Raku Izakaya

We get Ramen from here and it’s so good every time. The last time we ordered they make a mistake and gave us the «wrong» food in addition the the corrected order! They were so nice!

We originally went to a bar not too far away and the kitchen was closed. We were then advised to come here since it was right around the block.
Unfortunately we just missed the beloved Happy Hour which I hope to catch for the next time. I just ordered the Shumai and a nice warm container of Sake. I have to say this place seemed pretty legit with it’s music, I always liked lounge like places, where the music is great and the ambience and chill. The service was great, our glasses were continuously filled. My sister ordered GYOZA and she seemed to like it. Until next time, I will try the happy hour…
Come to this place if you are looking for something quiet, or a date night perhaps?

Second time being here. I had dinner with my friends, ordered the tonkatsu and dessert — zenzai parfait (red bean and mochi over green tea ice cream). I really wanted mochi. So when the dessert came with 2 scoops of ice cream and a pinch of red bean, I was looking for the mochi. Asked the server where it was and they told me they ran out. This was quite annoying. They didn’t even bother to tell me that they ran out or have the decency to ask me if I still wanted it. They just served it to me without the mochi. They didn’t offer an apology or a discount. Smh. The $ 4 ice cream was not worth it.
Besides that, the food is alright, nothing special. The place is nice and comfy. I like the décor. Probably a good place to go to have drinks and finger food. Great place to hangout with friends. Dim lights. Music was fine. The menu was hard to read in the dark and it looked hand written.

Food was quite good. Miso black cod and soft shell crab very tasty. Agedashi tofu was okay.
Friendly service.

Awful place. Been here 5 times and every time its a disappointment. The only good part about this place is that its open until 3am

It doesn’t exactly have the homiest welcome due to the dark décor from an outside perspective, but it’s a completely different ambiance on the inside. The red neon sign and the dark Windows isn’t inviting to those who aren’t from the area, but being that I’m familiar with the area, it wasn’t a place to turn down… don’t judge a book by its cover right?
There’s a municipal parking lot right behind the restaurant which is convenient. Just make sure you feed the meter before you come back to a $ 28 ticket (yes, I got the ticket). Anyway, the restaurant is surprisingly bigger than I thought. Walking through the back hallway towards the front of the restaurant holds the bigger seats for parties. Since there was supposed to be 8 of us, we were seated at the booth in front of the kitchen. The décor of the place is really dim and dark… some would say romantic but it’s a bit annoying when the light above you kept turning brighter. It was a little too dim for my taste, but not enough to tamper my experience. The place looked very clean. I thought this was going to be a ratchet hole in the wall where only Asians hang out (not entirely untrue).
Our waitress was very nice when we arrived. She came back a few times without being summoned to check on us and asked us if we were ready to order. she bought our drinks out promptly with a pitcher of water and glasses for everyone. The alcoholic drinks were on point. Our group ordered a pitcher of Sappora and a friend ordered the lychee cocktail which was delicious. Not too strong of a lychee flavor to over sweeten the drink, but not too little alcohol where you’d think this was a mock tail. Anyway, the food came out fairly quickly. Since this is really more of a drinks/​tapas place, we ordered a variety of squid balls, chicken wings, Shu Mai, etc.
The food itself was surprisingly tasty. One thing I didn’t like was the chicken wings they offered. Having had the double fried wings elsewhere, these overly fried wings just did not cut it. I wouldn’t spend the money to orders the wings because there’s nothing special about them. Regardless, we were satisfied with the rest of the food we ordered because we ended up racking up a $ 180 bill! For the amount of food we got (3 pitches of beer, 3 cocktails, and about 10 plates of tapas, I guess I can’t really complain!
Do I think I’d come back? Probably not. A lot of the food were overpriced and a $ 15 pitcher seemed a little insane. If you’re looking for a nice place to chill on the weekend or just to have drinks with some friends, you can give his a place a try, but I would probably check out other places that may offers for more less.

