Yataimura Maru by Shigezo

One of the worst lunch I’ve had. Service was super slow… We had to wait almost an hour just to get our ramen, gyoza, and rolls. The food is not even wow quality. Not sure what’s up with all these 5 stars.

This has become our go to restaurant! The veggie ramen is so delicious, they hand make all of their noodles and it sure shows making the soup amazing! I love sashimi and can’t think of anywhere else in Portland I can get GOOD quality sashimi for an extremely decent price, especially during happy hour! $ 3.5 for a delish tuna/​avocado hand roll?! Yes Please! This is great for groups seeing as they excel at the variety of dishes they offer. Now I am not one for super fatty greasy pork belly ramens and meaty dishes so I cannot vouch for those, but the veggie skewers ($ 1.5 at happy hour! try the mushrooms! mmmm) veggie ramen and fresh fish are some of the best I’ve ever had. this is the only restaurant in Portland I go to regularly.

This place has been consistently excellent each time I’ve come here with a hankering for ramen. Sometimes it’s hard to find a Japanese place that offers vegetarian options that are good, and this place is hands down one of my favorite places to go for vegetarian ramen. They hand make their ramen noodles in house (and sell them to go too!)
I would recommend the veggie udon with chrysanthemum greens and the kinpira gobo (finely julienned burdock root and carrot tossed with sesame oil and soy sauce with sesame seeds) and the agedashi tofu (crispy tofu with eggplant on top in a bath of savory broth).

An hour at Yataimura Maru’s happy hour is still not enough to try all the varieties of food offered on their HH menu. Not to mention, HH is 2x a day — lasting essentially all day on Sundays, from 11:30am to 6pm. Whether you’re craving ramen, or hand rolls, or robata grilled foods and skewers, you’ll be able to keep both your wallet and stomach full at Maru’s. One thing to note: if you’re looking to try something on their full menu, don’t come between 2−5pm on Sundays — you’ll only be able to select from their HH menu then.
We originally came here to try some of their ramen, but not all of the ramen bowls are listed on the HH menu. Although the ramen is half the normal price, you also get about half the normal size; and unfortunately, the taste didn’t blow me away. I ordered the shio abu ramen, which seems more like a fusion of Chinese/​Thai noodle dishes — sweet, spicy, and pan-​fried.
However, I would definitely recommend ordering from the grill. The super tender pork belly skewer hit the perfect balance of fatty to lean ratio. The bacon wrapped quail eggs taste exactly like how they sound; so if you like bacon and soft-​boiled eggs, you’ll love this dish! And of course, HH wouldn’t be complete without drinks. I looooved the jelly sake here. As I expected, it wasn’t that strong, but the thrill of drinking a liquid that tastes like jelly was pretty nifty; and the carbonation makes it go down like soda rather than a slow burn from alcohol.
Final verdict: come to Maru’s for a great happy hour selection, would totally recommend.

I stopped by with my fiancé and some friends for the late night happy hour (9:00−11:00pm Friday night). There was a bit of a wait… maybe about 20 minutes. After getting our names down on the list, we sat in the area between the first set of doors and the open restaurant. There was a space heater in the corner, which was considerate! After being seated, the guy who served us was really short with us. He pretty much told us that they were swamped and that someone else would be taking our order because they were busy. I wasn’t really surprised by this, because I had looked at their Unilocal reviews prior to coming and what I gathered from Unilocal was that the service was really bad. And it was for the most part. Our order was taken by this older Asian woman. And let me tell you, she was the cutest. Very friendly and inviting. She took our order and repeated the order back to us just to make sure it was correct. They were out of tako yaki, which was disappointing. On to the food! The salmon crunch handroll was just okay… the gyu donburi was okay… the tokyo ramen was a little too salty… I also ordered the spicy fried chicken (because anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE fried chicken), but for some reason, we never got the spicy fried chicken that I ordered off the normal menu. The server later told us that we never ordered it and it looked like we had the spicy fried calamari on our order. I was a little pissed off about it, but when the spicy fried calamari got there it tasted pretty good. It wasn’t spicy though. The pork belly (while only three small slices of pork on a skewer) was really good. Still, I was irritated about my fried chicken. But what irritated me even more was the Jinro. So one thing about happy hour is that to order off it, you need one drink minimum per person. My fiancé and I both decided on Jinro. We didn’t want ice or anything. Just Jinro in a cup. There was a lot less of it than I expected. Also… my fiancé and I ordered the same thing and both cups were filled to the same level when it arrived to our table. Upon later inspection of the glasses after we were finished and were waiting for the check (which seemed to take forever), I noticed that my cup was different from his. The bottom of my glass was deeper along the midline and slanted upwards to the sides of the glass. It looked as though I had received less alcohol, which I wasn’t too pleased about. Additionally, the service is probably the slowest out of all the restaurants I have been to. It didn’t look too crowded or busy compared to most of the popular restaurants around town, and several times when I glanced over at the workers behind the stations, they would just be standing there with their arms crossed. Needless to say, I won’t be returning. However I always like to leave positives about an establishment to end my reviews. A+ to the friendly, older Asian lady who greeted us. Some of the dishes were pretty good. And finally, the toilets in the bathroom are awesome

