ABURIYA RAKU in Las Vegas Weekly

Raku’s 15-course meal plays out like a beautiful symphony

John Curtas

Wed, Oct 20, 2010 (8:55 p.m.)

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Raku’s foie gras egg custard

Photo: John Curtas

The questions I hear most as a restaurant critic are: How did you become one? How many times a week do you eat out? And how do you not weigh 300 pounds? A fourth question almost always follows closely: What’s the best restaurant off the Strip? For the record, the answers are: It’s a long story, 10 times a week, I have the metabolism of a hummingbird—and Aburiya Raku, best known to regulars simply as Raku.

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ESQUIRE’S Best New Restaurants of 2010

BEST NEW RESTAURANTS OF 2010

By John Mariani




For the 26th year, I’ve been compiling Esquire‘s “Best New Restaurants of the Year,” and the competition only gets better, my narrowing down of choices tougher and tougher. Here are this year’s picks, which appear in the November issue, followed by a “Man About Town” report on the gala awards party in NYC. Continue reading “ESQUIRE’S Best New Restaurants of 2010”