soup and garlic noodles. Everything was terrific! Both the spicy kalbi soup and garlic noodles were amazing and tasty. The flavor profile of the kalbi soup were bold and kickin! Potent enough to clear my sinuses too. Even the spicy cucumber salad was good.
Instead of ordering the preset course meals, we went with the al carte on bbq items and ordered the following —
Pork belly
Spic pork
Bistro hanger steak
Toro beef
Prime Kalbi
Chicken marinated in pesto
Gyu-​Tan Tongues
Spinach
Broccoli
Assorted mushrooms
All the meats were tender and melt in your mouth fantastic. Enjoyed the toro and kalbi immensely. Cooking time was quick. The vegetables were wrapped inside aluminum foils allowing them to steam inside and cook evenly. The spinach was infused with butter and garlic, yummy. Flare ups were minimal and grills hardly required any changing.
One more thing, make sure to save room for dessert. The macaron ice cream sandwiches here are terrific. We shared the mango and green tea macaron ice cream sandwiches. Though small and pricey, it was heaven.
All in all — Everything was delicious and a fun experience. The staff was helpful and service prompt. I recommend this place especially for a fun date night or a night out with friends, especially during happy hour!

Love coming to eat here! I’ve only been to the Pasadena location until I found out that this was located here in Sherman Oaks. I came around 12 and got seated immediately. Our service was super chill and was on top of everything. Ordered some Garlic fried chicken and Siracha Wong Tongs, and they were at our table faster than we could take a few sips from our beer. All of other other meats came to our table within 10 minutes of our arrival. We also had the coupons for free meal items which included the Kalbi Short rib, and the Skirt steak. A value of $ 20 for free!
The only thing I didn’t like was the parking. There are several business located in a plaza and must share the parking with all of those businesses. Also, they don’t have the Mega Mug at this location. A 32oz Beer of Sapporo for only 4.50. Other than that, everything was amazing