TacoCat's TrEats #37: Grilling your own meat is Yakinikool! 🍖

Cover image source: wow-j.com

Hey Steemit!

Since I did a Made in Japan post previously, I thought I'd switch it up with another Steak Lover contest!

I'm really glad people liked my previous Steak Lover post and I'm so excited to share another one of my favourite meat places!

The restaurant I want to share today is called Gyu-Kaku! The first time we ate at Gyu-Kaku was back in 2017 in Osaka!

Gyu-Kaku is a restaurant chain specialising in yakiniku (焼肉), or grilled meat cuisine. I did a bit of research and found that the term yakiniku originally referred to western barbecue food. The term was popularized by Japanese writer Kanagaki Robun (仮名垣魯文) in his Seiyo Ryoritsu (i.e. "western food handbook") in 1872 during the Meiji period. Yakiniku later became associated with Korean-derived cuisine during the early Shōwa period. Today, yakiniku commonly refers to a Japanese style of cooking bite-size meat (usually beef and organ meat) and vegetables on griddles over a flame of wood charcoals or a gas/electric grill.

The first time we tried yakiniku wasn't actually at Gyu-Kaku, but a random store we found in Akihabara in 2016.

It was kind of a gamble since there wasn't an English menu and we had no idea what we were doing, but it turned out pretty well in the end, and was quite tasty!

But when we found Gyu-Kaku we were instantly hooked!

All the outlets we visited across Japan are really cozy and comfortable, and the meat is always fresh and good.

So to order, you'll choose what kind of meat you want (pork/chicken/steak), and the cut of steak. They also have various sets with different combinations of meat so you can try samples of different cuts. Aside from meat, Gyu-Kaku also serves sides of rice, soups and vegetables, as well as alcohol. Here's the Japanese menu if you wanna check it out. I found their US menu to be very different than what I was used to.

We weren't that familiar with the different cuts in Japanese so we decided to try one of their sets. Pretty soon, our raw meat arrived!

Time to get cookin!

I believe we ordered the sirloin and tenderloin or something like that. But it was both called karubi (カルビ) in Japanese. If you're not a fan of organ meat like us, and you intend to eat yakiniku in Japan, ONLY ORDER カルビ! Don't make the same mistake we did by ordering horumon ホルモン (which is intestine). 🤢 But you shouldn't have that problem in Gyu-Kaku because they're very tourist friendly with English menus. phew

Like many barbeque restaurants, you determine what kind of done-ness you want your meat. There are some sauces as well as salt for you to dip your meat when it's cooked to add more flavour, but it tastes pretty good on its own already because of the unique marinade.

Also be careful of the oil when cookin' since it can get pretty hot and flamin' 🔥

So Gyu-Kaku is a yakiniku chain headquartered in Yokohama, and was founded in 1996. It opened its first franchised restaurant in 1997, and the first overseas restaurant was opened in the US in 2001; the second in Taiwan in 2002. Now there are over 600 outlets in Japan, and many have popped up across the US, and in other parts of Asia as well. Even right here in Singapore! However, every restaurant is different in terms of region and selection availability, so I doubt the one here is the same as in Japan.

Meaning "Horn of the Bull" in Japanese, Gyu-Kaku prides itself on providing the authentic Japanese yakiniku dining experience, where guests share premium cooked meats over a flaming charcoal grill, while sipping on Japanese sake and frosty cold beers. They actually do advertise their freezing cold beers (kept at -2°C!) to go along with their meat. Since the meat takes a while to cook, it's a perfect place for catching up with friends/family, or what Gyu-kaku refers to as "the fun of Shared Plates".

Since that first time in Osaka, we've eaten at Gyu-Kaku 4 more times after that!

Once in Fukuoka:

This one was quite interesting because we got to sit down on a tatami mat and eat; truly Japanese-style.

The third time was in Shinjuku with my family, who also enjoyed it very much.

The fourth was in Ota with a friend:

We tried cheese fondue that time, which was really tasty too!

Our most recent visit to Gyu-Kaku was in Sapporo in July of this year and unfortunately, it most likely will be our last for quite some time.

Not only because we probably won't be traveling for a while, but also the whole experience that particular time left much to be desired. Basically, it was super crowded so we had to wait quite a while. When we finally sat it was at the counter and we were seated right next to these 2 dudes who were constantly smoking! We were literally just beside them and their smoke was landing on our cooked meat! It was really gross, and the second-hand smoke ruined my appetite. There wasn't a designated smoking area and all the other times we ate at Gyu-Kaku we didn't see anyone smoking, so we were really disappointed.

We couldn't ask to move since the whole place was full, and we didn't want to make a scene since we were tourists and those guys looked a little shady. The whole experience just left a bad taste in my mouth (literally and figuratively). 😞

I don't know if we'll ever go back to Gyu-Kaku again after that, and since we discovered Ikinari Steak (which is tastier imo), I doubt we will. I know I shouldn't generalise and say that all gyu-kakus are bad just on one bad experience (and I'm not), and tbf it was mostly the customers' fault. We have had plenty of positive experiences there, so it was fun while it lasted.

Thanks so much for reading!

To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!

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Restaurant Information

Gyu-Kaku

Japan, 〒150-0001 Tōkyō-to, Shibuya City, Jingūmae, 1-chōme−13−２１ シャンゼール 原宿１号館 ３階

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TacoCat's TrEats #37: Grilling your own meat is Yakinikool! 🍖
This post participated in the Tasteem contest Steak Lover ❤️

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Check out my previous post in this series!
TacoCat's TrEats #35: A Rare Meat Cute