New York City: Gyu-Kaku (February 2018)

Japanese Barbecue in Turtle Bay
My spouse and I visited Gyu-Kaku Midtown for dinner on a Wednesday evening in early February 2018. This location is open daily for lunch and dinner from 11:30 am until late (either 10:00 pm, 11:00 pm, or 12:00 midnight, depending on the day of the week). Reservations are accepted.
Gyu-Kaku, whose name means "bull's horn", is a chain of Japanese yakiniku “grilled meat” restaurants. (Although technically a “barbecue” restaurant, it does not refer to the saucy kind that Americans generally associate with the word, but rather to the process of grilling or smoking meats.) Gyu-Kaku opened its first restaurant in Japan in 1996, but it was not until 2001 when it opened a venue in the United States. Today, there are over 600 Gyu-Kaku locations in Japan, as well as many US locations (including New York City, California, Chicago, Houston, Hawaii, Philadelphia, Boston), and still more international venues (Canada, Hong Kong, Taipei, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines, and South Korea). Gyu-Kaku also makes and sells its own kimchi, sauces, and marinades in Japanese supermarkets. Manhattan hosts two additional locations of Gyu-Kaku in addition to the Midtown venue that we visited (East Village and Times Square).
The Midtown location of Gyu-Kaku is located on the second floor of a corporate building. Its corner position allows windows on two walls, and the space juts out above the street a bit to allow a skylight/atrium ceiling over some of the tables. You access this second-level restaurant by a winding staircase, or alternatively, you can use the building’s elevators (entry into the lobby may require guard-admittance after normal workday hours). A narrow bar/lounge area offers high-top table seating. The main dining room is positioned towards the back of the space, although it is actually the front corner of the building at the intersection of Third Avenue and East 50th Street. Each table has a recessed grill positioned in the middle of the wood so that diners can cook their own meats and vegetables. Alternatively, you can order complete dishes from the kitchen if you do not feel like cooking; however, doing your own grilling is really the point and appeal of this restaurant.
We shared two appetizers: the fried bacon chips (thinly sliced pork belly) and the steamed chili dumplings. Then, we shared several different cuts of meat (some marinated and others plain), including skirt steak (our favorite meat of the night), filet mignon, and spicy pork. We also grilled our own selection of mixed vegetables (including onions, zucchini, mushrooms, shishito peppers, cherry tomatoes, and corn kernels). From the kitchen, we ordered the beef sukyaki bibimbap (a bit spicy, and different than Korean versions we have eaten) and the garlic chicken noodles as accompaniments. The restaurant offers some complete prix-fixe menus in several different price categories to guide newcomers to the cuisine. We also sampled the tasty Patron Pie-Tini cocktail and a pitcher of Sapporo.
We enjoyed our unique Japanese BBQ dinner at Gyu-Kaku.













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