Marumo

Most amazing food. Family owned restaurant. Small, but intimate. amazing produce and the price is awesome. Though hard to get in well worth the wait.

Chef Moe, you’ve done it again! It’s been a year since my last visit and I’ve walked out of Marumo for the third time with a smile on my face and a deliriously happy tummy!
Marumo offers one Omakase (Chef’s Selection) menu every month consisting of seven courses plus a small amusé salad and a refreshing palate cleanser after the fifth course. All for $ 60. This price also includes unlimited hot green tea. The entire meal will take about 3 or so hours which allows every morsel placed before you to be enjoyed slowly.
Here’s a breakdown of last night’s menu:
Squid Salad Amusé — I have to admit I always get worried when this comes out as it’s the tiniest portion ever. As in, fits-​on-​a-​Barbie-​plate tiny portion. Then I remind myself this is not one of the seven courses and all is good in my world again.
Tamago, Lobster & Caviar — When this dish was served and everyone had a taste, I think there was a silence as we all took a moment to savor the delicate tamago. This steamed egg soufflé in the most amazing broth simply melts in your mouth! The lobster and caviar provided a nice change up to the soft texture.
Fremantle Cod & Burdock — Lightly battered pan-​fried cod served on burdock root. The sauce in this dish was so flavorful!
Duck, Inari & Cabbage — This one’s the absolute winner! It is duck after all so there really is no competition. The duck slices were cooked to perfection and the potato mash-​stuffed inari (deep fried tofu pouches) blew my mind! The thinly shredded cabbage salad was a nice touch.
Chef’s Selection of Sashimi — Beautiful, fresh slices of kingfish, salmon and scallops. And I always keep the scallops for last… mmmmmmmm…
Tasmanian Salmon Belly Sushi — Get it my belly. And stay there!
Orange Sorbet Palate Cleanser — If they told me THIS was the dessert, I would gladly accept! The most refreshing citrus palate cleanser with bits of orange peel. Love this!
Beef & Pumpkin — A succulent piece of beef with a sweet, puréed pumpkin sauce, edamame beans, lotus crisp and a tiny dollop of yuzu chilli. The yuzu chilli was interesting and packed a bit of a spicy punch. Might be an acquired taste for some.
Black Sesame, Yuzu & Blueberry — I want this EVERY day of my life. That is all.
Even though the portions for each course weren’t huge, by the end of the evening, I was pretty full and content. For those with bottomless pits and hollow legs, Chelsea Pizza is next door and open till midnight… LOL…
Open Tuesday through Saturday for dinner only, bookings are really difficult to secure and can only be done online for 2 months in advance. You pretty much have to set an alarm to remind yourself when the booking window is open and then cross your fingers that you get a reservation. My lovely friend booked out the entire restaurant (which seats about 28 people) but apparently, Marumo no longer do private functions. The maximum booking is now only for 6 people.
I suggest you set your alarms now.

$ 60 for a high quality Japanese fusion degustation dining experience, what else do you want? Takes a very long time to get in, and they have no bar so you must BYO, but you can’t deduct marks when … it’s $ 60.

Best Japanese fusion restaurant in town! Though it took us three months, but we finally managed to grab a table for five a few weeks before study break, which is absolutely delightful.
Our menu today consisted of the following:
Albacore tuna, avocado and mentaiko
beef tenderloin with ponzu
Duck and corn
Chef’s selection of sashimi (hamasaki kingfish, Tasmanian salmon and Hokkaiddo Scallops)
Tasmanian salmon belly sushi
miso Barramundi and parsnip
strawberry, yuzu and green tea.
Of all the dishes, the sushi was the best! I am not kidding, they have the best sushi in Perth. The salmon belly was slightly seared, and the sushi roll was filled with freshly cooked tiger prawn tempura. The prawn tempura’s coating was still crunchy when you bite into it! The mayo on top was also slightly seared, giving it an extra smoky flavour; it was just divine!
But honestly though, everything was gorgeous, the flavours all well balanced and ingredients so fresh. You can certainly taste that the chef has put a lot of effort into these dishes.

Highly recommended. We were lucky enough to get a table at Marumo few months ago. This was an amazing experience. The food was extremely tasty and presented very well. The staff were friendly and attentive. Unfortunately, it is quite hard to book and it is usually booked out months in advance.

Best Japanese food I had so far and would recommend anyone to try it. The price is also reasonable and well worth it.

Omakase menu consisting of 7 courses. The food and service is always amazing. It’s a little hard to book but well worth the effort.

