mthe

I apologize for posting this late. The week has gone by too quickly for us during this soft opening time. But here it is, as Don posted above: RAKUYA's Soft Opening Special Offer Only for DR Members We would like to extend the following offer to all DR Members: For each dish ordered, Get a 2nd dish of equal or lesser value free. The above offer is good during dinner hours only until August 31, 2016. As Don mentioned above, there is no exchange of benefit between Rakuya and DR for offering members this deal. This is a very important point to Don and myself. I offer this because I feel that I am a part and member of this DR.com community and simply want to have other fellow members try us without having to pay full price during soft opening period. And I do not expect to receive any write-ups either. To take advantage of this offer, reservation is required by emailing me directly at mthe@rakuasiandining.com. Please, state in the email that you are a DR member. I can be a little flexible if there are some who are not able to make it during this vacation period. Just email me and let me know when you would like to come, I will do my best to accommodate. Best to all, Marcel Rakuya

Hello, it's Marcel here over at Rakuya-Japanese Kitchen + Bar. We have just started our soft opening stage this past weekend. Although we have gone through training and a week of serving friends and family, we were still hoping that we would be able to quietly soft open and utilize this time to continue training our staff, and improve our operations. As much as we'd like to fly under the radar during this stage, we realize this is difficult to do, since there are quiet a few internet sites and publications which focus on restaurant opening announcements. Having said that, I do appreciate Cheezepowder for the posting above regarding our opening. As indicated by Cheezepowder, we have not gone live with Rakuya website yet. This will happen some time this week. At the moment we are only open 6 dinners (closed on Monday). We may start serving lunch in the next 2 weeks. A brief description of our menu by Chefs Masaru Homma & Ken Yamashiro Ballogdajan: Kitchen menu for dinner consists of Japanese small to mid size dishes that are both contemporary and traditional. There are sashimi, sushi rolls, and ramen as well. Bar menu focuses on a nice selection of Premium Sake, Shochu, and fine Japanese Whiskeys and Craft Beers. Please, come and enjoy our new food and drinks in our newly renovated space. Marcel The

I'm sorry you were unhappy with our food. If you would like to call me at 301.213.1652, I will be more than happy discuss it with you further and rectify it for you. Marcel The Raku

Sure! The two locations were not run by the same management for a very long time. But they are now. We have slowly/ gradually changed much of the menu items so they are the same as Bethesda location. We would like to do away from stir fry eventually, but too many people are still favoring that now. There are still much to be done at DC location. To accomodate these changes (menu and atmosphere wise) some major renovation to the kitchen, sushi bar, dining room is needed. We are hoping to do this in the winter months. I can go into more details with you if you want (maybe via email or phone is better). We generally recommend customers to focus more on our sushi, appetizers, salads, entrees, and also what is on the special paper as opposed to noodles/ stir fry. Our executive chef, Masaru Homma, is very particular about quality of ingredients that he uses. Much of our fish come from Japan. As far as service, we have made much changes in our seating policies in DC since we took over. We now accept reservations for both locations. Bethesda has just undergone a major facelift and looking much nicer and fresher. But I'm continuing to make changes to improve, I will never stop. There is always things to improve. If anyone has any concerns or issues that they would like to bring up, I am always available to our customers anytime. I would love to hear from you. I will stop here and perhaps continue more later with response to any specific questions or comments later. Thank you Mr. Rockwell for the opportunity. I hope I have answered some of your questions but if not I'm always available to you. Mthe@rakuasiandining.com 301.213.1652

My name is Marcel The. I am a partner at Raku. We have very high regards for the quality of this site, both in the way it's run/ moderated and quality of its members. Though I have often visited the site for the past 5 years, this is my first time ever posting. If anyone have any questions/ comments regarding our restaurants, I will be gladly respond on this forum. Mr. Rockwell, hats off on having an excellent site all these years; a well managed forum for all of us the industry and consumers. Marcel The Raku