assorted sushi platter - © dubaimoves.com

Haru Robatayaki is a smallish Japanese restaurant located at the Plaza Level in Rimal, JBR, next to the Ruby Tuesday’s in Dubai Marina (there’s another location in Green Community). While they do serve sushi, they specialize in “robatayaki” or casual Japanese grilled and barbecue cuisine, so expect skewers, stir fry, and tempura.

Inside, you’ll find a square dining room lit on one side with diffused fluorescent lighting, and several tables (most of which seat six) paired with stools. Haru is suited to casual dining, but its much more popular for delivery than a dine in destination.

In order to try as much of the food as possible–and we brought our appetite–two of the “all you can eat” deals were ordered. With this option, you get miso soup, seaweed salad, chicken dumplings, tempura shrimp, rice bowl, noodles, skewers, grilled chicken and beef, sushi platter, and fresh fruits or ice cream. If you’re still hungry, you can order any of those items again.

Curiously–the staple of Japanese appetizers–Edamame wasn’t available.

While there were eight people working between the kitchen and wait staff, we didn’t see the first of our food for a full fifteen minutes after our order even though the restaurant was not particularly busy. Then the miso soup, seaweed salad, and chicken strips came out together. Surly, the miso soup could have been served before to keep us occupied? (If only they had Edamame for us to devour!). Perhaps, there was an influx of delivery orders at the same time? Anyway, once the food started to arrive, it kept on coming.

The miso was pretty good albeit a little too salty, the seaweed salad was pleasant, and the chicken strips weren’t bad when mixed with the accompanied sauce.

We found the fried rice to be tasty, but the noodles to be quite oily. The sushi platter was a disappointment–in our opinion, the rolls had too small a helping of fish and too much of rice. The sashimi also had a somewhat over-helping of rice with salmon and tuna that wasn’t the most fresh we’ve tasted.

However, that’s the point. Haru is more of a Robatayaki and Tepanyaki place than a pure sushi joint. In fact, the  gyoza (dumplings) with chili sauce, as well as, the salmon skewers with ginger sauce and pommery mustard sauce were simply outstanding and by far the highlight of the meal.

So, unless you packed a heavy appetite, skip the all you can eat option, and try some of the unique grilled items, as that’s what this place does best.

• 2x All you can eat – 178 AED (89 each)
• 1x Mango Lime Lassie – 18 AED
• 1x 7up Lite – 8 AED
• Service – 20.40 AED
• Total – 224.40 AED (for two)

map

Haru Robatayaki, Rimal, JBR, Dubai Marina

related

1. Sublime Japanese at Momotaro
2. Make your own stirfry at Wok Away
3. Social House at the Dubai Mall
4. Nordsee at The Dubai Mall
5. Burger House: The best burger joint in town?

tags: dubai marina, restaurant review