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| - I am speechless. I am so blown away by this place I can't think of the right word to describe the experience. I say experience because it truly is. This is not your typical dessert place with display shelves full of pastries, cakes, etc. There really isn't anything to display other than its huge selection of wine, because all the main pastry items (more like works of art) are all made fresh in front of you. If you sit at the counter you can watch the pastry chefs make your desserts right in front of you. These aren't simple desserts that can be put together with a simple frosting or decoration; these require careful attention to detail and numerous steps to put together. Watching them make the dessert was just as enjoyable as eating it.
Sweets Raku is set up more like a full service restaurant. I don't think there's even a to go option. You grab whatever seats that are available and wait for someone to give you a menu. You can go a la carte or go with its two-course dessert set ($15), which includes a choice of main dessert and another appetizer style dessert of the day. On the day we visited it was a choice of two types of sorbets. You can also add a pairing wine for $7 extra.
My wife and I went with the two course dessert set and chose Ringo (apple pie with honey ice cream and candy apple) and Blueberry Champagne sorbet. We also ordered wine flight which was served in test tubes over ice.
Ringo was a dessert like no other. It truly was a work of art. I don't think I can ever eat any other apple pie after this. The crust on the apple pie was hot, crispy, flaky with just the right amount of buttery taste. The apple filling was crisp, sweet, and tart, just the way it should be. The honey ice cream was well balanced with a perfect amount of sweetness. The most interesting part was the candy apple. It wasn't a real candy apple but a delicate candy shell made in house to make it look like an apple. It was filled with house made whip cream and caramel sauce. Watching the pastry chefs make this was truly priceless.
When I hear sorbet it just sounds really boring, but the sorbet we tried here was nothing like ones we had in the past. It came in three layers with a slightly frozen fruit layer at the bottom; a silky white, mousse-like layer in the middle; and a gelatin layer at the top. I'm not sure exactly what the middle layer was made with but it seemed like an egg white mixture, similar to a meringue but in a more liquid form. Overall combination was very refreshing and not too sweet. It had little bit of carbonation, which wasn't surprising given the name Blueberry Champagne sorbet.
Mio Ogasawara won the Pastry Chef of the Year award from Desert Companion in 2013. We feel honored she made our dessert on the night we visited.
Sweets Raku is definitely the most yelp-worthy place I visited in 2015, which is why I saved it as the last review of this year, and my 600th review. My wife and I will be doing a back-to-back visits to Raku and Sweets Raku every year from now on.
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