Yataimura Maru Reviews

Ate dinner here yesterday to celebrate mother's 95th birthday. We arrived during happy hour, and since there was a 20 minute wait for a table, we sat at the bar in front of the grill. Glad we did as watching the chef work was entertaining. Our order was Asazuke, very fresh veggies, but was lacking something... I think it needed another rinse it two to lower the salt flavor. Gyoza were some of the best I've ever had. Grilled squid legs, never came, and when I advised our server to take them off the check a discussion was had with all the staff at the grill before the order was removed... not sure what that was about. Reading reviews on other sites, this appears to happen often. Curry with Chicken Katsu, excellent... the flavor of the curry sauce brought back a memory from my childhood it was so good. And the perfect size portion for sharing. Gyu Don, the dish was good, nice flavor, but I think it would have been better with a few more vegetables, just my opinion. Very large portion, could easily split between 3 people. I give the restaurant a rating of 3.5 stars, bumped up to 4 since half ratings aren't possible, and I feel it deserves better than 3. Lower rating due to the lack of service, server not checking back with us after taking our dinner order to make sure we had everything before the entrees came out. I'll definitely go back though, there's more on the menu I want to try. If you are coming here for drinks and eats, be sure someone in your group is keeping track of your order so you aren't charged for missed dishes.

3 of us enjoyed lunch today; I had seafood poke and my wife had salmon served sizzling on a cast iron grill atop a wood serving board; all very good; Eric was a terrific server

Went here for happy hour to sample their food and drinks. I especially liked the bacon wrapped quail eggs. We had a number of small plates, but even at $3-4 the cost added up quick. The bill for 4 of us with drinks was $165. This is a typical Portland small restaurant, so be prepared to wait if you arrive at a popular time.

The sushi is bland and overpriced. The restaurant is dirty and they were sold out of many items. Save your money.

Open late, we ordered two small bowls of ramen and a sushi roll an both were incredible! Will definitely be back and recommend to our PDX friends.

I had the ramen soup, which was hot and tasty, and exactly what I was wanting on a chilly, wet Portland day. The atmosphere was comfortable and cozy, and we felt unrushed by the waitstaff. A really nice place to settle in for something to eat!

Checked out their Happy Hour during a weekend. The atmosphere is up and light while their Happy Hour menu is diverse and fulfilling. We opted for a mixed order of spicy tuna and kappa hand rolls, yakko tofu, kimpira gobo, Tokyo ramen and yakitori thigh along with the usual beer to wash it all down. They also offer sakes if you prefer -- plus they have a bar. Each of the dishes comes out when it's ready which gives you a chance to sample each on its own -- family style. They also provide you with two options to spice things up to your liking (a chili oil paste or ground dried chilis). For us, nothing we ordered was a disappointment. If you're looking for authentic Japanese flavors in a quaint, friendly atmosphere -- with affordable prices -- this is the place. We enjoyed each of the dishes and look forward to trying more on our next visit.

Always hard to find a good place when you're a carnivore and you have a friend/relative that is a vegatarian. But this place kept us both happy and satisfied. Atmosphere is very laid back and enjoy yourself. Service was immediate, helpful and friendly. The type that didn't even crack a smile when you asked a dumb question about Japanese food. I had the Beef Steak Don and my daughter had the Seafood Poke Don. As an appetizer she talked me into the Garlic-Butter Edamame which were quite good. Also took a while to eat since you have to suck each one from it's shell. Passed the time, made me lick my fingers and tasted good at the same time. The food comes out when the food is ready, so don't wait around if yours comes first or it will get cold.

Two of us tried the salmon dinner and both of us thought it was perhaps the worst meal we had ever been served in a restaurant. The fish was overcooked and the sauce was gross , unappetizing and looked like vomit. The sweet potato fries were underdone and gooey. maybe some of their other menu options are okay, but I won't be going back to try them. Service was fine, but can't make up for the food.

I have been a grateful customer for years now and have always been so pleased everytime I have entered Maru Very comfortable and gracious is the feeling I always think of with a staff that gives the same feeling. I always am greatly satisfied with my choices from a great and varied menu. Thank you Maru!

