Raku Sushi & Lounge

I like to use groupon to try out new restaurants or activities, I’m unsure if it’s because I was paying partially with a groupon, but the service we received was basically none. We were greeted nicely and shown to a table right away and given water and the menus, but it took what seemed like a long time, more than 15mins for our waiter to come and take our order, in fact I had to kind of wave for his attention. We came on a Wednesday afternoon, around 1pm, the restaurant was not busy, there were probably three tables with customers and two waiters. After ordering, it was close to about 20mins, my toddler started complaining about being hungry, our waiter wasn’t close but another waitress heard and said she would go check our order, I watched as she walked up to where the sushi chef was preparing orders and notices that our order had been ready for some time, i guess our waiter hadn’t checked. The reason why I knew our order had been up was because my brother and I had looked towards the sushi chef station a few mins before and were debating if the plates on the counter top were our order. It appears it was. Our water glasses were empty but before we could ask for a refill she already walked away so we decided to wait until our waiter came into sight, also we had wanted to add Miso soup for my daughter. We never got the refill or the order the soup because our waiter never came to check on us and we didn’t feel like getting up to look for someone else.
My groupon required we order from the dinner menu, which is pricier, but the rolls were pretty small, not what you would expect for a restaurant style sushi or for the price of the dinner menu, again, unsure if it’s because we used a groupon. We order a special roll, 8 pieces, $ 14 and two $ 6.50 and one $ 5 sushi roll, those three had like 5 – 6 pieces. All the rolls were pretty skimpy. And I mean small. We order the New York roll which is supposed to have apple in it, and since we never had apple in sushi were excited to try something different by after trying the roll and not tasting the apple we took apart the sushi to see if there were actually apple in the sushi and found none. We wanted to ask our waiter but as previously mentioned our waiter never checked in on us or appeared… not until…
My daughter accidentally knocked over her empty glass. The sushi chef heard and yelled out something. Even after that, it was still a few mins until our waiter finally appeared! We apologized, he assured us it was fine, gave us our bill, and as always, we tip 20% our total bill even if we received no service. Also, I always order more than the deal given on a groupon.
When I went up to pay, I glanced to see if the front part of the restaurant was busy and that’s why or waiter was M.I.A, but the front of the restaurant had only one table occupied with a couple. By the time we were into our meal, where we were seated there were only our table and one other table that were occupied. So unsure why we were forgotten.

Came here couple weeks ago, for happy hour and it was alright, waiter wasn’t the best but wasn’t that bad too. Over all it’s decent.

Nice place, but I was only there for a short time. I will go there again and try more of their sushi, but I won’t order the Saba there again.

Walked in to see what it was all about.lmao.The staff was on their phones did not even acknowledge me until I acknowledged them weird not one person in the restaurant as a guest other than myself. I say save your money for companies who employ people that want to earn it.

I have been here twice. The sushi is great, the décor is awesome but the service is bad. I wonder if it has to do with the staff not being able to speak english well. I walked in and the guy at the door was rude! The chef/​owner argued with me. He later apologized.
Verdict: I will still come back but I will always be unimpressed with the service.

Came here with a friend before going out on the town. Never been here before and didn’t have sushi. Had a Groupon as well. Got some steamed shrimp dumplings, seafood soup and calamari. The calamari was huge and tempura battered. Definitely was fresh and not frozen. The shrimp dumplings were small but tasty. The soup was also very good but difficult to eat. My friend got the lobster bisque and she said it was tasty. Our waiter wasn’t very attentive, didn’t seem like he wanted to be there and was difficult to understand. He also didn’t describe the dishes well when we asked questions. Maybe next time I’ll try the sushi. It seemed that was the real hit at this restaurant.

WORST SERVICE EVER!!!
The food was great (after they had to correct it)… However the service left A LOT to be desired. The entire staff was on their cell phones watching various videos… Our waiter was talking on his phone… Saw me look at him and turned around and walked away… I had to track down a manager just to get our bill… Who by the way was also on his cell phone… Just an awful experience…

Sorry, not impressed. Service was slow for a place that was only ½ full. The food was ok, nothing great. The sushi chefs were nice but would only speak when spoken to. No idle chatter at all from them. To far away to make it worth the trek back.

I had a groupon so I decided to try it out. Great staff, but the food wasn’t bad, but was over seasoned for me. Limited bar selection. I will check this out one more time, just because the staff was really great.

I really enjoyed my experience here. Love the atmosphere. Great happy hour specials. Love the Hamachi Kama. Captain Crunch roll is one of my new favorite rolls.

Went to Raku again for maybe the 5^th or 6^th time. Never disappointed. Sashimi was good and I always get my favorite rolls, Playboy and Megu Sashimi. Waitress was super nice and very attentive.

