4.2 / 5.0 This restaurant serves delicious Japanese yakiniku (grilled meat)! Meat and rice are the perfect combination! And the salad at this yakiniku restaurant is exquisite!I get so engrossed in eating that I forget to take pictures.The staff are also very friendly. The restaurant has both table seating and tatami mat seating.Please be careful as there is a slight step at the entrance! They open at 5 PM, but it's recommended to make a reservation, as they sometimes have reservations for banquets or large groups even on weekdays. read more

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nteresting experience. From the outside, Yakiniku Gen looks like a Japanese yakiniku restaurant, but the menu leans heavily Korean--kimchi, cold noodles, and dipping sauces included. We ordered beef tongue ($30 for 4 slices) and a small meat platter (~$90), both decent in flavor. But for the price, it felt hard to justify--especially with such plain interior decor. Service was okay, but overall the value just wasn't there. Not somewhere I'd revisit. read more

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~ Premium Thick Tongue $30 ~ Always my fav cut to order!! It's fatty, tender, bouncy & juicy! ~ Diamond Cut Outside Skirt (Harami) $25 ~ Another of my must order cut when eating yakiniku! The meat is lean yet tender, and strong in beef flavour ~ Chuck Rib (Karubi) $20 ~ As expected, Kalbi is fatty, tender, delicious! ~ Scallion Over Rice w/ Egg Yolk $6 ~ The only rice I'd order in a yakiniku place, the meal will not be complete without it! Will I be back? Yes! Way more expensive then yakiniku in HK or Japan, but it felt really authentic and the meat cuts selection are great - at least for me, becoz they got all my fav ones, including the negitama rice! read more

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Went back for my friend's bday and whole situation was better then before! The services were so much better, serving speed, understanding was excellent. Every meat was so fresh and side of rice (which often I care about was great!) unfortunately, their heater was down.. even we are having grill on the table the entire restaurant was cold in December. But other than that, they are all friendly and had an amazing night with friends. You should make a reservation before you come. read more

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Got the premium assorted meat, meat tasted good and fatty but not worth $90. Service was just ok, they didn't explain which meat is what. The menu is pretty limited, I prefer Gyu-Kaku because they have more options. read more

Yakiniku Gen - $90 premium assorted meat - Japanese Near Me - New York, New York

we enjoyed it here! intimate ambience, friendly service, clean. i think it was a little confusing for us in the beginning to understand how to order because they run it a little differently here, we felt slightly limited in our meat options for the price. but the food was delicious but we kept adding and adding because we were still hungry. read more

They have the best beef tongue in the city traditional Japanese place! The service is also very read more

Yakiniku Gen - They have the best beef tongue in the city - Japanese Near Me - New York, New York

As always think I just gotta say first and foremost, the service was top tier! Really kind, helpful but not saccharine. Really tough time right now for restaurants but also wait staffs so let's give them some love! Now to the food. Yeah, it was soso good. We each had a Sapporo and did a basic meat set which came with different kimchi's and vegetables for changin up flavors. It also comes with bibimbap (made at your table) with soup and your choice of ice cream! The four cuts of beef were all really good but we also got some scallops and a diamond cut to just switch things up and try more things. It's a great deal of fun and eating delicious, delicious meat made on a fire right in front of you? Amazing. read more

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Food was good. There were preset courses as well as the option to order a la carte. As some of the members of my group are picky, we just ordered a la carte and honestly it was probably a better value as we spent less than we would've spent on the preset courses and got everything we wanted and was full. For the 4 of us, our bill came out to $250 which also included at least two drinks each. The only comment I have is to check your bill in detail. We had ordered our second round of drinks and water came instead so I'm assuming they heard us wrong. Additionally, for some reason we ordered two rounds of our drink but it was put in as two different drinks in each round (the first round was the wrong drink and more expensive than it should've been but I noticed after we paid). read more

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Friends were craving Japanese BBQ so we popped into Yakiniku Gen for dinner. I've had Korean BBQ many times, but this was my first time with Japanese. I liked it equally as well but definitely a different experience. I honestly don't know what we ordered! My friend ordered everything for us and all I can say was that I loved every piece of meat we cooked! Two people waited on us and did an excellent job. They made a few recommendations which included going with the house highball rather than one with a more expensive whisky. The place is small and loud, but not unpleasant. Most of the patrons were Japanese, which is always a great sign. Will be back for sure! read more

