Raku and The Art of Oyster Udon
I have to start this blog off by saying that Raku has the freshest udon I've ever had! The noodle is super softly-bouncy and well-crafted you'll change your perception of udon after trying.
Rated "30 restaurants that are worth-the-wait in NYC" by Yelp, my wait was half an hour for the Soho location, and approximately an hour for their newest location in Toronto.
Raku's interior is very consistent across both their NYC and Toronto locations. You'll find lines and shapes of beautiful light woods running throughout the restaurants. The only main difference is noticed on the menu! Not surprisingly, NYC provides a wider selection on its menu. More than just that, within 2 of the NYC items below, one dish is exclusive for their Soho location.
We all love fried chickens with a fat, juicy lemon squeeze. Raku treated us well to some tender fried chicken with extremely crispy skin! The coating was also very thin and aromatic. Highly recommended.
Up next is a Soho-exclusive item: the Uni Ikura Don. WHAT A TREAT I must say! The rice was so well-seasoned underneath the big, fat roe and flattering uni it was a treat from heaven. The only downside is the portion of the uni. I expected a thicker layer of uni from some previous photos posted on Raku's Instagram. Discrepancies happen! :D
Tina tried cold udon for the first time with her Yamakake bowl consisted of grated mountain yam and bonito flakes. I managed to slurp a bit from her bowl and despite the delicious noodle, we both were not a fan of the bowl.
Next up is the Kani Ankake bowl. As a seafood fan, I praise Raku for the chunkiest and thickest pile of crab meat. I was a fan! The thick and slimy egg soup was such an interestingly wonderful feature of the bowl. I would recommend a good mix before slurping since the soup is extremely hot (speaking from a burnt-tongue experience :D).
Finally! The bowl we've all been waiting for - the Kaki bowl. Never in my life I've tasted a noodle bowl with such strong oceany taste of the oyster! As a fan of oysters (eh!), I was basically in love. Every single piece of oyster was so sweet, thick and fresh. The long cut pieces of scallions added such a fresh & zesty flavour to the broth. What-a-treat!
All-in-all, udon know nothing about good udon until you've tried Raku! Incredible portion size of the hot bowls and creative menu items - Raku deserves international recognition (literally from NYC to Toronto!).
Some other highly recommended items I've tried that are not pictured in this blog are: ankimo (monk fish liver), Niku udon (a classic, must-try!), and the Yaki Nasu (deep-fried eggplant).
Thanks for reading! All photos are taken by Huy Tran. More info at http://rakunyc.com
