Maru Sushi & Sake Bar

Epic fail! So I go to the Web site, so as to place a carry out order. I see an online ordering app… perfect! And it WORKS! So far so awesome! So I place an order for two appetizers and three basic sushi rolls, put in my contact info, select the available «as soon as possible» option, wait a few minutes before leaving work, and drive down York Road to head to Maru. Then I get a call. «We’re sorry, but the restaurant does not do advance orders.» And so I politely say «okay, thank you» and drove on to Yamato Sushi. Lost customer. That’s one star.
Lesson of the story: If you don’t fulfill online ordering, don’t make it an option on your Web page!

Best sushi in all MD ! Great and fresh food. A lot of variety :-) now that I have moved from Towson to GlenBurnie I still drive all over to timonium to get my pick up !

Sooo very sad, I found this gem several months ago only to go there 2days ago to find they closed due to low foot traffic and high rent at this location:-(

Unfortunately this place is now closed…:-(My girlfriend and I went her for dinner last night only to discover a note posted in the front door announcing that they had closed due to lack of business. We (my girlfriend and I) we hugely disappointed as this was our go to place for Gen Tso’s!

The sushi wasn’t awful but the service was. The two couples that arrived after us both received their checks and left before us, the whole time our waitress (waiting on one of the former tables) saw us sitting there done with our food for about 20 minutes. Then when she finally gets our check, she sees it sitting there with the card hanging off the table and walks right by it. I also overheard 2 other tables not getting something they placed with the waitress; putting your hands on your head with a bashful smile doesn’t excuse that.
Normally my husband thinks I am impatient (I’m also 9 months pregnant) but he was extremely annoyed, which never happens. We’re never going back.

I’m not sure what happened to this place but the quality definitely has gone down. We went here for dinner on a Saturday night around 7pm and we were the only patrons.
We ordered the Vietnamese spring rolls which looked nothing like a spring roll and just tasted of pure oil. We also ordered Kung pao chicken and sautéed bok choy… We have ordered the bok choy in the past and what we got today was definitely not the same dish as before. It didn’t even have the shiitake mushrooms, it had some other sort of mushroom and choy. The Kung pao chicken wasn’t bad but it just tasted like soy sauce.
The staff were also just standing by one another and talking the whole time.

Lutherville Timonium’s best kept secret. The sushi is large and fresh. The sashimi are the largest cuts in the area. For example, the mackrel had five pieces of really big large sizes, this usually comes in two or three pieces of about half the size anywhere else. We also ordered off the menu had the crispy duck, loved it crispy fresh duck pieces in the vegetables were perfectly cooked. What really made the service was this guy named Jimmy. He’s energetic happy and always very accommodating. He came buy our table several times during dinner and made my family and my young three and a half-​year-​old very comfortable. Would definitely come back for the food the people and the friendly service!

Great service and great food. Overall I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for good Chinese food in the area. The restaurant is also extremely clean, which is huge for me!
Prices are a bit high, but definitely worth it.

Inaugural visit and WOW! Great service (with a smile & eye contact) and great sushi. Try the Father & Son Roll and feel your eyes roll back into your head.
I will definitely be back and am tempted to make my next visit tomorrow.
This place is a hidden gem.

Absolutely love this place. Been there many times and have never had a bad experience. The service is awesome, they love their customers and the food is always very good. The lunch specials are extremely cheap!

Delicious sushi with awesome service!

We noticed that Jasmine’s had morphed into this new «so-​called Sushi Bar», and decided to give it a try for lunch. As with it’s predecessor, it is actually a kind-​of pan-​asian place, which offers sushi, chinese, and thai dishes. We ordered a lunch special of roast pork with a Malaysian tamarind sauce, and a three sushi roll lunch special. This included a bland wonton soup (no filling in the wontons) and a green salad with grated ginger (which my partner enjoyed). The roast pork dish was an uninspired stir-​fry with a sweet-​and-​sour sauce, no different than what one can find at many Chinese take-​out joints. The sushi rolls had good tasting rice, but tended to fall apart when picking them up with chopsticks or your fingers. The salmon skin filling was crispy, but, like the eel, had muted flavor. The place is nicely decorated, and neat. The service alternated between intrusive, and neglectful, despite the fact that there was only one other customer when we were there. The portions are adequate, and the prices are surprisingly low. If you truly like sushi, drive three minutes north to the corner of York Rd. and Padonia, and go to the second best sushi place in Maryland, «Edo Sushi» (the best requires a trip to «Sushi Sono» in Columbia).

