Gyu-kaku Yakiniku, Honolulu

In Honolulu, our friends took us for yakiniku (Japanese grilled meat) at Gyu-kaku. Turns out Gyu-kaku is a chain with branches in Japan, California, Hawaii, and even New York City. Yakiniku is a bit different than Korean BBQ. The meat is marinated in different sauces, or sometimes simply dressed with just salt or garlic. Also the dipping sauces are different and there's no practice of wrapping in lettuce.

We got 2 sampler plates - one premium, which included 30-day aged filet mignon, wagyu, and premium ribeye.

The other meat sampler had shrimp with garlic, chicken with basil, and some other cuts of beef.

We also ordered the happy hour special Harami (skirt steak) marinated with miso. We also got kalbi with garlic, kurobuta sausage, and beef tongue. And vegetables wrapped in foil to throw on the grill -- potatoes with butter and enoki mushrooms.

Two interesting things I've never had were cheese yakko - our friend Ro had mistakenly remembered this as something else when he ordered it. Turns out it was cubes of cream cheese, dressed with bonito flakes and soy - the way tofu would have been - it was strange and Ro and Lani felt so bad for ordering it they took it home (for their bagels!).

The other was dessert. Little squares of mochi are cooked on the grill until the puff up, which you then throw on ice cream!

Gyu-kaku
1221 Kapiolani Blvd
Honolulu, HI
(808) 589-2989