Raku Shakes Up the Las Vegas Dining Scene With a Third Restaurant Opening in April

Back in 2018, Mitsou Endo of Raku fame planned to open a teppan grill dubbed Teppan By Raku in a strip mall next to the Palms, suggesting a future menu focused and prepared on a flat, iron griddle. That restaurant became Tatsujin X, a teppanyaki grill with an omakase-style menu that opened last March and closed in February. Now comes word that Endo plans to take over the space and convert it into Raku Toridokoro in the middle of April

The Japanese word toridokoro roughly translates yakitori, and the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that Endo plans to open a yakitori that focuses on chicken in the 1,200-square-foot space.

Raku Toridokoro marks the third local outpost for the Raku team. Chinatown’s acclaimed Raku, the charcoal grill house that opened a new omakase room last summer, specializes in robata dishes. Endo opened the restaurant in 2008 and went on to earn five semifinalist nods from the James Beard Foundation for Best Chef Southwest from 2011 to 2015 and a semifinalist bid for Best New Restaurant in 2009. The stalwart restaurant is on the Eater 38.

The highly inventive Sweets Raku debuted a short walk from Raku in 2013, continuing the reputation of the Seoul Plaza on Spring Mountain Road as a beacon of culinary creativity. A California expansion for the main restaurant to West Hollywood followed in 2015.

The new Raku Toridokoro sits in the Flamingo Arville Plaza at the intersection of Flamingo Road and Arville Street.

• Is Raku Preparing to Debut a New Teppan Restaurant? [ELV]

• All Coverage of Aburiya Raku [ELV]