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| - Hype is real, y'all. Make a reservation.
Five stars because dining at Raku is an exercise in appreciating taste and texture. For instance, when you order the house-made tofu, it comes with ginger, minced chives, and bonito flakes. Our server instructed us to try it with the house matcha salt first, then to try it with the accompaniments and the house-made soy sauce. One dish has a bunch of flavor permutations and every aspect is beautifully done.
This is how eating ought to be. The bf remarked during our meal that he's starting to realize that eating well isn't about quantity, but quality. Five stars for that epiphany alone.
Food arrives as it's made so if you put in a bunch of stuff from the beginning, you can relax and enjoy it slowly. Raku has these gorgeous, spacious tables so you can have a nice conversation, but food is the centerpiece. Take the time to taste and savor it. Roll it around in your mouth.
The table accompaniments are bomb. There's the aforementioned house soy sauce and matcha salt, a house shishito pepper mix (kind of like house togarashi) and a crazy-hot, crazy-delicious bottle of pepper-infused sake. The latter is freaking delicious. Raku also sells these if you want to take some home.
We paid $30 a head for two of us. We got:
1/2 order Raku's tofu (FAVORITE - MUST ORDER)
1/2 order Agedashi tofu (good - the texture is phenomenal)
Kobe beef liver sashimi (interesting textures and flavors cuz u have options of stuff to dip in)
Foie Gras egg custard (good - comes with a sliver of duck breast)
Iberico (good - perfectly cooked pork)
Enoki mushroom wrapped in bacon (GREAT - HIGHLY RECOMMEND)
Cheesecake (good - HIGHLY RECOMMEND)
Tea (HIGHLY RECOMMEND - it's a deep, dark tea that offsets the richness of the food nicely)
We were so close to getting the grilled foie gras but we were content, not overly stuffed, and decided to save it for the next visit. Gonna stop here every time we're in town for sure.
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