I loved this place so much and I have been deprived of anything resembling authentic Japanese food for so long (three years) that I feel a little dishonest rating it a 4 star. As far as ambiance, quality, service goes, everything was five stars! I may be exaggerating and my husband so kindly reminded me that he only had one piece of chicken in his chicken curry, however, I am in my last month of pregnancy and have been craving Okonomiyaki for ages!!! And they delivered! It was just perfect from the taste to the texture! The shrimp was tender and the octopus not chewy! Also had Unagi and it was just fantastic! The right amount of tare and very tender!
The ambiance was loud but in a good pub type loud! And there were kids there which was great!
And the greatest invention ever in the bathroom!!! (I think we may have to invest in one of those toilet seats!)
The only reason I’m holding onto the last star is because this is the first Japanese restaurant that I have been to in three years and the standard to which I hold authentic Japanese food to is very high. I am reserving judgement on that last star only until I feel I’ve frequented enough Japanese restaurant to have a good baseline for the area! But this was a fantastic place that I will definitely look forward to frequenting as often as I can!

Closest feel to a real izakaya outside Japan, from service yelling greetings and goodbyes to décor.
Strongly recommend the shio abu ramen — a dish I’ve never tried anywhere else that is well executed here. Friendly service and reasonable pricing forgive any faults and give this place a five star rating.

Extensive happy hour menu for food– everything I ordered was on it, but there were no drinks on it.
Quail eggs– mediocre.
Chicken karaage– mediocre.
The spicy roll with albacore was delicious, but it is a hand roll, which I was not expecting and it’s a bit pricy. Still, tasty!
Cucumber shiso martini– not tasty.
The service was slow, but everyone was kind.

This is a super cute place and I love the way it is decorated with lanterns. We ordered the ramen and spicy tuna hand roll which was tasty. I liked it that you can order a half order of ramen, for those who aren’t as hungry.
We tried the green line which was Unagi, cream cheese and fried asparagus it was delicious and a nice combo. Overall I would come back the only downside is parking but that is to be expected.

Great authentic Japanese food & ambiance will make you feel like a high-​powered business exec., trying to scarf down a bowl o’ ramen and a Sapporo on your lunch break.
Americans love to dumb down foreign food into a Mc-​version of whatever we loved about the original. Maru on Division is a chance to sit down and eat in an authentic atmosphere, while enjoying some delicious eats & great deals.
My GF and i ate at Maru as an endcap to a post-​Christmas shopping extravaganza on Division. It was the perfect place to dip in, warm your hands with some Genmaicha tea, and have some real, intimate conversation.
Stopped in for the happy hour. We both got two handrolls, perfectly wrapped in a nori cone. I had spiced salmon, she had spicy tuna. Both were well-​worth the $ 3.
Major bonus points go for the bacon-​wrapped quail eggs and the ramen main course. The Gyu Donbiri was almost like a Japanese version of BBQ or pulled-​pork, delicious savory meat sauteed with soy sauce and green onions. Don’t let the happy hour prices fool you! You will get fed!
As others have noted, the service wasn’t the best, but it WAS happy hour, after all. They seemed like they were prepping for a busy dinner rush. To me, it just added to the authenticity of the experience, having to hunt down our harried waiter like some kind of exotic prey. Felt just like a slightly overworked Japanese business man, trying to pay the bill and make the train.
A perfect light mid-​day meal, while exploring the joys of SE Division!

This place is on point! Their sushi rice is fantastic and fish is always delicious. They have Happy Hour and great lunch specials. You can even buy their yummy hand made noodles and kimchi to go. .) I love their Spicy Tuna roll!

Go for happy hour– great deals, great servers, great food! We love the Tokyo ramen, bacon wrapped quail egg skewer, karaage («my favorite salad» cause they serve it on a bed of greens with some yummy dressing), curry rice, and grilled zucchini!
Lots of other stuff that is not on HH menu. Sushi is great, love the hand rolls. Their noodles are great and they sell it to go along with some of their sauces. Really great place!