This is the real deal folks, great menu and warm cozy place. We had some items from their happy hour menu and from regular menu. You will love this place for the food and service. Nice sake list...we will be returning again.

We wandered over here because it was late, and the only place open nearby. Boy howdy what a welcoming atmosphere, and late-night happy hour prices on stellar bowls of noodles, steaming yakitori, sushi rolls and sake... Kids loved it too (though it is more of a grownup date place) and insisted we return for full size noodles again. Servers and staff are hip but super nice. Then, we had leftovers on the drive home.

Like the variety and option of small portions of Ramen Noodles. My first time there and wanted to try different things on the menu.

Full disclosure, I'm haffu and spent several years in Japan and frequent back there for good reason - food & culture. I find some of the reviews very comical due to the fact they really didn't know what type of restaurant they were walking into and try to conform their reviews based on a cooked salmon dish or a calamari collar - calamari do not have collars and if you can cook eggplant better at home than do just that. Also - izakaya translates to small plate restaurant where you share dishes while having beverages. I travel to Portland 2-3x a year & always on the lookout for Japanese restaurants that offer traditional dishes vs dishes tweaked toward gaijin tastes. This place does a good job of just that. Met some friends here and sampled quite a bit from takoyaki(although it should be Ika yaki since they use squid vs octopus), okinomiyaki, kushiyaki, ramen, yaki onigiri, poke o don, gyoza and some adult beverages to swash it down. My friends loved the experience and didn't try to conform it. Service was top notch and very attentive as to be expected in a traditional Japanese izakaya. Will definitely be back to try some of the other dishes that I didn't get to order.

This place really dials in the ambiance and food options. So many wonderfully crafted dishes. Family style. Order lots of plates and taste many bursting with flavor combinations. We took some suggestions from our waitress to note and we were beyond impressed with everything we ordered, drinks too. The staff, the food, the ambiance, and the heated toilets were all exceptional!! Best $100 date dinner and experience!

Came here for lunch. The entire back of the restaurant smells like a deep fryer. It had greasy feeling in the air. I ordered the seaweed salad, which wasn't bad and the Tuna, Crab & Avocado roll. For a $12 roll, it was super small. All the rolls were super small and tiny amounts of low-quality fish. The tuna was sliced so thin, it was almost transparent. The crab and avocado can be barely seen with a mountain of rice that hid them. You get more, better quality and pay less from Whole Foods.

We have recently gone to Japan and I've been looking for an Izakaya that I like. This was the closest we have found so far that makes us think of Japan. It was just a neat little place. The food was really good. We had a few appetizers and some warm saki. The saki was really good and it hit the spot considering how cold it was outside. The service was really good too. Our waiter was very friendly and seemed to generally enjoy serving us. We really had a great time. I would definitely eat here again.

Busy restaurant; expect a wait, but it is worthwhile. Big menu with a variety of small plates to be shared. Authentic Japanese atmosphere. Large saki and schochu lists.

I was hungry, in a hurry, and just fell in here with my newspaper. I had a simple lunch of seaweed salad, spicy salmon roll, miso, and jasmine tea. I was pleasantly surprised when I tasted the salad which was fresh and crunchy. The Miso was Pleasant, and the sushi was a perfect complement to the entire lunch. You could tell that this restaurant gets its share of business, and I'm not surprised. Don't think twice about trying it for yourself, you're sure to be pleased.

Marvelous place with gastronomic japanese meals. Right after you get in, you have the sensation to visit the other side of the pacific coast. As an Isakaya restaurant, everybody from the staff welcomes you... till the cookers. You can have a table or seat down at one of the two counters. The food is fresh and exquisite. A fantastic hidden place in the Richmond district of Portland!

Everything in this little gem was wonderful: Service was pleasant, dishes were delicious, atmosphere very comforting. The noodles were amazing. Absolutely one of the best authentic Japanese meals I've had in Portland or anywhere. And make sure to check out the bathrooms for the super fun Japanese toilets!!

We needed a late lunch and this certainly worked well for us. Nice dumplings with chicken, cabbage and chives. Better steamed than fried. Good tuna poke deconstructed. A little too much rice in the rolls for my taste, but a good experience overall.