This is one of all time goto bars when in mood for some Japanese small plates & sake. Nice service, good food and decent selection of drinks (alcohol) will get your night started. Very easy parking in municipal lot behind the building is always a plus!
Has good selection of sake & Yakitori menu. Also, there are sections in the back for larger crowd. If you are looking for fun times in local area, check out this place.

Perfect place to take your date.
I like the dark, romantic ambiance.
Also, the food is delicious. Goes really well with some of their large selection of sake.
Parking has never been an issue, and the service is great.

This place is phenomenal and I’ll break it down:
Ambiance: low lighting and intimate seating, the décor is minimal yet modern with subtle notes of homage to Japan. Perfect for a date night or an evening with friends.
Food: now this is what I come here for, because it’s izakaya (Japanese tapas) done right. For those of you whining about the price and portion of food, remember where you are. This isn’t your typical dive bar with greasy menu deals. The idea of tapas is to go along with your drink, it’s not intended as a meal. They do have them and of course they’re a bit pricy, but again look at where you are. The quality they’re turning out is amazing and does well to honor what izakaya is in Japan.
Service: Everyone here is your waiter and the manager/​owner (I’m unsure of which he is) is also a kickass dude. He doesn’t lounge behind the counter as the waitstaff work, he’s out there with them. He’ll come by ask how it’s going and even takes away your dishes, something you never see managers/​owners do. The waitstaff are awesome and attentive to your needs. Remember this is quality stuff they’re churning out so your food will take a bit. Again this isn’t intended as a meal type thing, they’re meant to go with drinks, so preferaby fill up elsewhere then leave some room and come here. If money isn’t a bother, especially when you’ve got a ton of friends, then filling up and splitting the check shouldn’t be an issue.
Drinks: They have quite a selection of sale, Japanese beer and various spirits available. The sake bottles are pricy but they have smaller sizes that’ll do. The cocktails they make are delicious, but not really my thing. If you’re unsure of what you want and want to try something new, just ask the manager. He gives great recommendations.
Overall this place is great and is misunderstood by the public so hopefully my review gives you a better idea of what this place is before you head in.

The slowest customer service I have ever experienced. My friend and I checked this place out on a Friday night — pretty quiet, but really slow. The servers were sweet, but I feel like they were just standing in the corner most of the time… and waving my arms didn’t do much since they barely looked in our direction. My friend and I came back from a busy night of shopping, so we were HANGRRRY. We started off with some Japanese pancakes, a sushi roll and edamame, but seeing how long it took for those small orders to come out, we didn’t want to order anything else. The ambiance is great — perfect for a date night, but the quality of food and long wait time = 2 stars.

On the one hand, very prompt, friendly service and decent ambiance. Also, their skirt steak, and $ 3.50/mouthful, is divine perfection.
On the other hand, along with truly mediocre sushi, their servings are offensively overpriced and under-​portioned. It just doesn’t make me interested in coming back when I find myself thinking, «Instead of ordering more, I think I’ll stop someplace else on the way home to get myself enough to make it a full meal so I’m not still hungry.» I get irritated when I’ve spent a decent chunk and am still hungry.
2.5 stars.

This place was o-​k-​. Some items were a hit, while others were a miss.
Pros: Friendly staff, got seated immediately, food came out fast, descent food selection
Cons: So loud… unntz unntz unntz with a dimly lit interior.

My husband and I came here for date night. We were able to make it for the happy hour, which is great. One of the best deals is the spicy tuna hand roll! We ordered 4 of those and some other dishes from the regular menu.
My issue with Raku is not that their food is bad… everything we had was actually quite good. However, the food was slow to come out of the kitchen and we felt the servers were also pretty lackadaisical in their service. Like, to the point where we questioned if they actually took our orders down!
The waitress was NOWHERE to be found when we were looking for the check — we had to ask the guy at the cash register. Also, we placed an order within the happy hour time frame for 2 spicy tuna happy hour hand rolls and didn’t get them until AFTER we got the check. We seriously thought the waitress just forgot about them because it took SO long to come out. I don’t think I’d come back here, just because being ignored is NOT on my top list of preferences on date night. A shame b/​c food was decent.

