All Rolled Up

Ozark’s newest sushi spot offers familiar Japanese dishes and a big, variety-filled sushi menu.

By Katie Pollock Estes

This fall, a brand new sushi and Japanese restaurant opened up on James River Road in Ozark. On a chilly winter night, my husband, Eli, and I stopped in for dinner and a respite from the cold. The surprisingly large dining room featured warm lighting and (at that time) Christmas décor. We perused the sushi menu hoping to find something new to try. We’re big sushi-eaters, and when a new spot opens we always hope to find a new favorite roll.

But before we could decide which rolls we wanted to order, we decided to dig into something warm. We both started with a bowl of miso soup. It was pretty standard miso soup, a rich broth peppered with little bits of seaweed and tiny cubes of silky tofu. The hot broth warmed us up on that cold evening, and it really hit the spot.

The menu at Maru has a variety of Japanese dishes like udon, donburi, edamame, agedashi tofu and even a few common Chinese dishes, but Eli and I were hungry for sushi and sushi alone. So we picked a couple of rolls: One that looked new to us, and one that seemed like it would a familiar flavor.

The familiar roll was called Hot Night ($11.95). It featured tempura shrimp surrounded by rice and seaweed and topped with a fat layer of spicy tuna and plenty of crunchy tempura bits. The tempura shrimp was crispy with pleasantly sweet meat. The veggies tasted fresh, as well. Our only complaint is that the roll wasn’t really spicy. It has “hot” in its name and is topped with spicy tuna.

Even though it tasted good, the roll lacked the kick we were hoping for.

I preferred our second roll, the Maru Delight ($14.95). It was unusual, which I like. It’s always fun to find a sushi roll that is a little bit outside the box. This roll contained no rice whatsoever. Instead, a variety of crispy, crunchy, cold and fresh ingredients are rolled up inside of soft rice paper. The result is an incredibly light and refreshing roll. So what’s inside? There’s fresh salmon, plenty of crab, cucumber, avocado, cilantro, apples and mountain root. The bonus: It’s also has a little bit of zippy-sweet ponzu sauce. It’s definitely a change of pace, so it wouldn’t be a good roll for someone looking for common flavors and textures. But we loved the fresh crunch.

There’s a dessert menu here, although we didn’t try it out. We were too full! But we definitely spent some time eyeing the fried bananas with a side of green tea or red bean ice cream.