Gyu-Kaku

{Forgive me, but I'm gonna try to be philosophical for a moment. I may even go meta on you, although I don't really know what that is. It just sounds intellectual.}

Gyu-Kaku (a Japanese BBQ chain restaurant) seems to challenge the conventional wisdom regarding the purpose of eating out at restaurants. I was always under the assumption that we eat out to experience new foods, new flavors, new settings, etc. It's a chance to get away from the often mundane foods we have at home. And most importantly, it's a chance to avoid having to cook for ourselves. It's this last part that Gyu-Kaku seems to be at odds with most, and it's ultimately the restaurant's fatal flaw.

A quick blurb about the decor, etc.: The atmosphere was strange, to say the least. The restaurant was trying to create a pseudo-Japanese/industrial vibe, but it was a little clunky.

Anyways, onto the food, and the restaurant's fatal flaw: you cook the meal yourself. There is a little fire pit/grill in the center of every table, and you do the cooking. Everything we ordered needed to be cooked at our table (there are a few "pre-made" dishes). I ordered the green onion pancakes as an appetizer, and they were rather tasty. They reminded me of latkes, but with a stronger onion vibe to it. As a table, we ordered the Shrimp Garlic, Salmon Miso, Harami miso, and the Nakaochi Kalbi (miso). The shrimp was pretty good, and the salmon (which was steamed) was tasty as well-- we did a good job cooking these dishes (seafood is easy to cook). As for the beef, I couldn't taste the difference between the two dishes. None of us wanted our meet raw, so we tried our best to cook it pretty well. The sad thing is that we kinda sorta burned many of the pieces, or at least charred them, essentially nuking whatever flavors may have existed. Beef is much harder to cook, and our failure put a damper on the meal.

And that's the problem with Gyu-Kaku. The quality of the meal depended on us, moreso than it normally would at any other restaurant (even if you were to "build" your own meal, like at bld). Even worse was the fact that cooking isn't necessarily a great task to do when you're trying to have a conversation with people. Our table was silent at times as we concentrated on the food (constantly flipping and checking if everything was done). While it was certainly a unique experience, it wasn't necessarily a good one.

We also ordered dessert... s'mores! This was by far the best part of the meal, even if the graham (sp?) crackers were a little stale. It was the first time I made s'mores on an open fire. It was lots of fun.

If you go to Gyu-Kaku and you want good Japanese BBQ, you better be good at cooking beef, because it all rests on your talent. If you go for the above average seafood, and great s'mores, then you'll probably enjoy yourself a little more. C+

Gyu-Kaku
10925 W.Pico Blvd.,
Los Angeles, CA 90064