Spilling the tea on all things Gyu Kaku

Spilling the Tea on all things Gyu Kaku

By: Kalani Castro

Do you like eating at Japanese barbecue? Well Gyo kaku is the place for you to go. Ke Ali’i went and interviewed a Gyu Kaku employee, two students, and also did a food review of some of the items on the menu. This particular Gyu Kaku is located right up the street from Damien at 1339 N School St, Honolulu. Ke Ali’i went down to review the food and interviewed some of the workers and students who were at the restaurant. 

Ke Ali’i asked one of the servers named Diamond about her work life, coworker life, and how much she enjoys the restaurant herself, saying “At first I didn't think I was gonna stay that long because I'm new to the restaurant industry, but I like it here because of my coworkers and the people and I can probably build a career off of it”. 

Diamond talked about how she prefers her location in Kalihi because of the parking that is available, because parking is free, whereas the location in town makes you pay for parking even if you work there. Diamond says “It doesn't make sense to pay for parking if you work there”. Regarding the job's difficulty she says that mostly at night when there is an influx of people, or special events like Valentines Day, the restaurant is almost completely booked out, whereas lunch is varied, some days can be busy and other times it is dead. When Kea Ali’i went, for example, the restaurant was almost completely empty. 

When interviewing two student-customers, Weston Zafrani and Sawyer Cilurso, they seemed to enjoy the food. Weston Zafrani even expressed his delight by saying  “The food, it was good, Banger even”. Both students rated the restaurant a five out of five. When asked if they would come back both Sawyer and Weston said that they would definitely come back because of the food and the overall experience of the restaurant. When asked if they would recommend other students come, Sawyer said “that yes that more students should go because the walk is not far and the pricing is good”, while Weston said that “other students should, but at the same time I don't want it to get crowded”. .

Ke Ali’i also reviewed the food in the restaurant. One thing that was hard was reviewing the food because it is a cook-your-own-food restaurant, so if the food is messed up it is not the fault of the restaurant, but the person who cooked it. The menu items that were tried were, Angus Beef Rib, Toro Beef, Yaki-Shabu Beef, Gyu Sushi, Tofu, and Garlic Shrimp. Overall all the menu items were delicious. The Yaki, Shabu, and Toro cooked relatively fast, whereas the Beef Rib took a little longer because of the thickness. All of the meats were seasoned perfectly, none of the meats were under or over-seasoned. 

The overall quality of the meats at Gyu Kaku was of high quality. All of the meats were tender, had good marbling and came in good quantities. The Yaki Shabu, and toro were thin, cooked fast, and almost melted in your mouth when it touched your tongue. The beef rib was a thicker cut of meat and had more of a bite to it, but still for the thickness of the meat it was very tender and was not hard to chew at all. The garlic shrimp was seasoned wonderfully and was not chewy like some shrimp tend to be when over frozen. The Gyu Sushi was simplistic and delicious and a great appetizer, as well as the tofu.

Overall Gyu Kaku as a restaurant for Ke Ali’i was a ten out of ten. The distance from Damien to Gyu Kaku is short, the pricing is very good, the service is good, and the food is absolutely delicious. Ke Ali’i would definitely recommend that you check out this Gyu Kaku and all that it has to offer.