Great stuff! I would happily take anybody here for a meal or 7! The degustation is great at $ 55 per person.
My first impression of the venue was that it was a lot smaller than I thought it would have been, with a maximum number of 30 guests in the restaurant. My friend held her birthday here and booked the whole place. That poor chef working on his own to try and get all 30 plates out at one time (including making 1 exception for a guest who did not eat anything that was raw or seared). A huge pat on the back to the chef who did an exceptional job at delivering the goods, not faulting the taste nor compromising the presentation. Seriously, bravo!
Our meal started of with a little taster of squid salad to get the taste buds going!
What we had to look forward to was:
Lobster, Inari & Avocado
Beef Tataki & Daikon
Gyoza & Cucumber
Chef’s Selection of Sashimi
Tasmanian Salmon Belly Sushi
Duck & Sweet Potato
Miso Caramel Parfait & Popcorn
Everything was to die for! Absolutely bang on with texture and taste! My favourites were the salmon sushi; which was a perfect combo of tempura prawn and topped with seared salmon. This had just the right amount of crunch and beautiful blends of flavours which make you appreciate the Tasmanian salmon and the beautiful creation of the sushi itself. My sister isn’t the biggest fan of sushi, but she couldn’t get enough of this one! Nor could I!
Another big winner was that dessert, OH BOY! I can’t even desribe how good this was, except for the fact that by the end of dessert there was the noise of spoons clanging against ceramic plates in quite a musical fashion due to everyone trying to scrape every last bit off! There was a silkiness unmatched to for a parfait and the popcorn was crushed so it seemes like a light dusting of popcorn with played around in your mouth with the sprinkling of chocolate as well. Heaven may have visited my tastebuds right then and there– I can’t speak more highly of this dessert! It was simply stupendous!
Service was polite and drinks were always filled to the brim. While service was slow, this made for flowing conversation. I just couldn’t five Marumo anything less than 5 stars even if I tried! Thanks to my friend Kilye for the invite to such a special night of food!

Needless to say, this Japanese restaurant is A-​mazing. Intimate. Clean. Great service, endless refills of green tea.
You get to down 7 small courses (+ apetizer + palate cleanser) in approx 3.5 hrs.
Each bite is a delight. Menu changes monthly, with the fresh produce available.
The wasabi is even made with the actual crushed plant root!
Its a rare opportunity to get in with a reservation.
Marumo only opens their booking online for one month at a time, which can be only booked on a specific date from 10am. I remember setting my alarm and by 10.30am, they were fully booked out!
So good: $ 55 per person with $ 2.50 per person corkage.
No complaints!
Run by Chef Moe.

It took us a really long time to finally make it to Marumo since bookings get taken hard and fast. For the price, it’s a really wonderful dinner and while it was a little slower than I would have liked (we went on a weeknight) I also understood that it was because they’re a small team — and every plate was executed perfectly. In particular I really enjoyed the torched salmon sushi — it really made the night!

Please see my blog for the full post
Food and presentation — 4.5÷5
The food at Marumo was fantastic! So why didn’t I give them ⁵⁄₅ you ask? It was because the sous-​vide black Angus was just warm (probably because it was cooked using the sous-​vide method but I wasn’t a fan) and eventhough all the dishes tasted fantastic, the flavours were nothing new. Yes, yes, I always have something to complain about.
Each dish was carefully assembled, beautifully presented and everyone’s dish was the same in terms of portion size and presentation which demonstrates Chef Moe’s attention to detail. I was a bit worried at the beginning that I won’t be full as the first few dishes were quite small but the dishes increased in size as the night progressed and we were all full by the end of dinner.
We were presented with an amuse bouche of squid salad before the first course and they also gave us an orange sorbet before the sous-​vide black Angus which was not on the menu. Everything on the menu tasted fantastic but my favourite was the duck and tamago and salmon belly sushi. The sashimi was really fresh and there were scallops! Yum! The dessert was a lovely touch to finish off the evening of great food.
Service — ⁴⁄₅
Water and green tea was served to each of us as we sat down and was topped up regularly throughout the night. Staff were friendly, polite and professional in the way they carried out their duties, though I think they will benefit by employing professionally trained staff to further enhance the dining experience for patrons.
Atmosphere and décor — ⁴⁄₅
Simple yet sophisticated. The restaurant at most can seat around 26 people and Chef Moe stated that this was to keep the dining experience intimate and for quality control, both of which was achieved exceptionally well.
Value for money — ⁵⁄₅
$ 55 per head for an omakase dining experience? Yes please especially for such fantastic food.
I will definitely be back, that is, if I can get a booking. It would be really good if they can change their booking system to something like Dimmi… just a suggestion…
Taste Test Total Score 17.5÷20

