Raku — Restaurant in District of Canberra Central

My fav restaurant in CBR at the moment and best Japanese I've had anywhere (granted I haven't been to Japan yet 😜). Def coming back! Thank u Raku for a great evening 💝

Elegant decor with secluded booths in back, large shared tables in middle, seated tables by windows, bar and part open/viewable cooking stations.

We had a party of 4 and were seated in a mostly enclosed booth, which felt like we could've had the restaurant to ourselves. Plenty of space, probably could have seated 6 comfortably and had entry from both sides. Seated next to glass enclosed grill section so able to see chef cooking grilled disheswithout feeling the heat or getting smoked out 👍🏻

Excellent and very friendly & polite customer service, good amount of checking in. One of the dishes wasn't available and was replaced with a tofu dish, one of us didn't like tofu so they subbed it for a soft shell crab dish instead. One of our friend's drink was too sour for their liking, so we asked for some sweetness to be added and they took it to fix with no issue. Was still a bit sour, so they ended up remaking a whole new drink.

We ordered the $80 p/person Hao san’s tasting menu (Min 2 guests) highly recommendn but will try the royal tasting menu next time.

Every dish was delicious. Very tasty, great sauces, fresh clean seafood (not fishy, slimy or dried out) & plated beautifully.

Would have been good amount to be full enough, but we did order an extra dish and dessert just because they sounded good. Was over full by the end of the meal including having 2 cocktails.

Here's what we ate:

Signature Merimbula rock oysters, cucumber, tosazu I'm not a big oyster fan, but super fresh and the tosazu sauce + little crunch of cucumber just made it so good.

‐ Tasmanian salmon tartar w yuzu miso & squid ink cracker

Sashimi santen fresh, clean taste, 6 pieces each (2 x salmon, 2 x king fish, 2 x scallop)

Chef’s selection nigiri ( 2 different kinds so got 1 of each)

Crispy tofu w barley miso & avocado salsa, dried chilli julienne (normally get Tempura zucchini flowers, feta, goma, tofu paste, dashi broth but wasn't available)

Canadian scallop, jalapeno, green apple, garlic mayonnaise

Wagyu gyoza w truffle oil, white ponzu, mustard seed

Cherry tomato salad, fried quinoa, honey soy, spicy tofu creme, beach bananas

150-day grain fed Scotch fillet w wafu, wasabi sour cream, rhubarb salt White miso dashi w tofu, wakame & spring onion

miso soup

Toasted sesame ice cream w caramelised almonds sticky miso caramel, matcha wafer

Extra orders Dragon maki

Raku Chef's plate (selection of 3 desserts designed to share, but were 3 full sized dessert serving), included:

Sakura pavlova Baked meringue, lychee & raspberry sorbet, rose chantilly, raspberry jelly

O-cha mochi & bīru aisu Matcha mochi, genmaicha cream, almond crumb

Yuzu kurīmu Yuzu & matcha pannacotta, sake jelly, cookie crumbs

Drink Raku Cobbler Pineapple tepache, fino sherry, pomegranate, grenadine,...

Raku is what we’d describe as contemporary fine dining Japanese. We were in Canberra for the weekend between Christmas and new year and had heard good words about this restaurant. We are so glad to have visited and it ended up making our best of list for 2018.

The restaurant is located in the main CBD precinct near the shopping centre and thus was easy to locate.

The space is large with table seating or right up at the chefs kitchen as well private dining spaces. It is dimly lit and has a romantic feel to it.

We learn that Raku is named after a Japanese style of pottery (fired in open flames), which is apt for a Robata style restaurant. Secondly, the ceramics here were absolutely beautiful and demonstrated different designs and techniques.

The robata method enables the flavour of the flame to shine through the meat, seafood and vegetables and the blue eyed cod has to be one of the best things we’ve ever ordered. You can watch the chefs prepare the meats on the grill over the flame and it is mesmerising.

Given our seats in front of the chef, we could watch the masters at action, preparing beautiful plates of sashimi and nigiri as well as maki rolls. The chefs were precise, fast and seemed to be so calm and thoroughly enjoying their job.

The menu is extensive, so much so we found it an extremely difficult task to decide what to get. The tasting menu sounded brilliant, and the price is appropriate for what it includes. However we thought that ordering ala Carte would allow us to spend the same, whilst enabling us to try more of a variety of the menu offerings.

We started with some miso followed by the loved the Bresaola with kingfish sashimi and a light but lovely truffle dressing $22.

The sashimi looked great and you can order this in the 3, 5 or 7 varieties. We opted for the 5 varieties, which included bluefin tuna, scallops, snapper, kingfish and salmon. It was lovely sashimi and sliced to a nice size, served with wasabi and soy $47.

The absolute winner on the night was the Alaskan black cod $38 with Saikyo miso and picked cauliflower. The Smokey flavour was beautiful and it was so soft and melted in your mouth. We added a side of Asparagus with a miso butter.

We were still little hungry and so added on a maki roll and we were glad we did, as this was another favourite. A South Australian Kingfish with yuzu, truffle, chives and fresh chilli.

We ended with a whiskey ice cream which was also superb.

Drinks wise, they have some solid cocktails with Japanese flavours, sake, beers and wines and ask for the waiters suggestion to match your meal.

It was an all round fantastic experience, with a clean and sophisticated aesthetic, prompt service and incredible food. Whilst it is quite upper end for the budget, it’s worth...

I returned today to this wonderful restaurant in Canberra , the food once again was absolutely fantastic, I had a grilled avocado and the dressing it came with complimented it amazingly, followed by wagu and crab roll which just melted in my mouth and then popcorn prawns with a tangy dressing , I could not fault the food.

However there was a couple of stand outs today that I will mention here and I mean them as constructive criticism to only help improve this allready incredible restaurant.

Firstly you can refer to the photos I posted with this review to help explain what I'm mentioning.

I was sat at the bar , my favourite place ,but directly in front of me was a tray of frozen scallops,I presume, thawing for use. Approx 60 cm from , not the most attractive thing to spend your time looking at.

Firstly I was disappointed to see the use of frozen scallops as the quality of what I have previously eaten would suggest the restaurant would use fresh.

They seemed to be located right next to and over what seemed to be a sink of some kind , and then they were not covered just exposed to to the air the total time I was seated. It was a very busy area with lots of staff around not the best place to thaw seafood.

I would suggest this sort of procedure be undertaken in the back kitchen, and that the view and what customers sitting at the bar are looking at, are considered carefully.

Secondly and abit more disappointing was the lack of my beverages being topped up or refilled.

Apon arrival I was promptly served my mineral water and my $20 glass of wine I ordered by I must say a very polite server and can I mention the staff are all friendly and polite and make nice conversation, but that's where it stopped .

I finnish both my drinks half way through my entrees and deliberately then placed my empty wine glass on the bar, expecting to be ask for a refill for both my beverages.

Alas I finished my entrees then my main course and still I had empty glasses which stayed that way until I left.

I did have a late lunch booking 1.30pm, so I understand the staff may be abit tired after a very busy service but it's the consistency of excellent service and the attention to details that make a great restaurant an excellent one.

My bill would have been doubled what it was if I had been offered more wine.

I hope you find this helpful and informative to making your wonderful and memorable restaurant a even better experience for all those who venture through your doors.

I shall return next week to once again enjoy my new...