Office Dad is turning 50 years old this week! To celebrate his birthday, What’s Up Hamsup, Asian Persuasion and I took him out for lunch. This time around, What’s Up Hamsup didn’t bail on us (good office son!). We thought Office Dad would enjoy the BBQ experience at Gyu-Kaku. As well, Asian Persuasion and I have been wanting to check this place out since it opened.
We each order the three BBQ meat item lunch special ($15.95), which came with a fresh salad, miso or seaweed soup, and rice. The salad was fresh and crisp, the Asian vinaigrette was addictive.
The seaweed in the soup was plentiful. The taste of the seaweed was subtle. What’s Up Hamsup thought it tasted like a Japanese seaweed salad, just in soup form.
We opted to share all nine meats. For sauces, there were bottles of ponzu, sweet and spicy. I enjoyed the sweet sauce the most and the ponzu the least.
For meats, we pretty much picked one of everything on the menu. We ordered: Bistro Hanger Steak Miso, Filet Mignon, Kalbi Chuck Short Rib Garlic, Angus Beef Ribs Sweet Soy, New York Steak Miso, Toro Beef Sweet Soy, Yaki-Shabu Beef Miso, Pork Belly White Soy, Spicy Pork, and Pork Toro White Soy. The only thing we didn’t try was the chicken, shrimp and more expensive cuts of meat.
Everyone had a personal favourite. Surprisingly, I liked the Spicy Pork the most. I thought I would like the beef more but I preferred the texture and taste of the pork options.
The group sitting next to us had this one guy lecturing his friends about Japanese cuisine. He went on and on about my favourite cafe, Redheads Japa Cafe. He told his friends that Redheads wasn’t open in the evenings. Redheads is open in the evenings, from Tuesday to Friday. I wanted to correct him. I kept glancing over and his friends would look over too, as if they sensed my urgency to reveal the truth. I decided to mind my own business as I didn’t want to engage in a conversation with the guy.
Office Dad took over most of the cooking. You can learn a lot about people when you BBQ with them. Man, I’ll tell you, Office Dad is bossy. He barked at me for flipping over a piece too early or late and viciously accused me of burning a few pieces. The only reason I tried to help was because he kept infecting the almost ready to eat meat with the raw meat with his tongs.
The picture above is What’s Up Hamsup’s hand over the BBQ grill. As you can tell, his hands are much larger than Trump’s hands. I put Trump’s picture in as a comparison to What’s Up Hamsup.
Just joking, that’s not very nice of me. Below is a more accurate picture. I don’t know why everyone makes fun of Trump’s hands. He’s running for president, not as a pianist.
Service was great. Our server was pleasant and patient explaining which meats were which because we kept forgetting. She refilled our teas often and replaced our grill for the smores ($2.50). I’m not a sweets person, but even I enjoyed this treat. You grill the marshmallow until its nice and warm, then mash it against Hershey’s chocolate and two graham crackers.
The best part of the lunch was when our server learned it was Office Dad’s birthday when we paid the bill. We got up to leave only to see our server run over to say, “Don’t leave! We have a surprise.” We scampered back to our table. A whole bunch of employees came out, one holding a birthday sign, another bringing a dessert with a candle and yet another crowning Office Dad with a hat. We all sang happy birthday at the top of our lungs.
I like Gyu-Kaku and I would return again. My husband would enjoy this place and I’ll let him do all BBQing. If you work downtown, definitely give it a try. The price for lunch is a bargain.
Hitting the Sauce 