Raku is one of the most unique places in Fort lee. Right off the bat, they set the ambiance with dim lights and soft lounge music. The service is really good and they have a great happy hour offering. I go there for the hot house sake and the tapas. Must try the tako yaki, tuna tartare and kimchi pancakes. Great place for dates.

Low light, a more intimidate ambiance. I’d say this place is better for a date or very small group. I’m actually pleasantly surprised that tonight’s crowd is a lot more diversified than what I’ve seen in the past (last time I was here was a few years back). Anything goes in terms of wardrobe, you’ll see people in casual to suits here. They have a lounge vibe, down to the music playing. Waitresses here are really friendly and easy to flag down if you need anything.
Their strengths here are ramen and Japanese assorted cuisine & liquors/​beers as expected. They have Sapporo on draft which was great. For starters u ordered the Yaki tori chicken combo (skewers) which was good but I think what was really tasty was the Yaki yumi (octopus balls). Trust me even if you don’t think you like octopus, these were very tasty.
My date had the shoyu ramen (pork), the flavored were strong. I would recommend if you like meat. I had the miso ramen which is a classic, not too salty and the broth was really tasty– on point. If you’re not in the mood for ramen, they offer a tapas version– Japanese style. An assortment of small traditional Japanese dishes you can choose from for a good price. No would say for an average eater– order at least an appetizer and a ramen/​entrée to please your appetite. Ramen serving is kind of on the smaller side.

A great spot for happy hour in Fort Lee! My roommates and I got to Raku around 6pm and it was pretty empty but as it got closer to 7, the place started to get packed! We ordered a couple of the $ 5 hot sake and got some kimchi tofu, udon, chicken wings and fries to munch on. My favorite was the kimchi tofu because it had a nice spicy kick to it! Definitely going back for some more soon.

Their miso soup is really salty and their service was pretty slow even though there weren’t many customers, but the interior design is beautiful and our sushi rolls were pretty good! My dragon maki could’ve been a little more flavorful, but it satisfied my sushi craving.
They’re also open until 2 am, and being open late is always a plus in my book.

I came in solely for lychee martinis, which were delicious! I was just disappointed that the bartender didn’t garnish the drinks with an actual lychee. I also tried a cold Ozeki sake, which was surprising good! I am not a fan of sake at all, but this one (it came in a pink bottle) was refreshing.
The interior of the restaurant was small, but very clean in design. It had good ambience and the music playing added oomph to this place. I will come for some food next time– hopefully it lives up to what I have seen so far.

It is really convenient to have some place with decent izakaya, though not many options are being offered here. So essentially I got one for each, chicken thigh, meatball, porkbelly and steak. Steak was by far my favorite, with about the right level of flavor.
One good thing about this place is that they have many wines/​sake/​beer, even with my favorite sparkling sake, perfect sake for girls!
Other than that, they provide good takoyaki, fried tofu and raw oyster. Strongly suggest the oyster with wasabi, small size.

This is one of the restaurants in Ft. Lee that I’ve driven by for so many years, but never actually went inside until now. The interior is much nicer than the outside lets on, very modern with Japanese flair.
The place was crowded that night, so we sat at the bar. They don’t have too many beers on tap (though of note they had Killians & Sapporo), but they do have lots of japanese beers in bottles/​cans. Happy hour prices for the house hot sake are fantastic, a carafe is only $ 5.00! I had the kimchi pork fried rice, and order of their house tempura roll and a spicy salmon roll.
The kimchi fried rice was nice and spicy. They include an egg over the rice which was very much appreciated. The portion was just right, not too small, and not too large. The salmon roll was nothing special, but good in its own right. The fried tempura roll on the other hand was quite good. Hot and crispy, and the small salad they had spread over it paired well with the roll.
I left completely satisfied, and I can say that I will be coming through here again!