My husband and I have been here 10-15 times in the last two years with large groups and as a couple, and have never had a bad meal. Food comes out as it is ready (normal for this style of Japanese fare) and is consistently well executed comfort food. Def very busy. Happy hour deal is a bonus.

Our son and daughter-in-law brought us to this place the first time. Needless to say, we are now counting it as our "go to" Japanese restaurant. It's not large in size, but definitely large in taste. They also have a good assortment of vegetarian dishes. Their ramen is great and I loved the teriyaki chicken. My husband loves the shishito pepper skewers.

Came here with my mom and from what the menu looked like, it was promising and was excited to come here. Little did i know, on Saturdays, the happy hour runs from the early afternoon until the mid evening. Since the happy hour menu isn't so bad, I would definitely recommend ordering from there to save yourself some extra money and getting a decent amount of food while you're at it. With my mom, I ordered the fried calamari, sapporo shio butter corn ramen, chan chan salmon, and gyu don. The food was decent at best, especially for the price of some of the things. My mom said her fried calamari and chan chan salmon were pretty good. However, my sapporo shio butter corn ramen and gyu don were ok at best. For $12, the ramen wasn't that great. The corn wasn't crunchy and was a little stale, the egg wasn't really special, it was just a medium boiled egg, and the chashu didn't have too much flavor and was a little tough. The gyu don was a little different than I have had at other Japanese restaurants. I usually think of the kind of beef you get at Yoshinoya, where it's stringy and thinly sliced, but this was more like shredded beef. That wasn't bad, just not what I was expecting. The service was great, the servers came and checked up on me and my mom pretty often to make sure everything was good, and that was something I appreciated. The restroom was really clean and they have a bidet, which was really cool and something I haven't seen at other restaurants before. Overall, the food wasn't bad, but it wasn't one of the most delicious things I have ever had before. I would say, give it a shot to see how you like it.

I liked the ambiance and it's good but I felt I needed twice as many rolls after 3, so $24 plus drink and tip (they should get tips)...also, the negative reviews need to be addressed and responded here.

Great food from an extensive menu in a terrific izakaya-style atmosphere. And the service was superb!

We were a large family group enjoying a dinner out and this place was recommended as having excellent food and sharing options. They were right - we enjoyed the ambience of the restaurant and the menu was so unique. Some of us are GF and others are Vegetarian which makes it difficult at times to get together. We had lots of choices here to try different items. I particularly enjoyed the Ramen without broth and the different Sushi - some of us ordered Hand Rolls and others ordered Sushi Rolls to share. The Ramen was delicious with or without broth! The sushi is unique and stunning in appearance! This is a great place to share small plates. The Decor is pretty unusual but nicely laid out. It was a little noisy at times but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Occasionally we had to wait for our food - the wait staff brings the food out when it is ready and they do not bring everything at once - this is to encourage sharing and we were told this by our waitress Lauren who provided us with great service!

This cozy spot is run by personable staff. They are at your service. At a certain hour the grill gets going and the cooks are happy to make things the way you want. The chicken thighs roasted and basted slowly on skewers are fabulous. Make sure to ask for them well done. The thick mushroom stipes are amazing. GET THEM. The choices for a noodle soup are wide and you can make it the way you want it. The sushi was pleasant and well prepared. I did order grilled salmon and the taste was fishy after it was cooked. I won't order it again. The broth for the soup could be a bit more developed as well.

Our hotel recommended the restaurant. It's located in a cute mixed residential/small business neighborhood. Was easy to find a side street parking spot. The restaurant was busy for a mid week night but we were seated quickly. The service was excellent, there were plenty of servers. The seating is on the tight side and decor nothing memorable but that was ok. The menu was vast and included many small plate, sushi, sashimi and entree specials. My son and I tried a variety of items because we were almost overwhelmed with the number of menu choices. I had an excellent and large sushi roll. He had spareribs. We shared a couple of other small plates. My only observation is the food comes out quickly so you may want to order in stages to slow down the experience. The bill which included drinks was very reasonable, but then again I am comparing it to San Fran area prices. All and all we enjoyed our meal and would return.

