First off they should warn you that reservations are required and expected. We came in around 7pm on a Saturday night and there were seats open abound... granted they were reserved for 8pm appointments. At first the hostess told us they couldn't seat us until 10pm but it was clearly not busy (yet). We "pleaded" and they agreed only on the condition we leave by 8pm. During our dinner, we saw many shocked walk-ins getting disappointed and turned away.
The food was hit or miss. The menu options favored yakitori dishes. For just the two of us, we ordered quite a few dishes
1. Homemade tofu - two ways: cold and fried
2. Various yakitori: chicken thigh, pig's ear, bacon wrapped asparagus
3. 2x orders of cold soba (which came in an "interesting" sauce of poached egg and ponzu
4. Custard with foie gras
5. Hotari Ika (tiny squid blanched in hot H2O and served cold
Total bill with tax/tip: $82
Raku has great ingenuity in their dishes; mixing uncommonly-paired items together. Problem is it may be too inventive and not right for some taste buds. However, there is no doubt that they use the best quality ingredients. Even their soy sauce, chili oil, and green tea salt are homemade.
Having a few days to digest the food and experience, I'm torn as to how many stars Raku deserves. A part of me wants to award it 5 stars for the quality and innovative dishes while another part wants denounce its lack of accommodation for walk-ins with a 1-star rating. So to be perfectly fair: 3 solid stars.