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| - Opening day of Sweets Raku was pretty great. Love the simple, modern decor and that you get a high end experience, for a somewhat reasonable price. You can tell that they put a lot of thought into everything, and I love little details like the curved glasses, their utensil holders and that they made a spoon rest out spare wall tiles.
Servers are incredibly attentive and friendly - she actually remembered me from the day before when I popped in since John Curtas (mistakenly) said they were unofficially open and serving from the 5th.
They got their liquor license quicker than expected, so they don't have wine available yet (assume that's coming soon), but they do offer yummy Illy coffee and some tempting tea selections. I went with just an iced latte $4.50, and the coffee ice cubes inside were a nice surprise since the drinks stays cold without getting watered down.
For now, your only option is to do the three course $19 prix fixe menu w/ an amuse, choice of 3 main desserts, and petits fours. FYI maybe this will change, but it's currently an additional $12 to share - you do get a 2nd amuse and petits fours with a shared dessert. Instead of sharing, I'd suggest just paying the extra $7 so you get another main dessert as well.
The menu is entirely edible - printed on rice paper and served with a raspberry sauce for dipping. Even the holder ring is made of pretty pulled sugar. Honestly, it wasn't particularly delish, but it's a cool concept to be able to eat your menu.
Amuse came out quickly - it was a really refreshing mango sorbet with mint jelly. It was smooth and basically like eating a fresh mango. The jelly was minty enough that you could taste it, but not overwhelming.
My neighbors had the strawberry/banana dessert and loved it, but I can't resist chocolate, so I went with Apollo for my main - chocolate and framboise (raspberry) mousse. The desserts are assembled to order before your eyes surprisingly quickly.
The signature for Japanese desserts seems to be that they're never too sweet - it may end up being bland to some people, but I really like that you can focus on the flavor vs just tasting the sweetness of sugar. I love mousses, but they usually seem so heavy and rich that you feel like crap after having them. This was somehow really light with the chocolate and raspberry perfectly balanced. I kind felt like there was too much going on w/ all the other components, but it made for a beautiful dish - almost too pretty to eat.
The petits fours was a mini chocolate lava cake w/ little raspberry and passion fruit marshmellows on the side, and some random raisins too. It's pretty small, about 2" diameter but it's a petits fours, so you should kind of expect that. Don't expect your typical lava cake, because again, they go light on the sugar so it seemed super chocolatey to me. Kind of like a good quality dark chocolate vs a cheap hershey bar. It was a great way to end the meal. The timing of that last course was a little off - it took a while to arrive since they had to bake it, but she did mention up front that it would take time.
I actually went by myself because nobody wanted to spend $20 on dessert, but it wasn't awkward since everything came out relatively fast and sitting at the counter has kind of a more communal feel. So I did end up chatting with strangers a bit. It was overall a fun and fancy dessert experience without being the least bit pretentious.
I can't really say these were mind blowing desserts, and if you prefer really sweet things, this may not be the place for you. But for the service level, and the fact that they're basically making art before your eyes, I think it's worth the $19 price. It's about the experience, and it's definitely a great date spot. The server even chased me down in the parking lot to give me an opening day giftbag with a chocolate cake, mini madelines and an almond cookie. She was too cute.
I don't know that this is really a negative, but I was a little surprised that there was really nothing asian about any of the desserts - I kind of expected more Japanese influenced flavors like matcha and yuzu. But the menu is supposed to constantly change, so who knows for the future
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