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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January 11th, 2013 at 7:59 am
I went to one of those out in Southern California a few years back-I can’t remember the name of it–it was over by the race track in Arcadia- just northeast of LA. It was tons of fun! One thing I took from it was that 5 sake bombs was a lot of fun. The sixth one was one too many :-) Good thing the hotel was close enough to stumble back to! It really was a lot of fun to go out with a fun group of coworkers and be able to be loud and interact with the tables around us. I’m glad someone else was paying for that–seems to me the bill was quite large! Definitely would have blown my per diem for a few days on that one!
January 11th, 2013 at 8:22 am
That sounds like a lot of fun Patti O. and Bill!
Not having been to one of those places, unless there is some sort of restaurant safety code in Minnesota that would not allow this type of cooking, I would think it would be pretty easy for any of the local Hibachi restaurants to reconfigure a few of those griddles to be a grill like you describe.
Given the over saturation of Hibachi style restaurants and my thought that the novelty must have worn off by now would makes me think that an enterprising Japanese restauranteur might want to try to recreate a food experience not yet available in this area.
Hell, I remember back in the day when I heard that restaurants in California were serving raw fish to people. Who ever heard of that?
January 11th, 2013 at 8:32 am
I’ve been to places where you can cook your own steak, but never in Minnesota. You may be right, it might not be allowed here.
January 11th, 2013 at 11:45 am
Dave, for many, MANY, years, my husband and I have referred to Minnesota as the state where nothing is allowed.
January 11th, 2013 at 1:04 pm
Before the Bonfire in Savage (Hwy 13 & 42), there was a steak place that you could grill your own meat. Can’t remember the name, all I remember it was the same price if they cooked it or you did. If memory serves, it also closed suddenly.
January 11th, 2013 at 4:51 pm
I visited one of those in Tokyo in the early 90s. Also did our own steak grilling at “The Breakfast Creek Pub,” in Brisbane, Australia, where the beer was “drawn off the wood” (wood kegs) in an outdoor setting. Things got blurry that night.
January 11th, 2013 at 5:43 pm
I know some places in Minnesota have the hot rock grill things, though it’s not the same thing, of course. I imagine the reason we don’t have Japanese barbecue here yet is just because nobody has opened one.
It looks like the closest Gyu-Kaku is in Chicago, right off the Magnificent Mile and a bit west of Navy Pier. I’ll have to check it out next time I’m down there.
January 12th, 2013 at 11:19 am
I know traditional Korean BBQ is illegal in MN, so the same would apply to Japanese BBQ. Sad, but true. Something about open flames or something. Bullshit obviously. Can we all write our legislators about this? Maybe LL can yearly choose a topic to lobby our legislators about every winter. This could the topic this year. I want BBQ at my table!
January 14th, 2013 at 7:40 am
Kassie is right, the state of MN restaurant safety regs do not allow this type of cooking at the table (bullshit is the apt description). Korean BBQ is one of my favorite food types and I enjoy it when I travel in Asia or the West Coast.
I think the reasoning is the open flame but knowing MN it could also be smoke from grilling (first hand smoke?). Petition time?
January 14th, 2013 at 11:02 am
There was a place in Plymouth a couple of years ago where you could grill your own steaks, but I think it became Joe Sensers and then became something else now. They had a big central grill, not one at your table.
I remember going to a similar place in Waterville a number of years ago, not sure if its still there.
February 7th, 2013 at 4:02 pm
Tokyo Grill in Hastings has been re-opened after an ownership change. For some reason, they are now going to add Chinese food. Word has it the food is good, but everyone is wondering why they suddenly closed, changed owners, and are changing format.