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Good quality. Reasonable price. Good service. We recommend this yakiniku restaurant. read more

The food was so good! The quality of meat was amazing and the sides were perfect complements! read more

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My main server was not the best, she was really nice but kinda forgetting small stuff such as water or turning on the griller.. not a big deal though. Food was good, my party ordered ala carte. The 5 types of beef is definitely one to try. It's great, but there's another better japanese/korean bbq in the city. read more

Nice BBQ but small portions -the food is very good, however, the cheaper portions are small and unsatisfying. We came here two weeks ago, and while we enjoyed our meal, we still left hungry. Maybe I will give them a 2nd try, but not now! read more

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Good food, good service, should add more variety to the menu - add more combos of meats, some more sides, etc

I have ordered Yakiniku Gen from Uber Eats before, but this is my first time eating at the restaurant. I have to say, that eating the freshly grilled meat is 10x better. Note that you do have to grill the meat yourself and the dishes on the menu is a mix of Korean and Japanese BBQ. The restaurant is clean and the service was great. It was a packed night and yet the servers were running around trying to help everyone. My favorite cuts of the night were the marinated diamond cut galbi and pork jowl. The portions are kind of small and we ordered around 4-5 meat dishes for a group of 4. I also recommend getting the Yuzu / Lemon Drop drink (add 2 shots if you really want to feel a buzz) and the sesame sauce salad. After our meat, we ordered taiyaki and naengmyeon. The taiyaki was soft and the naengmyeon is different from what you expect from usual Korean naengmyeon. My friend who is Japanese, said that it has an authentic Japanese flavor. Overall, I would recommend trying this place out with friends and to make a reservation prior to coming. There were a few parties waiting when we arrived on a Friday night, but because we made a reservation, we were able to be seated first. It is similar to Gyukaku and the prices were ~$50 pp for a group of 4 (we were also very hungry). read more

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Very authentic Japanese BBQ! It reminds me of the days I spent in Tokyo and the tiny BBQ house next to the hotel. The meat was all well marinated at the right level and very tender no matter how long you cook it. The cabbage salad and rice with egg yolk and scallion were also great pair for BBQ. I would definitely tag this restaurant as a regular one for BBQ. read more

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Yakiniku Gen in NYC is one of the better steakhouse experiences you can have . We tried various cuts including Miyazaki A5 Wagyu from their own cattle farm in Japan. That's right, they have their own Wagyu farm. It's essentially a Japanese institution as they have several locations across Japan as well. The quality is just exceptional, can't recommend enough read more

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More like 3.5 stars but I enjoyed the hospitality very much here at Yakiniku Gen. We opted for the Gen Classic Set which is $60pp, along with the cold noodles, lettuce and legacy potato salad. The course came with kimchi, vegetables, 4 different cuts of beef and beef tongue. I enjoyed the beef tongue alot because it is thinly sliced and very tender and I liked it dipped in the dark sauce that they provide you. Be careful not to over cook it. I also enjoyed the beef tartar that comes with an raw egg yolk, this combination we amazing! We opted for the salt and pepper option instead of the marinated version because we wanted to see how fresh the beef was. There were two slices of meat that weren't too fresh tasting and very gamy, which I didn't enjoy. Also, please pass on the cold noodles if you are expecting it to taste like korean cold noodles. It is definitely one of the more affordable yakiniku spots. read more

The food is okay but the staff sucks. I was drunk but I didn't nothing to anyone or the restaurant. I paid but one of their waiter thought I can't afford it. He just held my neck and threw me to the ground. read more

Yakiniku Gen - What the waiter did to me. - Japanese Near Me - New York, New York

Abit run down atmosphere wise but nice for a quick meal and the meat quality was very good. read more

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AVOID. AVOID. AVOID. Terrible service. Overpriced. Food was ok, but the experience left a terrible taste in my mouth. Such a disappointment since we love the one in the east village.Do yourself a favor and go somewhere else. I'd give it zero stars if I could. read more

