Haru Sushi Bar

Haru 春 (lit. spring) is one of the more aesthetically put-together restaurants in the city. It’s owned by the same owner of Café Juanita and it’s conveniently situated in the same compound of all these great restaurants in Kapitolyo, Pasig. The place is decorated with artificial cherry blossoms, bell ornaments, dolls and small architectural fixtures. There is a small pond at the back part of the restaurant, their wide variety of dining areas are separated with glass windows mimicking shoji sliding doors, and you can find servers dressed in yukata. Evidently, apart from good food, Haru gives prime to your experience there. I only realized how beautiful the restaurant is when I was halfway through my meal already. This was my uncle’s birthday; I have never heard of Haru before and I coincidentally brought my camera, which is a lucky thing for me.

If you want my opinion on the food: I was only able to try 3 dishes, grilled saba, agedashi tofu and salmon maki. I think their grilled dishes are great. I had their salmon one. Their mackerel was out of stock when we were there. I wasn’t able to try their raw dishes apart from a salmon maki (and my sister’s dynamite maki) and I didn’t like the salmon that much because it had this weird sweetness in it. My sister and I had to drown the maki in wasabi just so we couldn’t taste it. If you’re after a nice Japanese restaurant outside Little Tokyo or if you’re an aesthete and if you’re not too discerning of your raw dishes, this is a great place to visit.

Haru is located at 19 West Capitol Drive, Kapitolyo, Pasig City.