A great lunch spot with excellent bowls and rolls!…read more
We visited Maru Sushi and Don multiple times during our stay in Calgary, largely because my daughter absolutely loved their food. We ordered a mix of dishes across our visits, including the Sanuki Udon, the Salmon and Spicy Pork bowls, and the Philadelphia and Flower rolls.
The Rolls
I'll skip a detailed review of the rolls since I didn't taste them myself, but they looked fantastic. They were meticulously wrapped, and the Flower Roll was exceptionally colorful and appetizing. Judging by how eager my daughter was to keep coming back for them, they must be delicious.
The Udon (Sanuki Udon. Udon just means Noodle)
We ordered the Udon, and the presentation was very solid. The noodles were neatly grouped and topped with the classic agedama (tempura flakes). The dashi has a standard, formulaic taste--I certainly didn't expect a from-scratch iriko base--but it makes for a very comforting and tasty-looking bowl of noodles.
The Bowls
I personally ate the bowls and ordered them twice because I enjoyed them so much. The concept is a bit like a Chipotle burrito bowl, but much closer in spirit to bibimbap with a lower rice-to-vegetable ratio. It perfectly fit my goal of eating lower-carb meals.
The bowls are packed with a vibrant mix of mesclun greens, cucumber, avocado, edamame, corn, pineapple, and green onions. I loved the textural contrasts: tender salad leaves, refreshing cucumber, and the chopsticks-testing edamame. A great detail was the carrots--they were lightly blanched in a sweet broth, which removed the raw bite while keeping them perfectly crisp.
As for the proteins, the salmon was standard, but the Korean-style spicy pork was the standout. They got it incredibly right. It tasted very authentic with a solid 5/10 on my spice scale, and the gochujang blended flawlessly with all the vegetables.
Minor Critiques
I only have two small complaints. First, the red cabbage and sliced radish were unusually bitter and didn't blend well with the rest of the bowl's flavor profile. Second, opting for brown rice makes the bowl pretty challenging to eat with chopsticks; the structure of the rice is loose and dry, making it hard to pick up. However, I still managed to clean my bowl completely while waiting for my daughter to finish her meal!
Verdict
Overall, I really enjoyed our meals here. If I worked nearby, Maru Sushi and Don would absolutely be in my regular lunch rotation.