This place reminds me of The Open Door.  Similar style of food and decor but Raku is less fusion than TOD.  The lighting was dim, the restaurant small but it was pretty packed still.  We were seated the bar and were left to decide what to order.  \n\nSince I had avidly looked at their online menu [with pictures!! yay], I knew what I really wanted to try.  \n\nThe Food\n\nSeafood with Bonito Guts Pickled in Salt - I was really excited to try this.  I knew it had uni and if you know me, you know I LOVE uni, but also because I love guts.  In addtion, it also had ikura.  The Bonito Guts were definitely pickled in salt.  The texture was crunchy and tasted salty, which complimented the milder flavors, in comparison, of the uni and ikura.  The saltiness helped to bring out the sweetness of the uni and intensified the taste of the ikura.\n\nFresh Kobe Beef Liver\nAnother dish I was excited to try.  After watching Andrew Zimmern in Africa eating raw camel liver, my boyfriend and I thought it looked really tasty.  A bit macabre aren't we?  Anyways, this dish arrived looking like little piles of dark ketchup with a slice of garlic on top.  There was some oil mixture to dip the liver in.  If you ever eaten cooked liver, raw liver tastes almost the same except the texture is crunchy, creamy, and possesses a VERY intense liver flavor.  I really liked the pairing of the garlic with the liver.  Though the dish was an interesting experience, I'm not going to be craving it like I did the previous dish.\n\nSpecial of the Day: Agedashi Tofu served two ways [fresh and fried]\n\nServed cold, the fresh tofu had a pretty delicate and mild flavor.  It was accompanied by some bonito shavings, green onions, and shredded ginger.  It was recommended to eat it with their special house blended soy sauce.  Again, this dish was really mild, a contrast to the first dish of pickled bonito guts.  I liked it and it served to really highlight the flavor of tofu.\n\nWhen the tofu was fried, it arrived in a shallow bowl some brown broth-like sauce and little mushrooms floating around.  The tofu also had some ikura, seaweed, and green onions topping it.  This dish was served warm.  Since the fried tofu was the same tofu as the cold one [they just cut the tofu in half and served it two ways for us], the flavor was pretty much the same but because it was fried and served warm, it felt more soothing to me because it was a cold night.\n\nPoached Egg with Sea Urchin and Salmon Roe\nBoy, was this a slimy dish.  I have no qualms with sliminess but I can see how others may be turned off from this dish.  The dish contained a poached egg, some soy sauce like broth, ikura, uni, sliced okra, little mushrooms, Japanese mountain yam [which if you don't know already, it super slimy and can be mashed/grated to a natto consistency] and some seasoning sprinkled on.  This was a cold dish.  Basically, a nice mix of flavors.  Though it contained many elements that I love, this wasn't a dish I loved.  It was okay overall.\n\nSteamed Egg Custard with Foie Gras\nTo die for.  This was the BEST egg custard I have ever had.  Probably contained Lord knows how many calories because it was so rich, creamy, and decadent.  It was a really nice, warm, savory dish.  Both my boyfriend and I adored it.\n\nChicken Breast Wrapped with Chicken Skin\nThis was pretty average.  Nothing much to write home about.\n\nThis is definitely a nice place to go to, especially for a date imo because of the dim lighting and close seating arrangements.  Next time I go to Vegas, if not for the Steam Egg Custard with Foie Gras, I'll definitely come back to try other dishes.