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.
