Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ

If you can overcome the cognitive dissonance that arises from paying $50/pp to cook your own food, this place is good-ish. It's good in class. I'll elaborate: Grill it yourself style restaurants appear somewhat uncommonly in the Midwest. They are more common on the coasts, while often couched in the aura of Korean or Mongolian or whatever. To like this place, you must be comfortable with the idea you are paying for the novelty of the experience. My 11 year old is; I would prefer to pay someone else to cook my food when I eat out. Moving past that notion. For what it is, and in comparison with similar style restaurants, I had the following observations: 1) The beef dishes lacked enough flavor distinction to make higher quality cuts shine. My wife preferred the chuck to the ribeye simply because it was easier to manipulate with tongs and did not taste bad comparatively; 2) The pork belly preparation was underwhelming when it could have been the star of the show. I wouldnhave preferred a cured element or a smoked element to make the cut shine rather than taste like thin pork chops; 3) Sides and accouterments are the real sleeper-crowd-pleasers here. The fried calamari - lovely. The gyoza - yum! 4) What joker said the smores were their favorite? Really?! It was literally a basic smore. A novel idea executed with basic effort. This place is great for a fun night out, or a more social-food setting - office happy hour, get to know you date night, birthdays, or anything involving pre-teens. I don't think it offers a particularly great value for what you actually get, but that is not uncommon for this type of restaurant. The manager told us an all-you-can eat option is coming soon, which is more in line with similar spots on the West Coast. Frankly, I didn't think it was necessary, as we were all very content with the quantity of food we ordered. The all-you-can-eat model would be a better sell for some folks at this price point, at least creating the illusion of good value. They offer some chicken options, some seafood options, and you can make it through gluten free, excepting miso soup (which was a bit overly salty). Ambiance was fine, but nothing special. Table service was fine; the manager was exceptional - attentive, friendly, on-it. In summary, the food is good-ish and the experience is fun, if you are into this sort of thing. I think at this price point there is many better Japanese restaurants in the area, and I'm pretty sure they will even cook the food for you.

We went for lunch and had a great meal. All their sauces and most of the meats are gluten free. They recently changed their salad dressing so it is gluten free as well. The manager was very helpful.