Harden's says
On the former site of TAKA Mayfair, and under the same ownership, this June 2021 newcomer is led by chef Taiji Maruyama, a former sushi chef at Nobu London and head chef at Surrey hotel Beaverbrook. Just 6 guests at a time are served (from behind a custom-made counter created by Chef Maruyama himself!) for a "20-course farm-to-table, daily changing tasting menu, presented omakase-style". MARU is the first Japanese restaurant in the UK to specialise in the Japanese culinary technique of dry ageing fish, which features prominently across the menu.
Harden's survey result
Summary
The CV of Yasuhiro Ochiai includes Nobu, Omu, and 7 years as head chef at ‘Tsukumo’in Nara – one of Japan’s foremost restaurants – before heading up the kitchen at Taiji Maruyama’s (former exec head chef of Nobu) tiny Shepherd Market venue. Amongst the “top omakase sushi experiences in London”, you eat at one of 10 seats along the counter. A meal can run to 20 courses and is priced at £210 per person (or there’s a lunch alternative for £175 per person).
Summary
New arrival Yasuhiro Ochiai is more present nowadays overseeing the preparation at this elegant but tiny Shepherd Market venue, founded in 2021 by chef and owner Taiji Maruyama, who himself designed many elements of the experience, down to personally making the crockery! The main event is an omakase menu that can run to 20 courses, priced at £210 per person (there’s a lunch alternative at £160 per person). During the period of the handover, feedback – though more limited than we would like – has remained “exceptional all-round”, and we have maintained its rating on this basis.
Summary
Taiji Maruyama – a third-generation sushi chef, who arrived in London via stints in Barcelona and Norway – delivers a 20-course omakase menu at this tiny Shepherd Market venue. All the fair number of reporters this year who made the £210 per person investment say it was money well spent.
Summary
This “minute restaurant” in Mayfair’s Shepherd Market leapt “straight into the top tier of London’s Japanese restaurants” when it opened in 2021, with its “top-class dishes centred around dry-aged fish”. Taiji Maruyama, a third-generation sushi chef from Fukushima who has worked around the world, controls every aspect of the 20-course omakase (chef’s choice) meal, from the crockery he made himself to the “food prepared in front of you”, “expertly paired with sake, tea or wine”. It’s a “unique and intimate experience” – “very Tokyo” – and part of the new wave of tiny, ultra-focused Japanese operations in London, for those with deep enough pockets.
For 34 years we've been curating reviews of the UK's most notable restaurant. In a typical year, diners submit over 50,000 reviews to create the most authoritative restaurant guide in the UK. Each year, the guide is re-written from scratch based on this survey (although for the 2021 edition, reviews are little changed from 2020 as no survey could run for that year).
Have you eaten at Maru?
18 Shepherd Market, London, W1J 7QH
Restaurant details
Prices
 Drinks |
|
|---|---|
| Wine per bottle | £30.00 |
| Filter Coffee | £6.50 |
 Extras |
|
|---|---|
| Service | 15.00% |
18 Shepherd Market, London, W1J 7QH
Opening hours
| Monday | CLOSED |
| Tuesday | CLOSED |
| Wednesday | 5:30 pm‑11 pm |
| Thursday | 5:30 pm‑11 pm |
| Friday | 5:30 pm‑11 pm |
| Saturday | 12:20 pm‑3 pm, 5:30 pm‑11 pm |
| Sunday | CLOSED |