This review is in DEC 2022 Bottom line: Delicious food on the expensive side with service miscues. The Breakdown: -Very good food quality - We ordered the basic combo, $50pp. 1. Marinated meat was so tender, delicious. Side note, the smoke eater grills really help keep the smoke smell down, and off your clothes. 2. Bibimbap with crisped rice was nice, though needed some more sauce for flavor. Was served without beef- I get it, but not normal for me. 3. Kimchi, namul (fermented veggies plate) was good and plentiful. 4. Ice cream bowls to finish it off. Suggest going matcha vs vanilla- the vanilla tastes fake and bit too sweet, the matcha tastes legit matcha. -The service was not attentive. 1. Called 3 times to try to get a reservation and no pickup all 3 times. When we arrived we didn't see a maitre d. When you walk in there's a sensor chime that dings, like at a bodega, plus they have a desk bell. Sensor chime and desk bell are cheaper than a maitre d. I understand cost perspective, though it's not warm and receptive. 2. The place has 2 servers all night. Maybe they were overrun, but there were a couple free tables. We didn't get our waters until midway through the meal. 3. Another table waited maybe 10 minutes plus, kept head-turning toward the walking path but they were not attentive to her. She was clearly annoyed. I watched as the patron had to get up and go to the counter to ask them for the check to leave. -The cost to food ratio is expensive for the patron: Basic combo at $50 pp. 1. 2 pieces pp of 4 diff types of beef, so 8 pieces of thinly sliced beef each for 2 people. 2. Kimchi plate, namul plate (which they give plenty). 3. One shared bibimbap bowl (which repeats the same veggies on the namul plate) for 2 persons who each ordered the basic combo, which should contain 2 bimbimbap bowls but only given one bowl. The server confirmed that when handed us the bibimbap. This is the same serving size bowl that any other Korean restaurant serves for 1 bibimap order. And here, for 2 people got one bowl. This did not sit well with me but I kept quiet. I swear I'm not a cheapskate, but this is not a great value meal for 2 for the amount of food served. The "basic combo" that we each ordered priced at 50 bucks pp. Bill came out to $108 w/tax, w/o tip. My date and I came here after we had happy hour drinks and apps at another place so we weren't starving coming here. I'm glad we had eaten prior. I likely would not eat here again. The food is good. Though I've eaten at other competitors Japanese BBQ joints and have enjoyed their food for better prices with impeccable service, even in this present inflated economy mind you. read more

AS OF MAY 2018, There is NO MORE HAPPY HOUR!! I came by on a Thursday around 545pm in May, and I was hoping to try their happy hour since reviews kept talking about it. We stopped by and it was not busy at all. We sat down and looked at the menu... There's no happy hour menu. We asked the waitress for the happy hour menu and she said THEY NO LONGER HAVE HAPPY HOUR!! Darn. So we order from the regular menu. The beef set combo, the seafood combo, and the veggie combo. We also ordered the garlic fried rice. The garlic fried rice was not that good. Bland. The bbq food was not bad. Enjoyable. Not exactly filling u less u plan on spending alot of money. Luckily, I had just ate a whole bunch of snacks like an hour ago so I wasn't too hungry. I would probably not come back again. read more

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Decent spot in Midtown for some yakiniku. The happy hour menu is worth it, but their regular dinner menu is pricey and the service was slow. You'd wonder why ordering one beef plate would take over 15 minutes to come out? I came with a group of 8 on a reservation and unfortunately we didn't think it through (no fault to the restaurant), but we had to be split up into two tables for two grills. Even though the tables were next to each other, they were still too far apart, which made it difficult to talk to anyone at the other table. This restaurant is probably not the best spot for a large party if you want to socialize/catch up with everyone. As for the food, the beef here is high quality, but the portion sizes are small. The assorted combination plates are the way to go though...different cuts of meat for a lower price! read more

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My bf and I decided to go here for our anniversary and we were not disappointed! I used to love Yakiniku in the east village but sadly they'd closed. This location is located right next to Totto Ramen in midtown east. We ordered four BBQ meat dishes - beef tongue, diamond cut chuck rib, outside skirt, and beef tartar. I highly recommend you ask for salt and pepper seasoning. The meat itself is sooo good you don't need any sauce. Their beef tartar was definitely one of the best I've tried. We also ordered the Korean veggie platter, Kalbi soup, and Garlic Fried Rice (yeah we went a bit overboard) and they were also very good. We paid around $60 after tax and tips which is fair for the quality. read more

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Excellent!!! We got two premium meat platters (marinated) and rice with egg, which B was both delicious and savory. Add a lemon chu hi and call it a night! Definitely will come back!! read more