I brought my book club here and it turns out some of them don’t like sushi! No problem, we found some cooked seafood for them on the menu and the rest of us enjoyed the creative sushi combos. Num!

Nothing spectacular but nothing terrible either. Best sushi in the area I would have to guess. Decently priced and tasted fresh. The slices of nigiri are pretty damn generous. The rolls all seem to be rather large too. My one complaint is that my server barely spoke english. Usually this doesn’t bother me as I know what it’s like to try to learn a second language but my date couldn’t even get a rum and coke ordered without the server calling over more help. A minor annoyance.

Nice friendly atmosphere…
Great Happy Hour prices and selection for appetizers.
I recommend the Seaweed salad, Gyoza or Hurricane #9.
I’ll be back for more…
Arigatou!

Ok service. Overwhelmingly disappointing food that was over priced for the quality. The sushi was not fresh nor original. The selections for rolls were all very similar. I ordered the raku mojito and it tasted like sugar water with mint leaves. When I asked for it to be remade, the server came back and offered me a different type of drink and basically told us the drinks are
Pre-​mixed. When our food came, it was mushy and unappetizing.
Overall, I would NEVER recommend this place. I even wrote a note on my receipt about the food quality (which I have never done before).

We were in the city to car shop and needed a sushi lunch near by so we went to Raku. I wish I could be one of the 5 star reviews. At 2pm on a Saturday we were the only customers. The staff was very reserved, which sucks when you are already feeling awkward being the only ones in there (as a comparison the next door Mexican place was packed). It wasn’t «bad» service. It was just… very reserved. The food… well I agree the captain crunch roll is quite good. But the udon was the worst I ever had. A precooked egg in it and broth that was no more flavorful then water. Oh, and overcooked noodles. Gag. No one ate it. The sushi was «okay» but the rice was way undercooked and slightly under seasoned. Ummmmm… sushi rice shouldn’t be crunchy.
The décor was fine. It could use some more interesting touches, but it wasn’t bad. The bathrooms were clean.

Raku sushi is at the West End Mall by Bonefish and Anthropologie and some Hilton hotels. Raku has good food and really cute décor. The service is very poor. There isn’t any enthusiasm or smiling or please and thank you. If they had that I would probably go 5 stars — it’s that bad.
The menu has alot of fried/​spicy stuff — it’s MN idea of sushi I guess. You can order off the menu and they will make you whatever — like a rainbow roll.
I have not had a bad roll here. THey are heavy on sauces on the roll so if you are not a fan ask for the sauce on the side. The white wasabi sauce is overwhelming.
THere is alot of outdoor and indoor seating, underground tables, bar and booths. Just don’t expect good service.

Came back twice and not liking this location anymore. The udon was in short tiny pieces. The tempura was underseasoned and the dipping sauce bland. Yellowtail collar was not the whole collar. It was just the ring around the cartilage of the collar if that makes sense. The yellowtail jalapeño appetizer was okay, but the sashimi was in random hacks, chunks and thicknesses. Maybe that’s what happened to the rest of the collar?
I might go back to Edina, but the owners need to come check the quality here. It’s gone downhill.
To the parents that let their kids run around with chopsticks around those weird tables in the front like a bunch of little a-​holes, I hope you don’t sue when one of them gets hurt. It’s a restaurant, go find an urgent care to be rude and careless near instead.

I’m giving Raku 5 stars because for being in MN, they’ve got amazing sushi and impeccable service.
I came here on a Tuesday night for sushi date night. Immediately I was greeted by the host and walked to my booth. Our server came by shortly with waters and helped us decide on drinks. We both wanted sake but had a hard time deciding so our server asked the bartender to create a sake tasting flight for us.
We started with an order of edamame, two orders of super white tuna sashimi and salmon sashimi. Perfect. Can’t go wrong with those.
I had a hard time deciding what else I wanted as I am, admittedly, somewhat of a picky eater. I try to stay away from rice as much as I can and I love spicy food so our server recommended an order of yellowtail jalapeño and the naruto roll (a combination of different fish wrapped in fresh cucumber and topped with caviar… can we say yummm?!).
Her recommendations were on point! We loved the yellowtail jalapeño… it wasn’t as spicy as I was expecting but it was extremely flavorful. The naruto roll was a little unexpected but it was delicious and we were definitely satisfied.
Great food. Great service. Great location. All things that make for a perfect restaurant.

Visited Raku on a slightly less busy Friday night for sushi and drinks. The ambiance is beautiful.
I’m not a sushi connoisseur so I tried the captain crunch and it was amazing. We also had the peppercorn chicken, beef and chicken teriyaki and adamame for appetizers.
I’m a fan!