Reviews for Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ in Oakland, CA
TL:DR Lukewarm sake, slow service, food coming out in awkward order, middle of the road flavor. Large family get-together. We... sampled quite a bit of their appetizers, family style BBQ, and drinks. The sake came out barely warm, the average price of anappetizer was $10 but it's usually 4 pieces of small morsels. That $2.50 for a bite sized food. It was all a hit or miss. TheirBBQ was decent, but it's distinctly a Korean BBQ recipe. For that, I'd rather go to a real Korean BBQ house. Their soup was abit too salty, and they clearly didn't understand that it's not a standalone soup, but was mean to be eaten with rice.Management needs to understand what some of these dishes are in context to the origin. Overall, it was an OK experience. Theservice was slow but friendly. There were some decent dishes mixed in, but didn't stand out. It wasn't a fusion of Japanese andKorean cuisine, but just a set of jumbled dishes with no new flavors from these two powerhouse nations. Price certainly didn'tmeet expectation. Read more
Food is nice. The restaurant is clean and service is good. Not too busy on Saturday afternoon. We had meat lover course. The... meat quality is as good as expected and it’s worth to upgrade to Prime Kalbi Short Rib! Overall experience is great but notreally enough in terms of quality for two men. Read more
It was my first experience at a Japanese BBQ spot and it was fun. The menu is large and the value is amazing because it's all... you can eat in a 90 minute time-frame. I went with my best friend and we had a great time. Our server was so sweet and gave usrecommendations on the different meats options and how they differ. Read more
Came here for lunch and had a great time. Our server Marcus regularly came by to check up on us. The food came quickly and the... meat is definitely high quality compared to Korea. BBQ. Great place to get a quality meal in downtown Oakland! Read more
Guy Kaku has always been a staple in my cuisine life. I started going to the San Mateo location a few years back and went so... often that they knew my name and order. I recently discovered the Oakland location is up and running, so I had to check itout! First off, the restaurant is clean...REALLY CLEAN. Our server, Xen, was very nice and patient with me and my girlfriend.We ordered appetizers and chose off the a la carte menu as well. The food is exactly on par with the San Mateo location.Delicious as always! I recommend the Chicken Karage and Yaki Shabu. Constant go-to for me! If you like Korean BBQ, Gyu Kaku isyour place! Read more
My husband and I love Gyu-Kaku and it’s the first time we went to the Oakland restaurant. We had a reservation and were seated... promptly. The portions are a little smaller than the other branches we have been to (San Francisco, San Mateo, Honolulu). Tasteis still good. The toro beef doesn’t look as fresh as the one we usually get. The waiter said the brown color was because themeat had been oxidized - still it didn’t look appealing. The grill was not replaced once during the meal even though it wasburnt - they probably would have if we asked but in the other Guy-Kaku restaurants we went to, the waiters always replaced themwithout us asking. We were not blown away by the customer experience but will probably be back because we like the food. Read more
Food was alright but overall seemed overpriced for what it was. I wanted to like this place since it’s really close by but... probably won’t be back unless they polish their processes a bit. Some complaints. The meats were cut unevenly both thicknessand size. Some dishes from our combo were missing until we asked for them. The sauce bottles were sticky (ew, especially givencovid). Some other minor gripes that don’t necessarily ruin the experience like the light above our table kept flickering,miso was was still chunky at the bottom, karaage was not crispy at all, plates looked a bit dirty, the pen with the check wasdry, but overall together gives an impression that the place is not running smoothly. Food still tasted fine despite everythingelse, I mean it is grilled meat, hard to make that taste bad. However, I would expect more for this price and have gotten betterservice and quality at comparable restaurants. Server was pretty attentive and good overall though, I think most of thecomplaints were outside his control. Read more
We chose the Premium all-you-can-eat on a Wednesday evening. The meats and most side dishes were very good but the salads were... not fresh and the lettuce on the salad was pretty much gone bad. The garlic shio cabbage had a horrible aftertaste and thegarlic was bitter. The service was horrible. Our waiter was very slow and he seem to be avoiding us most of the time. The GM wasuseless as if he wasn’t there. We asked for the bill and 30min later, we still did not get it, we asked for the bills a coupleof times and we ended standing and walking to the counter to ask for it again. And even then they took another 10min, apparentlythere was a mixed up with the bill. I felt like just walking away without paying but We are honest people and we were superpatient waiting for the service and the bill. The service was very slow in everything from bringing the food, ordering the food,getting the attention of the waiter, etc. The sauce bottles were very sticky, they should be cleaning the bottles each time aparty finishes their meal and before the new customers sit on that table. We wish the staff was trained better and can providebetter service. Read more