Gyu-Kaku is a Japanese-style BBQ restaurant chain, with many locations throughout the US and other countries. We’ve passed by the one in San Diego many times, always seeing the crowd gathered outside, but had never been. We finally visited for lunch recently.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that they offer a lunch set menu along with happy hour prices every day until 5pm. So when we went in around lunchtime, we were able to take advantage of both the happy hour prices and the lunch specials.
Spicy Tuna Volcano
We started with an appetizer, with reduced happy hour prices. I really enjoy crispy rice and can never resist ordering them. Sushi rice squares are fried until golden, creating a crispy crust. It was topped with spicy tuna. Sometimes this dish will have the rice turn out too hard or too sort, but I found these to be cooked just right.
Meat Lover’s Set
Mr. K chose the Meat Lover’s set, which comes with four meats, miso soup, salad, edamame and rice. For $3 more, you can upgrade your regular rice to a Sukiyaki Bibimbap.
We thought the rice upgrade was quite nice, especially if you like rice in a stone pot. The portion was very large– enough for both of us to share. I always enjoy rice prepared in a stone pot because it adds a crispy crust to the rice lining the inside of the pot.
2 Item Create Your Own Lunch
They also offer a 2 or 3 item lunch set, where you choose two or three meat dishes from a list. The set also comes with salad and miso soup. I chose filet mignon garlic herb and harami miso skirt steak ($3 upgrade). The latter had an upgrade charge but it is their most popular meat so I wanted to try it out. It ended up being my favorite of all the meats we ordered.
While it didn’t seem like that much, this ended up being a pretty heavy lunch, especially with all the meat.
Overall, we had a pleasant experience here. While we’ve had higher quality Japanese BBQ, I thought the food here was reasonable for the prices set, especially if you visit during lunch and happy hour.
Menu:
Gyu-Kaku
9844 Hibert St #1, San Diego, CA 92131
