Last night was our last night in Los Angeles and, for fun, a group of us headed out to Gyu-Kaku for some Japanese BBQ and happy hour. I was a little surprised that I was being introduced to something I’d never tried but once we arrived I realized the open flame in the middle of the table was probably too dangerous for Minnesotans–very much like fireworks.
The menu was exhaustive and I didn’t even bother to look as someone else ordered a variety of meats (several times over throughout the night). We had everything from edamame and spicy tuna rolls to beef short ribs and filet mignon. The platters of raw meat were delivered to the table and you threw them on the grill in the middle of the table to cook to your liking (raw for me!). While they were cooking several rounds of sake-bombs came to be with much chanting (“I say sake you say bomb; sake…bomb!”) and much splashing a sake dropped from the chopsticks above the beer glass and into the beer.
The meats were delightful; the flavors were excellent and I knew the chef wasn’t going to overcook them (heh). It was really fun to have such a social dining experience driven by cheap beer and sake. We ended the evening with the very traditional (heh) Japanese dessert of s’mores. While roasting marshmallows over a grill isn’t the same as over a fire pit, the result was very much the same. I’ll admit that I’m not much of a s’mores fan but it was a nice way to end the evening. While at first I didn’t think it was going to be for me, I left wishing we had Japanese BBQ joints all over the Twin Cities so I could take more friends out for a fun night with some great food.
Do you know of any Japanese BBQ places in the Twin Cities I might have missed? Have you ever tried one yourself? If so what did you think of it? What’s your favorite restaurant experience that you can’t get in the Twin Cities? Whatever you have to say about this one go ahead and comment on as I’d love to hear your thoughts.







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