Haikus for Gyu-Kaku

RESTAURANT: Gyu-Kaku

LOCATION: 805 3rd Ave, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10022

Happy with the food

and prices at Gyu-Kaku.

Smile and eat with friends.

Trendy yet homey.

Sauces and snacks to lunch on,

Yakiniku too.

Ok, sorry for the really lame haikus but I've been too excited to share this gem of a lunch spot in Midtown East.  Although only a block away from my office, I've been eyeing this place for years, salivating over the smell of the grilled meats each time I walk past this Japanese bbq.  But like most typical midtowners, I usually grab & go the proverbial S's for lunch... soup-salad-sandwich-sushi-street meat-simply anything fast & easy.  (Somebody say Seamless?)  I've considered going after work for dinner but never felt like paying the premium for their dinner menu.  So I was really glad when a friend who works nearby called me up for an impromptu lunch.  Wow, a full lunch hour out together?  This was a rare treat, so our meal needed to reflect that too.

We walked upstairs to this hideaway near the corner of 50th & 3rd Ave.  It felt like such a retreat walking into the dining area with the high glass panel ceilings and wooden booths, which are all equipped with grills in the center for self-cooking.  Whether it's a beautiful sunny afternoon or a gray, gloomy day, this place feels comforting to just take you away momentarily from the hustle & bustle of the daily 9-6.

There is just so much on their menu, it's hard to know where to begin.  They offer lunch set specials as well as a-la-carte happy hour lunch deals.  My eyes lit up wanting to order everything off the entire menu, especially considering I was seeing $4 flashing everywhere!  Almost the whole happy hour lunch menu is under $10 per item.

Lunch Set Menu: http://www.gyu-kaku.com/menu/ny_mt/mt_lunch.pdf

Happy Hour Lunch Menu: http://www.gyu-kaku.com/menu/ny_mt/mt_sp.pdf

I ordered the $12.95 power lunch 3 BBQ items of my choice: hanger steak, pork belly and yaki-shabu miso.  This came with rice, soup and a salad.  At each table, there are 3 bottles of sauces: soy, ponzu and sweet & spicy.  I tried all 3 of these sauces for each meat but my favorite hands down was the sweet & spicy.  Much more on the sweet side, not so much on the spicy, but still good nonetheless.  My friend preferred the ponzu sauce, which was great... more sweet & spicy sauce for me!  She also had an awesome food hack, flavor the rice with the sauces!  Anyways, I digress... back to the meats.  I loved having the variety of meats so I could switch up the taste and textures.  I can't say any one of them was my favorite, not because it was lacking but because they were all fresh and tasty.  The waiters are helpful at informing you how many seconds or minutes you should cook each type of meat.  So the only way your meat will be overdone and burnt is if you're too busy chatting with your lunch buddy to pay attention to the grill. (Oops!)  It's a good thing I didn't grill them all together at one time, so take your time to cook and enjoy.  We left very happy and satisfied with our new favorite lunch spot.

If I already wasn't pleased with this lunch... it got even better when we decided to revisit this place a second time in the same week!  Mostly because it was my friend's last week working in midtown, since her office was moving downtown.  So we just HAD to take advantage and indulge in our late (but better late than never) discovery of our newfound favorite lunch spot.  This time we ordered off their happy hour a-la-carte menu.

We shared the kim-cheese fries & I ordered the spicy tuna volcano, garlic noodles and a $5 spicy pork limited-time special.  Where to begin!  The kim-cheese fries, phenomenal.  These amazing fries were definitely to my liking... There is no actual kim-chee on these fries as the name might lead you to think, but rather it's just a play-on word for these delicious fries loaded with a spicy mayo-like sauce, scallions and cheese.  As for the spicy tuna volcano, the spicy tuna sits on top of a bed of crunchy rice that is fried (not to be confused with fried rice.)  Luckily my friend ordered the taco version of the spicy tuna appetizer, so we swapped a piece each to share & compare.  If you're looking for a good crunch, skip the volcano and go straight for the spicy tuna tacos instead.  The texture of the crunchy/fried rice is wishy washy, as if the rice on the fence of do I want to be soft, do I want to be crunchy, I can't make up my mind.  (Sorry, I missed a pic of the spicy tuna appetizers... it wasn't until the kim-cheese fries came out that I HAD to snap a pic for food gawking.)  Garlic noodles... I heart garlic & I love noodles, what more could I say?  I'm the noodle nosher, so I have absolutely no complaints.  A nice simple platter of garlicky happiness.  The spicy pork was good but I definitely could've used more if I hadn't ordered all the other dishes, but hey, you can't complain about portion size on a $5 deal!

Gyu-kaku definitely accomplished their mission, which states on their website:

"...delivering happiness to our customers through the food and dining experience. We believe that as human beings the simple and basic act of dining together can build the strongest bonds... creating dining environments of intrinsic beauty and value.  Thank you for the opportunity to be an enjoyable part of your life, and that of your family and friends.  At Gyu-kaku, your happiness is our pleasure."  No, thank YOU gyu-kaku! :D 

Bottom Line: Order to your heart's (and wallet's) content for lunch!  Pass on the spicy tuna volcano, go for the spicy tuna tacos instead... but pretty much anything on the menu is good, worth a try and for a great deal.  Try all 3 sauces to see which you like the best.  Definitely a happy, enjoyable dining experience to make Pharrell sing in my head "Because I'm happy! ::clap along:: if you know what happiness is to you."

Happy Noshing, Jeanne