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This spot was pretty good. I felt like it was really a korean bbq spot masquerading as a japanese Yakiniku. That being said, the beef tongue that we ordered ( premium one ) was really, really good. I also like that they have a lot of vegetable side dishes. ( which, if this was a korean spot, would have come free as side dishes... but... it's not a korean spot as I said earlier ) They had kalbi, bibimbap, Naengmyun on the menu and lots of different cuts of beef. You can also get an assortment of sakes, soju's, and other alcoholic drinks. It felt like you were in a private underground restaurant. So I liked that. read more

Unbelievably terrible. Service, cleanliness, food. Where to start? A mystery how this place has so many reviews and stars, it shouldn't have survived after one week of service. Service: No one cares or wants to talk to you. We made a reservation, but no one was at the front and it took 10-15 minutes for someone to appear and greet us. At our table, no one ever came and checked up on us. We saw plenty of tables with used napkins and plates sitting around for ages without being cleaned. No one ever smiled or looked glad to be alive. The servers all looked like zombies. Cleanliness: Our booth table's seats were ripped; the menus were sticky with what felt like years of sweat and soda stains; tables were not clean. Worst of all, we saw old rice stuck to our grill because it hadn't been cleaned properly. Food: Who combines multiple side dishes onto a single plate? They were clearly not freshly made (days old) and definitely all store bought. All the juices combined together and you couldn't taste one thing from another. The meat wasn't fresh, the cuts weren't good, and no one ever explained what ANY of the meats or dishes were. We ordered a meat combo, and the meat arrived on a big plate, but the cuts were indistinguishable. It's hard to mess up stone pot bibimbap, but theirs was one of the worst I've ever had. STAY FAR AWAY--this place is posing as a restaurant. read more

Friendly staff and this place can be pricey with small portions of the meat. I had ordered the premium beef tongue, wagyu and the heart sashimi. Although the wagyu was small portions, it melted in your mouth. Ordering the combo would be worth it. Please keep it mind that you will be cooking the food yourself. read more

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I came here for my birthday with my friend. We started order a lot of meet because the meat here are reasonable prices. Good quality of meats. They do have some daily promotion on weekdays. Before I finish I thought my bill will end up with the expensive bill but There are NOT I only pay less with these good quality of meat. Ps. Me and my boyfriend were very happy read more

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One of the affordable Japanese yakiniku place in NYC after Yakiniku west closed. It was my first time going there non happy hour. (I think they stopped having happy hour any more???) My favorite point of the restaurant is they carry liver sashimi! I love liver sashimi but it's harder to find a place to eat in Japan. I'm very happy I can still eat it here. Glass of sapporo is $3.5 always. Everyday, they have different meat to be special price too. I went there on Wednesday so kalbi was the special. Their negitan is delicious which will be special price on Monday. Kimchee was little to sweet for me. It was like very Japanese kimchee not spicy like Korean one. I give only three stars because around the entrance area to down stairs bathroom area were little stink. read more

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Great foods, great pricing, and great ambience! Apparently the place is busy weekday nights but it was almost empty when we went at lunchtime on Sunday. Their food is great and this is really a great place to have authentic and decent Yakiniku for very affordable price at the center of Manhattan. I surely will come back! read more

I randomly walked in here one day after walking past it for weeks and it definitely wasn't what I was expecting. I didn't even know Japanese BBQ was a thing and now I'm obsessed! From the outside, this place looks like a random hole in the wall, but the inside is more spacious than expected, with a very clean and warm ambiance. We came around 7pm on a Saturday and were seated immediately, though the tables around us began to fill up pretty quickly. Everything was super delicious and portion sizes were quite reasonable! There is a really large assortment of different meats and dishes, I was a little overwhelmed so we ordered the assorted beef platter (around $50)for more variety. I was really intrigued by the egg and scallion rice ($3) so we got that as well as well as an egg soup. Beef platter: 5/5 Reasonable size for 2 people and SUPER HIGH QUALITY meats!! I was really impressed with the freshness, texture, and flavors of the meats. Although it doesn't seem like there was a lot of seasoning and marinade, it was all super flavorful which really speaks to the quality of the meat. Here, you get 5 different cuts of beef. Scallion and Egg rice: 5/5 nothing bad to say. The egg is raw FYI. Egg Soup: 5/5 Definitely some of the best egg drop soup I've tasted. I think they added sesame oil in it, or it definitely has an ingredient I don't normally taste in egg drop soup that just adds a more profound flavor. I eat a lot of korean BBQ, and compared to Japanese BBQ, KBBQ is definitely a lot more sweet while Japanese BBQ has a lot more emphasis on the natural flavor of the meat and thus, I believe the meat is better quality and fresher than most of the KBBQ places I've been to. The prices are actually really good for the quality of the meat! Overall, I throughly enjoyed my experience! read more

