Maru Izakaya

Sushi Maru, a Hidden Omakase Restaurant, Opens in Downtown San Diego | Eater San Diego

"A new omakase restaurant opened Wednesday, May 22 in a tucked-away ground-floor space of the Stanza Little Italy apartments on Third Avenue between Ash and A streets. Chef Tsuyoshi Maruyama (Maru) is launching a namesake sushi bar with two dinner seatings each evening (5:30 and 8 p.m.), offering a 20-course omakase served over about two hours for $180 per person with optional nonalcoholic beverages, beer, wine, Champagne, sake, and shochu; guests can also reorder items from the omakase menu. The service begins with small appetizers, moves through four to five nigiri, a warm dish, another set of nigiri plates, and finishes with soup and dessert (examples include panna cotta with fruit or Aisu ice cream from Chino Farms). Maruyama emphasizes the Japanese concept of “wa,” aiming for a warm, cozy refuge, and focuses on simple sushi courses with nothing fried—cooked dishes are broiled or steamed while most plates are nigiri specialties. Twice-weekly deliveries from Japan and from Tokyo’s famed Toyosu Market bring seafood such as hairy crab, squid, golden eye snapper, Spanish mackerel, clams, and also bluefin tuna, halibut, sea urchin, and abalone. With more than 35 years as a sushi chef and a long tenure heading Taka Sushi in the Gaslamp Quarter, this is Maruyama’s first project since returning to California; the intimate space seats 12 at the sushi counter plus an eight-person table and operates by reservation Wednesday through Sunday." - Helen I. Hwang