Decent food, questionable happy hour, and horrible service. That was my visit in a nutshell.
Happened to drop in during happy hour, but was surprised to find that it is more or less just basically half portions for half prices. Nice to try more things, maybe, but not any sort of bargain.
The ramen was fine, but only had one piece of meat. The skewers were okay, but the quail eggs were very good. The hand roll was fine, too.
Would have been an okay experience if not for the service. Our order was taken decently quickly, and the food came fast enough, but we NEVER saw our server after the original order was taken. We’d underordered a bit and wanted more food, but never got a chance to order it. We actually sat and waited long after our food was eaten, and had to flag somebody down just to get a check so we could leave. The place was busy, but to be completely ignored after ordering wasn’t okay. Won’t go back.

Ambiance is great, reminds one of Japan or Japantown restaurants. Our party of six ordered a variety of dishes.
California Roll — slightly better than a sushi boat place or Fred Meyer, but far short of an «authentic» venue such as Murata.
Lemonade — real good
Cheesy Gyoza — not so much
Ramen — meh
Spicy Tuna handroll — weak
Tempura — oily, non-​flaky, kind of ick (the little pepper that comes with is was good)
Fried Chicken — okay, small portion
Calamari — had hints of Italian spice, WTF?
The last two dishes took a very long time, we had finished everything else when the dishes arrived.
A variety of non-​Japanese servers bring the food.
Won’t be back

I can admit that sometimes I can fall into «lard» status where I order a lot of bad food and let myself indulge. It’s especially fantastic when the food is good. My girlfriend and I love fried chicken and we (I) wanted karrage. We love Pono and thought we’d try somewhere new. We came in with 20 minutes left of happy hour and got seated pretty quickly. I liked the interior, I thought it was super kitschy. Our server was pretty friendly and knowledgable.
We ordered 3 types of fried chicken. Yes, three. They were all bad. The spicy fried chicken was so overdone and dry that we sent it back (at least it was comped). The karrage was okay at best and the sauced karrage was over salted. We also got the braised pork, too salty. The ramen Sapporo ramen was okay, nothing to write home about and the beef donburi which was also too salty in my opinion. I’m probably biased and spoiled because I’ve had my fair share of amazing Japanese food.
At least now I know not to come back here.

Service was so friendly and inviting, I got seated right away while I waited for my friends. We got the sapporo butter corn ramen (had a shallot onion flavor, really good!), Tokyo ramen (more flavorful of a broth, also very delicious), bacon wrapped quail eggs (because why not, they was so yummy! But hot haha), jellyfish ponzu (excellent starter), okonomiyaki (awesome beer drinking dish), and spicy fried chicken that kind of had a curry taste to it. I wasn’t disappointed with anything that I got, everything was seasoned well and came out really fast! Definitely going back

I would have to say try their pork belly yakitori, and their bacon wrapped quail eggs. My fiancée enjoyed the grilled maguro carpaccio. This restaurant has lot of Izakaya + sushi items if you’re wanting authentic Japanese food.
Never been to this part of Portland, I would definitely come back the next time I visit.

Quail eggs makes me think of my childhood. Oh, I love quail egg and to find it here with bacon! That’s the icing on the cake! We came for happy hour and ordered a ton of tapas. Quail eggs wrapped in bacon, fried tofu, yakatori thighs, with an order of poke. To order off the happy hour you also have to buy a drink (either beer or tea).
Food was good and the service was great.

Very busy Sunday and surprisingly, the service was still fast and consistent. Water was always refilled in a timely manner without having to ask.
Fish seemed fresh and seasoning was good. I had the Udon stir fry and it was a lot of food for $ 7. We ordered our own and could’ve shared one.
Also ordered frenchy roll which has spicy tuna and seared salmon. The fried onions on the outside of the roll overwhelmed the fish a bit but was still good.
Will try new items next time and will definitely be back.

For Portland, the ramen is ok. For me, meh.
I got the miso tantanmen ramen which comes with ground pork, bean sprouts, and green onions.
First, the broth. The broth here is much more flavorful than the broth at Boxer Ramen. Buuuut, there was this weird distinct taste after each slurp that I didn’t like. You could actually taste the paste that they used to make the broth. But, I ignored it cus I was happy I could find a decent tasting broth.
Second, the noodles. There were barely any noodles. Where are my ramen noodles?! Basically, my bowl was ¼ ramen and the other ¾ was BEAN SPROUTS. Filled with bean sprouts! It’s liked I ordered a miso tantanmen bean sprout soup :(Not cool
Lastly, I ordered one roll because I was craving sushi. I was going to order a simple tekka maki (tuna roll) but I saw that it was the same price as a more elaborate roll, so I got the fatty maki roll. Ok, it is definitely fat but not filled with fish. The whole thing was 90% rice with THE SMALLEST piece of fish I’ve ever seen in a roll. I don’t think my picture does it justice because it looks so much smaller in person. So, I basically paid $ 10 for a 5 piece roll of rice with a bit of fish inside.
Only giving this 3 stars because the broth was better than I had expected. It makes me so sad that my standards for ramen are slowly dropping because I can’t seem to find a good place :(((