Rakuya — Restaurant in Washington

I am thrilled to write a long overdue review of a place I have frequented as a regular in the 10+ years I have lived in the DMV.

Let's start with the food: Rakuya's greatest strength lies in its Japanese food. This seafood enthusiast appreciates the firmness, suppleness, and brininess of its fresh sashimi that tops the rice of its nigiri. It merely takes a bit of soy sauce and wasabi to bring out the flavors. The special menu, accessible by QR code, will especially delight those familiar with Japan, as it is filled with exotic seafood imports from the country.

The same menu is where the chef(s) get the most experimental, as they fully display their creative talents with the fusion items they change through. The same spirit is reflected in the regular menu, where the ramen and appetizers reflect success in the risky experiment that is fusion. This is the only Japanese place I have been to that can upgrade Chinese favorites, to include the shumai and spicy wontons.

One area where tradition and fusion coexist is the drink menu. Sake connoisseurs will delight in the broad range of sharply dry and mellowly sweet sake and the pungent shochu (a beverage less known in the US), while those who want something a bit funky will enjoy the mixed drinks.

The strict attention to flavors contrasts with the chill atmosphere. I know of few places in the nation's capital where you can get wonderful Japanese cuisine at a reasonable price (especially at the unusually well-priced weekday happy hours) without the relative stiffness of Japanese etiquette.

The staff are also just as chill. Their relaxed friendliness delightfully sets off their attentiveness to service. I can guarantee that will you be taken care of. Everyone has attended to all of my needs, but I want to give shoutouts to people who have been especially consistent. The bartenders Abby and Prau, and the manager/bartender Te, have never spared any energy as they made sure I was quite comfortable and sated.

Despite vast improvement in DC's ethnic food scene, wonderful Japanese food with great prices and atmospheres remains somewhat elusive. All this reflects the rarity of this great find. I promise that you will leave happy for all of the...

Tried out Rakuya on Friday night during a girls trip to the DC area! We had a 7:45 reservation for the 6 of us girls, and we were seated at a booth indoors. There’s also a lot of outdoor seating which would be a great option as well! Three of us were there before the others and put drink orders in, and they did take about 30 minutes for our drinks to come out, which was a bummer. (We might have gotten two rounds of drinks if the service was quicker.) They did tell us that the bar was backed up, though. However, service did continue to be slow. When our other 3 friends arrived, a different server took their drink orders. We had planned to do some appetizers and entrees, but by the time we saw our server to put in food orders we just had to put in entrees and skip the apps because of time. (We were headed to a comedy show at 9:45). I had the “Perfect Afternoon” cocktail, which was plum wine, aperol, Prosecco, and vermouth with an orange twist and olives. If you like aperol this is the drink for you!! I tried some of the Blackberry Splitzer from a friend as well and it was really nice. For meals, I had the Tan Tan Men noodles which were really tasty, lots of flavor! And I split the Dragon Roll with a friend. Our other friends got the Deluxe Bento Box which looked PHENOMENAL, and from what I tried it tasted great too, and it included a wide variety.

Overall we all loved our meals, the restaurant was a cool vibe, and our only complaint was that the service could have been a bit faster (it may have helped to have only 1 server for the table, rather than multiple different people- it seemed like it made things confusing). Would try this...

Someone once said of Raku that it's "a decent stand-by in Dupont when you're vaguely in the mood for something Asiany and don't know where else to go." This sentence nails it. Because Raku is right off the circle on Connecticut, it makes for a good midday sit-down place. They've got a great outdoor patio with some stellar Dupont people-watching. The inside of Raku gets a thumbs up, too - like an Asian Applebee's, casual but still nice enough for a (second) date or a meet-up or whatever.

The excellence basically stops there & slides its way into mediocrity. Their sushi is OK, but it's nothing to write home about - VERY sticky, & just not that tasty. For lunch, skip the lame sushi & try a chicken bento box - a much better choice! It comes with so much food: TWO small chicken breasts in a really sweet teriyaki sauce, three small crab shumai, a house salad with ginger dressing, green beans & mushrooms, small sides of mashed potatoes & spinach, & six small California rolls. For $10.50.

YES, PLEASE. It's so much food! They're always willing to substitute the crab shumai for a veggie springroll for my friends who don't eat seafood, & they take the mushrooms out for me because I'm allergic - lots of places won't do substitutes in pre-established, multi-part dishes like bento boxes, so this was a pleasant surprise & gets Raku the extra...