We were planning to come here one night for dinner but happened to stumble across this as we were looking for a place to have lunch. I thought the Tokyo Ramen was very good with the thinner and firm noodles. My wife ordered two different vegetable rolls and enjoyed both. Now we are definitely going back for dinner

The style of having small plates is good so that everyone can share and sample different items. We, however, went a little overboard and ordered so much we couldn't eat it all and had to get some "doggy bags". The place is a bit crowded and could use an upgrade as others had mentioned but does have the feel of places in Japan. Our server, Eric R., couldn't have been any friendlier or helpful and also gave us suggestions on items not on the menus so the next time we go here, we will definitely have to try them. There are 2 locations in the area but we prefer this one even though the parking isn't much better than downtown, it's free. You just have to sometimes park a few blocks away.

There are so many fantastic restaurants on the East side of Portland, but surprisingly few sushi restaurants and even fewer that are open for lunch. If you are craving sushi for lunch Maru is a good option. They use real crab in their California Rolls and the Udon is excellent as is the Salmon.

We stopped in for a drink and snack, should have kept walking. The service was poor, the fish (ikura and big eye tuna) stale. The sake was good, probably because they didn’t have to prepare it. There are plenty of good Japanese places around town, don’t waste your money here.

Six of us, including two young children, had dinner at this wonderful Japanese restaurant two nights ago. There were extensive menu selections. The green salad was large, fresh, and delicious. Others had the seaweed salad, which was fresh and tasty. I especially liked the ramen noodle dish. Others enjoyed a tofu dish and a vegetarian maki roll. The setting was informal. The service was prompt, helpful, and friendly. All in all, a great dining experience.

Had a short wait for a table but it was worth it. We started with the salmon skin Caesar salad. Delicious. The hamachi kama was cooked just right. The edamame was seasoned just right and all of the rolls we ordered were fresh, innovative and delicious. We would be regular guests if we lived in Portland. Our son does and is. Keep up the good work!

Yataimura Maru had high marks on yelp, though there were some nay-sayers. I'm with the nay-sayers. Service was lax and perhaps the menu was too varied with not enough staff to support it. We ordered a bit of everything (minus sushi, as we can get outstanding sushi in Seattle). We have a preschooler so ordering food right off the bat to minimize melt downs is my strategy. It took so long to get our order in despite no crowds. I had to ask whether we could order. When we got service, I fired off an order for pork and shrimp shumai, plus scallop and shrimp skewers, mushroom skewers, and ramen. The skewers arrived and were satisfying, if overly salty. The mushrooms had a tasty appearance. The shrimp comes without the shell, which makes it tough to eat. Our ramen arrived before we could finish our skewers, so a waitress started to take our shrimp and scallops. Not so fast! At $7 a skewer, I darn well want to finish. The ramen was ok but not complex or with depth. It was salty and filling, but not what I expected given the glowing yelp reviews. The shu mai still hadn't arrived so I thought they forgot, and made a mental note to dispute the check if they never came. We were 2/3 of the way through our ramen when the shu mai arrived. Not what I was expecting. They were 3 large shu mai, each shu mai the double or triple the size of what I typically see. That probably accounts for the lengthy wait time, but they were like giant meatballs with a flat noodle wrapped around it. Unattractive. Needless to say, we skipped dessert, though the three choices sounded good in theory. Given the quality of the experience, we went elsewhere. Cute exterior Japanese lanterns and interior. Located in a nifty modern building.

This was our first trip to a Japanese restaurant since moving to Portland, so we had pretty high expectations. Turns out this is indeed an isakaya-style place, so the feel is quick; it's not a place you come to savor a long meal. The rolls we ordered tasted fresh, but were overly complex. I'd describe them as "confused." The sushi, however, was bracingly fresh and delicious. Likewise the Kirin I ordered nearly gave me a brain-freeze... I mean that as a good thing. We'll be coming back for sure, but next time we'll focus on the sushi and sake and be ready to reply "campai!" to the staff when I drain my cup.

