Raku

Service, ambiance, and food were all incredible! The curry soba was great and paired very well with the vegetable tempura.

Delicious udon noodles and so many appetizing items on the menu! We ended up getting 2 of the hot udons, the niku spicy and the curry udon. The curry udon was surprisinglu light and refreshing and the niku spicy was quite solid. We also got karaage and a matcha tiramisu to end the meal. Everything was very tasty and would definitely love to come back again!


Our server was also super nice and quick, was a great experience!

So many people ranked Raku as the no.1 udon spot in NYC, and I got the hype. The udon texture really impressed us. It was flat and thin with the perfect chewiness.

Strongly recommend getting a resy as the restaurant was already full-house at 5am on a weekday.

My first time trying zaru cold udon (ざるうどん), which is a chilled udon served on a woven bamboo sieve. We mixed in the scallion and quail egg to thicken the dipping sauce. So refreshing to enjoy on hot summer days.

We really liked the two complimentary shiso leaf tempura that came with the udon. Perfectly crispy in a thin batter.

For the add-ons, I prefer the shrimp tempura as the jumbo shrimps were bouncy and fresh. Low key wished the veggie tempura came in whole instead of shredded pieces...The portion was skimpy as it only had bite sized onion, burdock root, carrot, green pepper and eggplant for $6. I also wished they gave us sweet potato tempura.

The agedashi tofu was fire. Bonito flakes gives it so much umami
Tantan noodles were SOOOO good and flavorful! The peanut and spice come through really nicely.
Niku was also great as always!
They give you two frozen grapes at the end haha yum

Raku is definitely one of my favorite udon spots in the city! The noodles are flatter than store-bought udon but have a delicious chew and bounce. We got the chicken tatsuta-age, yamakake udon (cold- grated yam, quail egg, bonito), and the wakame udon (hot- seaweed and konbu). The chicken was hot and crispy with a delicious dipping sauce, and surprisingly large. The noodles are def the star though- chewy, delicious, and perfect! Between the two udons, I preferred the cold yamakake one- the quail egg was runny and helped coat the noodles with all the delicious yam and bonito deliciousness. The wakame one was also good- deep flavor in the broth. We also got a sake, I really wanted the fruit sake but they were out of both :( so we got a glass of junmai which was fine.

Service is attentive, but this location in particular can get busy so definitely come with a reservation. I like sitting in their little booths for 2- fun date vibe. They also give you frozen grapes as a "candy" that comes with your bill- cute touch!

Whenever I crave udon now, I always go to Raku. It'd been a while since my last visit, and I had forgotten about how bouncy and chewy the noodles are. There is a decent portion of beef in the Gyunan Udon, and the broth is flavorful and tastes clean.

I always got the Toriten Udon before, and I'm glad I tried something else on the menu! (I did consider getting that extra side of karaage though because it's so good.)

Probably one of my favorite spots in NYC I've tried so far. Came here on a Saturday about ten minutes after they opened. The line was pretty long. Got quoted about a 30-45min wait for table. Ended up being about 45min which was fine to walk around the area (lots of shopping stores and stuff to peruse while you wait).

Once we got seated my wife and I ordered the spicy niku, chicken tatsuta-age, and zaru (cold udon) with shrimp tempura.

Everything was great! The spicy niku was good and I like all the different types of beef (I.e. tendons) that were in it. I also thought the udon noodles were especially good in these (extremely good bounce and chew to it). The cold udon was also great, but my wife and I both agreed the noodles were absolute perfection in the spicy niku. That being said, cold noodles were nice and refreshing on a hot nyc summer day. The only thing that was just okay was the chicken tatsuta-age. It was solid, but not stand out compared to other chicken karage dishes at other spots. My wife wasn't super big fan of breading, but I thought it was fine. I'd probably save that money for an extra dish or dessert though.

Overall, really enjoyed this spot. Service was enjoyable. Main dining room area is very nicely decorated and this place is great for a date night or groups of 2-4. Bigger groups I'd def recommend trying to get a resy or just being patient.

Only other small comment though I'd say was the bathrooms were kind of smelly/dirty(?). I think the smell was mostly because the ingredient supply room is also downstairs near the bathroom. Not sure if I think that set up is the most cleanly, but I still didn't find it detracted from my overall experience. I'd definitely come back again.

These dishes were refreshing and light. Very tasty! The tataki was good but I felt was overpriced. Service was good and environment was nice and clean.

Excellent place and deserves all the great ratings. The broth of all the bowls we ordered was absolutely terrific in taste, the udon was perfect in texture and the overall experience was really good.

Lovely ambience with attentive service and a very cozy setting.

Definitely coming here again and such a good place for Udon and more...

Honest review (big on taste than visual)
**Recommend booking through "RESY.COM" so that you can be seated right away, but walk-ins are welcomed. Each LOCATION (east village, soho, midtown) have different menu options. Just expect to wait 30 min to 1 hr depending on the time. Don't expect service (I know it looks like they would give you exceptional service, but nope)

Inside gives a modern Japanese design and can fit a good amount of people, no parking, waiting area

I stood in line 20 mins before they opened without a reservation since it was fully booked (last minute decision to meet up with a friend) got a seat in less than 20 mins

She wanted a hot udon (niku udon) and I wanted a cold udon (sansai bukkake). I was able to try some of the NIKU (meat), but the SOUR taste from the meat really had me disappointed.
I have very SENSITIVE taste buds, so I can tell when something is going bad before most people. My friend had no problem eating the meat.
Anyways my "vegan friendly" udon (I'm not vegan lol) was REFRESHING and CLEAN, just wish they gave me a spoon to eat it with, but the servers acted so busy it was too hard to FLAG a server so I gave up.

Niku udon (one of the popular orders): 6.5/10
- sour meat taste (might be due to them cooking the whole broth and taking the meat out so it doesn't overcook - didn't keep it in the right temperature or mixed the old with the new)
- Broth - rich, but I personally didn't like the broth a weird aftertaste, visually murky

Sansai Bukkake udon: 8.7/10
- The broth had a slight sweetness to it and I really liked it without the egg, but with the egg mixed in is not bad
- Chewy noodles (a big texture person :))
- Those mushrooms are so slippery to pick up with chopsticks (a bit annoying)
- The tempura gets soggy so eat it first or just mix it in
- The grated daikon mixed in gives a subtle sweetness

Frozen grape (palate cleanser): 10/10
- The cold crunch :))

Overall, for the hype, I did enjoyed the texture of the chewy noodles, but alright with the broth from the two choices I was able to try. Waited quite some time to order and get my check after trying to flag them, food came out pretty quick. I might check it out again, but not quite sure.