It seems that after its review in the Washington Post, Raku, the Asian-fusion restaurant on Woodmont Avenue in Bethesda, Maryland, has gotten a little too big for their britches. My husband and I walked in for lunch on Saturday March 15 and simply said "Two please." The place was crowded with a few glaring exceptions. There were 3 roomy booths sitting wide open. They said we would have to wait for an table to open. We pointed to the 3 spacious, unoccupied booths and said that we would like to sit in one of them, especially since they were the only tables open, with the exception of 2 crammed spaces at a bar, so tight that there was not room for knees and elbows, let alone food. And it seemed the wait could be long. They said that those booths were for parties of 4 customers — exclusively.
We explained that we too were customers and there was not 1, even 2, but 3 of those spacious booths available. The waiter said that he would not seat us. Astonished, we asked to speak to the manager on duty, thinking that surely 2 paying customers in the booth were worth 4 who had not yet arrived. Not to mention the fact that you never turn away a good customer (or two in this case). Aparently that's not how they think. "Policy, it's our policy." said the manager. AND THEY TURNED US AWAY! As frequent diners-out, I assured Mr. Manager that we would not return and we would spread the word that Raku was so breathtakingly arrogant that they could afford to turn away parties of 2 customers in anticipation of parties of 4. If you don't like their "policy" give them a call and tell them that you would be having lunch/dinner there, but you heard that "Parties of two, don't go to Raku, since Raku won't seat you."
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