sweets raku / las vegas, nv

Last Vegas post! For now! 

Our last Vegas thing was to go to this dessert restaurant called Sweets Raku that wasn’t too far from China Mama. It’s in another tiny strip mall with a very small parking lot (bleah). We ended up parking across the street in another lot. Sweets Raku is a sister restaurant to Raku, a sushi restaurant in the same area. I thought it was next door, but it was in another part of the strip mall. Sweets Raku is pretty tiny, with a bar that has 10 seats. There are a few tables behind the bar, but you can’t see any of the action if you sit over there.

It’s first come first serve and they don’t take reservations. There was a short line in front of us when we arrived, but a much longer one by the time we left. We waited about 15-20 minutes for seats and luckily got to sit at the bar. The crazy stools were VERY HIGH though and it took a bit of effort on my (short) part to get in. But I DID IT! 

[menus]

Here are the menus for Sweets Raku. The first page is teas, wine, and drinks. The second page is desserts and the last page is their lunch menu which is only offered in the afternoons on the weekend. What I learned is that every person is required to get a main dessert which put a damper in my plans to only order two… but that’s okay. Main desserts are all $12 each. For $15 they have a dessert set which includes sorbet. 

Since we sat at the bar, it was totally like having dessert + a show since you got to watch the chefs at work. There were two ladies and each was responsible for different desserts. Above, the chef is working on the Mt. Exotic, which is a dessert that T choose. That spaghetti looking stuff is totally ice cream! 

[mt exotic – mango cream cake with homemade pie crust / $12]

Gosh, just look at how PRETTY this is! I love the colors and that pop of red and how dramatic the ice cream looks draped over the top of the dessert. It was really fun watching her put these together, too. 

I only had a small bite of this one but it was very good – there are bits of mango on top that added extra mango flavor to the dessert. The cake was light and fluffy and that tartness from the raspberry helped balance out the other sweeter parts of the dessert. T loved this dessert. 

[sunset – peach moscato dessert with pie filled with cream cheese and vanilla ice cream / $12]

Jake picked Sunset, a pie dessert with peach moscato, vanilla ice cream, sorbet on top and lots of fruit. It was a much lighter dessert but I felt it had more bitter elements from the moscato and some of the fruits mixed in. It was still good, but not really my favorite of the bunch. 

[ringo – apple pie served with honey ice cream / $12]

I was going to pick both of the other two desserts as my choice but since the boys picked those, I had to choose something else! Apple pie honestly sounded really boring to me but once the dish was placed in front of me I felt I had really made the right choice. I didn’t get to see this dessert being built but I was immediately impressed by the tiny candy apple on my plate! My camera fruited out on me so I don’t have photos of breaking it open, but the apple had a really thin candy shell and inside was caramel sauce and whipped cream! It was so delicate and pretty and tasted wonderful with the hot apple pie. The apple pie filling was perfectly smooth – almost like apple sauce but much thicker and more delicious. The honey ice cream was light and tasted perfect with the apple pie. I loved this dessert, especially the presentation! 

While the desserts are on the pricey side, I think it’s totally worth it to go here and watch your dessert being made in front of your eyes. The presentation is so careful and the desserts are quite delicious as well. 

Sweets Raku
5040 West Spring Mountain Road, Suite 3
Las Vegas, NV 89146
702-290-7181