Having been to Japan in many occasions, I am always happy to visit Maru every time we visit Portland! I really like the restaurant decor and friendly atmosphere! Food is excellent in every aspect! From sushi to yakitori to ramen to Karage items each and every one is made with care and love! I just wish we have a place like this in Vancouver,BC...but no actually it's better here so I can have an excuse to have a vacation in Portland!!

Dirty (they don't care enough to clean rugs, under tables, windows and more). The food is okay but doesn't come out all together so you can eat with the people you came with. It's not worth the money. Servers are nice enough but not returning.

The menu is extensive and features many of my favorite Japanese dishes. Overall, the food is usually quite good, but occasionally the flavor, quality, and portions can be inconsistent. Part of the issue might be that by trying to execute on so many different types of Japanese cuisine, they can't be excellent at all of them. There are other spots in Portland that do individual dishes (e.g., sushi, ramen) better, but none that offer a one-stop-shop of so many types of Japanese food. They have decent sushi, but it's the other menu items that keep us coming back (it's similar to Maneki in Seattle in that way). The yakitori-style skewer options were especially good with the tsukune (ground chicken) and pork belly (technically not yakitori since it's not chicken) becoming favorites. It has a fun, lively, izakaya vibe, but the furnishings and extensive menu sometimes make it feel like a caricature of a Japanese restaurant. Early and late happy hours are good times to sample across their menu (fewer choices than their regular menu but still a lot more variety than most happy hours) Service is usually good, but can be slow when the restaurant is really busy, especially at dinner. Waits for a table can be very long.

So I read the reviews before we went. I ordered delicious udon in a wonderful broth with some tempura shrimp and a soft cooked egg. We also ordered Japanese Vegetable curry, so tough to make at home and it was fabulous, actually more than adequate size serving. Many diners were taking home soup they couldn't finish because it was too large a serving. Someone ordered chicken teriyaki dinner, said it was okay but this was a non meat eater so that was a rousing endorsement. I had a problem with the small plates, an accurate name smallish in price and small in size. Four dollars for a stewed Japanese eggplant, very easy to do, costs about 75 cents for an eggplant, steam it, shred it, season it, serve it and a mark it up 500%. I am willing to pay for difficult technique even unique spices, but when some one charges so much. Now the Calamari collars (isn't calamari Italian? aren't they just squid?) they were great and the serving size was smaller. The least amount was the mushroom dish it had a fabulous seasoning like smoked salt and black sesame seeds, but we had to cut the mushroom pieces in half to share with four people. So the four of us split a mushroom much smaller than a Portobello or a King mushroom, the size of a button mushroom big enough to stuff, but not the cap only the stem. The sushi was gobbled down and the serving of Salmon was eaten with gusto. But maybe ask the server the amounts of the servings if you are as confused about the amount of food on the small plates as I am. Enough to share, surely a tasting bite each isn't enough. Maybe they are single serve or tasting plates? So yeah go, eat, good food, but order with care......check the reviews and pictures on the web site.

dont bother. though the food was good not great, the servers indifference to forgetting to enter my food and my eating alone after everyone else was done is just about the worst you can experience at a restaurant. Especially when I had expected the traditional culture of Japanese service being excellent. i will not come back. Service is everything. He ruined my experience. Theres plenty of other ramen restaurants in Portland.

We went to this place to celebrate my son's 24th birthday. He loves sushi and so does my husband and I. A friend actually had been here before and really enjoyed the ramen noodle dishes so we wanted to give it a try. We had some really good spicy tuna rolls, rice balls and soft shell crab rolls. WE got adventurous and tried the sea urchin. It was fresh because it tasted like the ocean but It was not my favorite. We will come back to try the other yummy sounding items on the menu because there ere so many items to choose from. Sushi, noodles, tapas and curry dishes.

The food is is wonderful and the menu is HUGE so you will find something you like. The wait staff know their food so if the Japanese food culture is new for you there are knowledgeable guides. RE: cocktails - The bar pours them stiff and well constructed but great tea and a never empty water glass. The decor is kind of perfect, Japanese village meets wonderful "stuff". You will will love it.