Let me start by saying that this online menu of theirs is a hot mess.
I like options and all but there are like 7 different categories for sushi/​sashimi that aren’t for lunch. I don’t have the greatest memory so even if when I wrote what I wanted down, I had to go back numerous times to remember what each roll had in it so I wasn’t ordering similar items.
I got the Black Dragon Roll, the Crispy Lobster Roll, and a California Roll.
Black Dragon Roll — was really good and if I would have ordered just this, I probably wouldn’t have felt the need to write this review.
Crispy Lobster Roll — was HUGE and would have been great and worth the price had the lobster been fresh but it was SPOILED and smelled/​tasted of ammonia. I ended up trashing it.
California Roll — was just «eh.» There was something off about it. I usually love the type of California Roll with the shredded crabstick/​mayo mix but this wasn’t good and I pitched last 3 pieces of that. It wasn’t that it was spoiled but the taste was just off.
Based on this, if Unilocal had half stars I’d be giving this visit a 2.5.
I don’t anticipate going back anytime soon but I wouldn’t rule this place out. Maybe next time try non-​sushi stuff.

I’ve been to Maru now 3 times, ordered different things and everything has been awesome.
I personally love their Bento boxes and sushi lunch specials. You can get them Monday through Saturday. Ton of food and great prices.
Their Thai food is fantastic and so is their sushi.

Just moved here less than a year ago and this is the best I’ve found for sushi as well as non sushi dishes. My kids (ages 6 and 4) love the chicken teriyaki. And the sushi rolls and perfect in terms of flavor, size and overall presentation. The wait staff is personable and attentive. This is our go to place for sushi

The food was very good, BUT, we wanted to reserve a room for a party for my teenage son, (he picked this place), they agreed on a date, time and pre-​ordered menu, and then changed their mind when a larger party wanted the room and was willing to pay more. They tried to work with us to save the reservation, but only if we agreed to pay more! Regardless of the circumstances, if you fail to honor your business agreements, you lose customers. They’ve now lost 20 customers, and whatever repeat business they may have generated, and tarnished their reputation for trustworthiness in my eyes. My son was extremely disappointed. We will not be going back.

My coworkers and I were really sad to see Jasmine’s close down, as it was one of our favorite sit-​down options for lunch. Fortunately, Maru seems to have retained basically the entire menu, and just further expanded the sushi options.
I always stick with the honey sesame chicken lunch special ($ 8) which is the best honey sesame chicken ever. The sushi is also good and fresh. The service is nicer than the previous service at Jasmine’s, and substantially quicker.

The newest addition to the Timonium Square Shopping Center; I believe this is where Jasmine Bistro used to be. The menu at Maru offers inventive maki rolls, good happy hour specials and reasonable prices. If Unilocal would allow half stars, I’d give 3.5 stars, but am rounding up.
We went for happy hour (3:00−6:00PM) and enjoyed $ 2 bottled beers and fried spicy calamari, which was flavorful and fresh tasting, and a great deal at the $ 4 HH price.
We followed this up with:
Chicken Satay
A generous portion of grilled chicken – good, slightly dry, but nothing special in terms of flavor.
Rice Cracker Ball — Crispy sushi rice ball, topped with spicy tuna
This was AWESOME!!! I’ve never had anything like this, and I eat sushi pretty frequently. Soft little rice balls with crackly shells are dotted with plump little mounds of freshly glistening tuna. I would come back just for this dish alone.
Kiss of Fire — Jalapeño, cucumber, asparagus, crunchy inside topped with avocado & seared tuna
This was ok, if a little bland. The mild flavor of the tuna was completely masked by the jalapeño, and there was no discernible flavor to the roll other than the one note heat of the pepper. It needed more umami!
Mochi Ice Cream — Bleh, the mochi did not taste fresh, and the outside coating instead of being wonderfully chewy, was dry and hard. We mentioned this to JLo, the owner, and while she apologized, she did not offer to take them off the check, which would have been appropriate.

Food was fantastic and service was excellent. We went to get carry out and were invited to sit at the bar, given water and samples of the day’s special appetizer while we were waiting. Everyone was extremely friendly and it was reasonably priced compared to other local sushi spots.

Good food, fast service and reasonably price. Will come back again!