Maru Sushi & Grill — Restaurant in Sanford

We enjoy coming here to unwind and eat great hand-crafted sushi at a great value. Everyone is friendly and also respectful of quiet solace. Never had a bad meal or bad experience here during lunch rush or evening hours.

Update, 2023:

Unfortunately after many years of being a satisfied customer with many happy experienced, I'm devastated to revise this review with new information regarding "policies" that changed "some time last year" regarding the restaurant's willingness to respect disabled patrons with service animals. In the United States, disabled citizens are protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act. Per the ADA, wherever a disabled patron is present, their service dog must be accommodated as a medical support provided that the dog is behaving appropriately (a reflection of its training). There is no national or state recognized "registry" for service dogs, nor any "certification," and physical "evidence" of either of these does not constitute as proof of a service dog acting as a service dog. A business entity is not entitled to ask for "proof" or "evidence" of a dog being a service animal--a business is entitled to ask "Is that a service animal?" And "What task does it perform to support your disability?"

A server at Maru approached us asking for "proof," which we denied, explaining the above, and instead enthusiastically proferred that my dog is my service animal and is task-trained to support my visible physical disability. The server clarified that he needed to see "tags" and "papers," which, to reiterate, are not substantial legal evidence of a service dog and not within a business' entitlements to ask for. We asked if we were being refused service. The server answered in the affirmative.

My dog is not new to my, nor is my disability. I have been a customer at Maru for many years and have happily and quietly dined here without incident. The owner is familiar with us. He was present and observed this interaction and did not intervene nor choose to defend or clarify this "new policy." Shameful.

Edit: updating this review to add the additional context of the most up-to-date (2023) FL statutes regarding public accommodations for disabled patrons who use service animals. Please see section 3.b. which affirms that documentation is not a precondition to providing a service to a service animal handler with services and goods. The FL statutes also affirms the appropriate procedure of the ADA questions. ...

BEWARE!

This evening my hubby & I found Maru Sushi & Grill based on solid Google ratings. We tried it out tonight for the 1st (& last) time.

For dinner I ordered the “7-fish, sashimi salad”. I asked the waitress what types of fish were in it-but she was did not know. I asked if she could request to have it made without; eel, shrimp or yellowtail.

The sushi bar chef made a small platter of 8, fairly thinly-sliced pieces of fish (2 slices of each fish)- a small amount food for an entree, I asked the sushi chef if he had substituted the 3 fishes that I did not wan included. To my surprise the chef became argumentative & stated that he “can illuminate, but does not substitute”... Had I have been made aware of this policy earlier, I would have ordered something different from the menu.

However, as the chef reminded us, “the dish was already made.” As a 1-time courtesy, the chef agreed to the substitution-for an additional charge. He added 6 additional thin slices of fish to my plate, . The “salad” consisted the equivalency of one, tablespoon of veggies (a small, diced mixture of; avocados, cucumbers, carrots, seaweed & tomatoes).

As a sushi-regular, I can tell you that the fish I received did not look like any sashimi that I had ordered before...Most of the fish appeared to have SEARED edges-& some of the fish slices were TWO-TONED IN COLOR!

Afraid of ruining a rare “date-nite”, I attempted to remain positive. I smiled & I engaged in conversation as I attempted to eat what was in front of me.

The overpoweringly “fishy” taste was simply not unpalatable-So I opted to move the food around the plate for the rest of our duration at Maru’s.

Eventually, my husband noted that I had hardly eaten. I then let him know my concern over the quality of the fish (it was stringy/“gristley” & fishy tasting/smelling), . Before leaving, I asked the waitress who the restaurant manager/owner was? only to be notified that the it was the sushi chef. Since we had already experienced the argumentative /defensive side to this man, we opted to simply pay our bill, photograph my dish & leave quietly.

I do hope that this review saved someone else from a ruined date-night—or serious...

Today, I went to Maru for the 2nd time. The first time I had gone was sometime in 2018 and wasn't impressed. Today I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt and try the sushi again. I went during my work lunch break, which is an hour long. I arrived at the facility and saw that it was only slightly busy so i figured it shouldn't take too long to get food and be back at work within the hour. I order the 2 roll lunch special. I ordered the Tempura Shrimp roll and the Smoked Salmon roll. With the lunch came a salad and your choice of Miso soup or Onion soup. I chose the onion. First of all, they put a little too much ginger dressing on the salad. I couldn't finish it all. Second, the onion soup was spicy as if they put too much pepper in it. Now this doesn't mean it tasted bad, but just a little too much ginger dressing and pepper for my liking. The waitress got my water,salad, and soup out within a few minutes of me ordering. It took about 30 minutes for my sushi to come out. Now i was not impressed at all with the sushi. The smoked salmon roll was okay, but it took me smothering it in eel sauce, to eat it. The Tempura Shrimp roll was 0 stars. It tasted so off and funny. I'm not sure what they are cooking the shrimp in or using in the rice for the sushi, but it was hard to finished everything.

Now, i will give the waitresses props as they were moving consistently to make sure all the customers were taken care of. The chefs were working very slowly, which caused a bit of a wait for the food. Like i said, they weren't really that busy so i didn't think the wait time on food was worth it. All in all, I won't be returning to this sushi restaurant. I'll stick with Bayridge in Longwood or honestly anywhere else that has the same pricing for better quality sushi. (Bayridge offers a 3 roll lunch special with soup/salad for $11.95, were as Maru only offers the 2 sushi lunch...