Dined here again after 2 years after a long time attempting to get a reservation.
$ 55pp for Omakase (7 course degustation) is well worth it considering the fantastic food, excellence service and lovely ambience. Each dish is made with care by the owner Moe and is innovative and creative. Included is free flow tea.
Dinner starts at 7pm and can go for over 3 hours (depending on how fast you eat and serving speeds) so make sure you aren’t in a rush to go anywhere afterwards.
Will definitely return if I can grab another reservation!

First I have to say a very big THANK YOU to Susan and Radek for offering my partner and I their booking. Like them we were never able to get a booking when Marumo was located in Leeming and even with the new location and slightly bigger capacity we still couldn’t get anything within 2 months.
$ 55 for a very fresh standout degustation is an absolute steal in Perth!
Every dish that came out was fresh, beautifully presented and full of flavour! The winner for me was the salmon belly sushi! The crunch of the prawn tempura on the inside and the sweet slightly seared salmon on the top were the perfect combination.
The dishes come out over 2 ½– 3 hours. At first I thought it was gonna be a very long evening, but it gives you time to taste each dish, talk, relax and sip some wine (BYO).
I would definitely recommend trying this place! I’m not a fan of raw fish, but I would go back here! :)

Relocated, but worth the wait!
Having moved from Leeming to Nedlands, this new revision of Marumo has been open around 6 – 7 weeks so far. After a brief discussion with the wife/​husband team that run this Japanese (dego style) restaurant they divulged that the old place sat 16 people max whereas the newly relocated restaurant seats around 26 maxing out at 28.
The layout allows for several couples, a couple of table of 4 people and 1 larger table accommodating up to 8 people (10 maximum). The pricing has also gone up from $ 40 per person to $ 55 per person to accommodate the higher rent I am assuming.
Having never been successful in obtaining a booking to dine at their old premises in Leeming, I cannot comment on comparisons from new place to old but will say both me and Susan left unable to pick a fault with any of the dishes offered. Just a note — they are unlicensed, but you can BYO at 2.50 corkage per person which is reasonable.
The normal fare here is a degustation style 7 course offering with extra starter and palate cleanser before the last 2 courses. The dining experience takes about 3 hours so be prepared to settle in. The décor inside is trendy and the owners/​chef/​waiters are both friendly and professional.
The menu changes every month with new offerings but the Sashimi and Sushi are permanent fixtures on the menu for the foreseeable future. They are also happy to cater to allergies.
We were started off with a Squid Salad which was refreshing and light. A great starter as there was good flavour within this offering to get the taste buds going in anticipation of the first course. This was offered up next as the Beef Tataki. The Beef was very fresh and appetizing.
The second course was Lobster, Inari and Scallop. Presentation was professional and the dish once again didn’t fail to impress in flavour. Pork Gyoza was the 3^rd course and was cooked to perfection.
The 4^th course was the Chef’s Selection of Sashimi including salmon, tuna and hamashi. Once again all the fish on offer was very fresh. We both took note of the clever use of a large block of ice under the fish (with a leaf inbetween) to keep the fish chilled.
Chef’s signature Salmon Belly Sushi was the 5^th course and this was one of our favourites out of a crowd of high performers. It is really hard to pick them, as everything is so good. At this point the palate cleanser was brought out — a naval orange sorbet. We could actually taste the orange in this.
The 6^th course and also the biggest portion of the night was the soy-​braised duck (leg). Don’t think this was playing second fiddle to all the seafood on offer though. The flavours and presentation with this course were spot on once again and even though we were starting to run out of steam, didn’t find it difficult to consume.
The 7^th and final course (desert!) was a black sesame and bailey parfait which once again, was faultless. Being more of a savoury person, I have to say this desert was spot on.
Service was friendly, efficient and tactful. Food and presentation was spot on also. Atmosphere and comfort were big ticks also. As there is a larger table of people present usually, the noise can get up to average levels so not a place for an intimate dinner, but we still had a very enjoyable night nevertheless.
I really recommend this place. Check it out if you manage to strike the lotto and get a booking as it is already booked out until the end of July at this point. This is the only thing that will prevent you from dining here. I recommend trying your luck on the first day of each month when they release the bookings for that month. If your after the bigger table of more than 6 people book for 6 and call the number to add more people.