Vegetable udon and cold tofu tapas were outstanding. The server was very knowledgeable about the various dishes and the menu was extensive. We had planned on eating outside but changed our minds after seeing the cozy and tastefully decorated interior. I plan on returning.

Some of the staff is not very friendly here, so that doesn't set a good tone. Cleanliness could use an upgrade as well. We sat at the low bar near the door, but the chair was dirty and the counter not properly cleaned. Ramen was so-so. Sushi was fine, but pretty basic.

Our dinning experience at Yataimura Maru made for a special and memorable New Year's Eve. Yataimura Maru featured a delicious tempura soba as a holiday dinner special, which I have on good authority to be an authentic New Year's Eve tradition in Japan. Compared to most Japanese restaurants, Yataimura Maru has a more contemporary interior design, and our servers and chefs exuded a welcoming affability that made our evening all the more enjoyable.

"Silky" is the way to describe Maru's udon noodles. House-made, tender and just plain yummy, we tried both of the udon main courses (veg and curry) and loved them both. The shrimp tempura small dish was also wonderful (could have made a whole meal of this...maybe next time!). Service was a little hectic but very attentive and QUICK! We'll be here again soon! Note: this place is all about sharing dishes, so all but the "small" dishes are pretty healthy servings. They will provide additional plates, bowls, etc. to facilitate the sharing...great fun!

May be the best casual Japanese food in Portland. Our group shared several dishes. All in group were Japanese except me (I lived in Tokyo eight years), and all enjoyed all the dishes. Nice atmosphere, like a neighborhood place in Japan. Service was friendly that a little slow with the Tanmen (we were there for lunch on a Saturday when the place was crowded. Prices not cheap, but not unreasonable.

I had an expectation that sushi in Portland would be amazing. While it was good, it was not amazing. Our food came out in reverse order as how we asked for it and it appeared our waiter was having an "off day" Next time I am in Portland, I will go back - we are all human and allowed to have "off days" The food tasted good, the company was amazing and the ambiance was fun.

Food was wonderful!!!! Some dishes only available in Japan until here and now. Service very good!!!! Loved this place. I would go again.

The udon soup was very good- with tasty broth. Noodles were flat not round like I am used to in the eastern U.S. - still good though. Skewers of grilled shiitake mushrooms (which I love) were far too salty. One in our party who cannot have salty food had a curry entree which was low in salt. Kudos to this Japanese restaurant providing patrons with low salt options, in addition to sushi. Our party of seven was seated outside and they placed a fire pyre in a metal device right next to us to warm us up. This was a nice touch. For our party service was very fast.

We had such a hard time choosing from the array of foods on the menu we ordered multiple small dishes. The skewers of pork belly with salt was yummy! My granddaughter quickly confiscated half of the plate of their karrage chicken. Crispy and so tasty! The sunomono salad was beautifully arranged and full of fresh flavors. The gyoza was handmade with a crispy outside and delicious filling. My favorite was the umeboshi (hard to find) and the natto sushi. Their special shortrib with green onion skewers were tender and tasty. Thin slices of marinated short ribs wrapped around green onions and grilled! Okonomiyako was perfectly cooked. Bacon wrapped quail eggs and much more. Get there early or be prepare for a line!

We eat here every time we come to Portland which is about once a month. Favorite dishes include okra, sushi, ramen, desserts. We have never had anything here that wasn't amazingly well prepared.

Just visited this Shigezo pub on Division. The food was great, perfectly cooked ramen and flavorful broth. The chicken katsu curry is prepared excelllently, with a great balance of curry and spice. The portions during HH are half the size of the original entrees. Frosty beer compliments a simple sake list. We had great service and will return soon.

Not sure what is inspiring this cuisine, but it is unbalanced and confused. Smoked butterfish that tasted of smoke and not much else, a wrap with tuna whose texture was slimy and tough, and lacked flavor. Pressed sushi that wasn't quite pressed, and had an excess of grated ginger. Probably better to stick to noodles but we left before venturing further on menu Service from hostess was good, in fact if she hasn't bugged a server after seeing us still unattended after 5 minutes we may never had eaten