Raku – The Best Japanese Restaurant in Las Vegas

See what it’s like to dine at Raku Las Vegas. Spoilier Alert – The only thing better than eating Robatayaki at Ruku is to end the meal with dessert at nearby Sweets Raku.

The shuffling and bustling of cars on a meandering search for parking spaces on a Friday evening at Seoul Plaza greeted us as we arrived at our anniversary dinner. We wondered if we had allowed ourselves enough time to find a space and still arrive on time for our 8:00 reservation.

A moment of panic set in. Could we find a parking spot at all? Would we miss our coveted reservation at the small but popular restaurant? An air of nervousness filled our rental car.

You see, despite its Korean name and suburban atmosphere, this strip mall two miles off the strip features two of the best Japanese restaurants in the country – Raku and Raku Sweets.

Dinner at Raku Las Vegas

Helmed by Chef Mitsuo Endo, Raku Las Vegas is a Robatayaki restaurant featuring meats and vegetables grilled with precision. The centuries-old cooking method involves a large stone grill made popular on Japanese fishing boats on the northern island of Hokkaido. In recent years, the style has grown more popular throughout Japan.

Our marathon of a meal started with a soft, silky dome of house-made tofu with a texture that evoked fresh ricotta from Italy. We were encouraged to cut the tofu by hand and sprinkle special Japanese green sea salt on the delicate curds before eating every luxurious mouthful.

The tofu course was followed by one of the most formidable plates of sashimi we’ve eaten on this side of the Pacific Ocean. While many high-end Japanese eateries import their fish from Tokyo’s famous Tsukiji Market, Raku goes the extra mile to import fish from smaller purveyors in Southern Japan.

The wonder of great Japanese cuisine is in the precision. Grill chefs in Japan cook with the skill of microsurgeons serving up a number of successive courses cooked to perfection.

And perfection followed. We loved the amazing, melt in your mouth Maryland soft shell crabs sourced from Baltimore.

We marveled over the grilled tomatoes that somehow managed to remain plump and juicy despite their browned bacon wrapping. And we pretty much inhaled the jarringly rich, melt in your mouth, slowly grilled beef tendon.

The courses kept coming in rapid succession: Crunchy flash-fried snapper with delicate flesh and crunchy edible bones, lightly salted langoustines from Scotland that had no need for butter, skewers of duck and Kobe beef and a finale of grilled foie gras. Confession: the delicate, creamy foie may have been the weakest course – a testament to how good Raku’s food is.

Pro Tip
Make sure you visit the restroom at Raku. The high-tech, multi-function toilets, are one of the things that we loved about Tokyo and shouldn’t be missed.

Dessert at Sweets Raku Las Vegas

Desserts at Sweets Raku can be ordered as a multi-course affair on an a la carte basis. As an added treat, the menus are edible.

Discover more than 100 of the best desserts in the world.

The Mt. Exotic highlighted our dessert choices – a mango cream cake with raspberries, mango and chocolate. Chef Ogasawara extruded the spaghetti-like mango ice cream topping in front of our eager eyes.

The finished dessert was certainly unique. More importantly, it tasted good.

Bursting at the seams, we were so done with food. But then the chef surprised us with a few final sweet bites – chocolate truffles and macarons, a perfect ending to a perfect anniversary dinner. How could we say no?

Original Publication Date: October 4, 2015