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Came here with my family last week and it was a hit! It was our first time so we opted to get the pre fix set for $45 pp. you can choose how you like the meat to be seasoned --plain (salt and pepper) or marinated. We decided to go with salt and pepper to test out the quality of the meat. The pre fix came with assorted kimchi style vegetables, bibimbap and ice cream for dessert. Anyway, we ordered the smallest/cheapest pre fix set to try different kinds of meat. Our plan was to supplement the pre fix with whatever meat we end up liking more (I highly recommend this). To our surprised, we were so full (came with 3 guys) that we ended up not ordering anything else. Now I wouldn't say that this is the best Japanese bbq place I've been to but the quality of the meat was pretty decent. The quality + price + portions= 5 stars in my book. Can't wait to go back! read more

After walking past this place many times, I knew I had to try as there was always a wait and the entrance area was always filled with people. I called the day before to make a reservation and the phone attendant immediately told me that it would be difficult to seat us for a Friday Night. We were "lucky" to get fit in so we had a reservation for 6:30PM and when we arrived, the restaurant was only about 30% full. It was our first time and we were rushed to order, not having the chance to fully review the menu, we asked the waitress of recommendations which she gave and we agreed to. In addition, we ordered a noodle soup dish, garlic fried rice, lots of meats, chicken, veggies and shrimp and scallops for the grill. As soon as I was finally feeling comfortable, the slew of raw meats filled our table without any explanation of how to properly cook. The grill needed to be changed repeatedly and we had to ask for water refills several times. At no point in the dinner were we asked how things were. The first official greeting was "you have 30 minutes, so if you want anything else, please order now". Cool, after about 15 minutes, we asked for the check and we paid and signed and they were still rushing us out even though we were supposed to be allotted 2 hours for the meal. We got up and there were other open tables which was frustrating. Our party tried to make the most of it, but after the traumatizing experience, I'm surprised how this place can be so popular. Overall, food was okay, but there are definitely plenty of other BBQ places that give you more bang for your buck. Average without drinks you are already spending over $50.00/head and that's not including tip yet. Grade: C- read more

Went there for Valentine's Day. Nice vibe good food but the wagyu was a bit underwhelming. Price was subjectively fair for 2 people coming in at about $120 including drinks. read more

No frills Yakiniku restaurant with a simple menu and really chill atmosphere. Ordered the Diamond Harami and Diamond Kalbi, both of which were tender and very well marinated. We also got the first beef item on that page - I forget what cut it was but it wasn't as soft and marbled, but still a good option. Had the same marinade as the first 2. We were a party of 2 and had 3 plates of meat between us and finished with the right amount of food - not hungry but not too full either. Prices were reasonable as well! If you were hoping for more appetizers and sauces, you might want to look elsewhere. But this is definitely not as commercialized as it's neighbor Gyukaku and would recommend for a quick and simple meal! read more

Would give zero stars if I could, my boyfriend and I payed 180 dollars for four shrimp, two plates of beef , fucked up rice and meat. There was no water given at all. Was also told it was all you can eat over the phone, then we showed up and they started acting like we're broke and couldn't pay. My boyfriend and I eat out every weekend, and have never experienced this service. Then we said no tip and she yelled at my boyfriend. Saying she was busting her ass. Like girl it took 30 mins for food to come and we didn't even get water? So rude disrespectful, mid food too, please go to the one near Central Park for a better experience! read more

Got to finally try this place out and it was really good! Great selection of meat and great service. We had a little variety of everything. From Waygu to some seafood options like shrimp, scallops and crab claws. The meats were really fresh and nicely portioned. We had some great service, they always came by to help us change out the grill and teach us a little a bit about the menu items. I say go with a nice group that can eat and enjoy some nice grilling ! read more

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