I have good news and bad news about Maru San. The positive: The Japanese/Peruvian fine-casual spot is easily the best restaurant to open in DC so far this year. But if you have PTSD from shivering in line a decade ago for a seat at Bad Saint or Rose’s Luxury (or, more recently, for a burger at Eeb ee’s), I’m sorry to tell you that this is a sliver of a space with 25 seats and no reservations, save for a separate tasting menu that accommodates just four people a night (and is already sold out for months). The Eastern Market spot, which opened in February, drew immediate crowds thanks to its owner, the James Beard Award–winning chef Carlos Delgado, also behind the Shaw tasting room Causa. Here, the Peruvian native—along with Tiger Fork’s Simon Lam—focuses on the Nikkei strain of his country’s cuisine, influenced by a wave of Japanese immigrants who arrived on a boat called the Sakura Maru at the turn of the 20th century. The centerpiece of the menu is a lineup of hand rolls: sheaths of shatteringly thin nori filled with warm koshihikari rice and fillings such as sweet raw scallops with a Parmesan-butter sauce, Old Bay–scented lump crab, or shrimp spooned with vibrant huacatay aïoli. You can order them à la carte, but the $37 set of six is the way to go—they arrive one at a time, and each is delicious in its own way. The lone middling roll I tried, filled with a dull mix of foie gras and miso, came from the “premium” list. It’s the only one that needed a flavor boost from the housemade soy sauce, served on the side. Maru San dry-ages its Japanese fish. Photograph by Rey Lopez. As memorable as the hand rolls are, some of my favorite dishes came from the short menu of share plates, where Delgado’s artistry with ceviches and tiraditos is on display. (He sources Japanese fish from the same purveyor that services the far more expensive Causa.) Thin slices of flounder get a kick from tiny sea grapes and a bright, punchy leche de tigre laced with hojicha-smoked ají amarillo peppers. Don’t miss nubs of octopus in a briny, creamy sauce made from blanched Peruvian olives and vegan mayo, served with a small package of saltines. Or slices of lightly seared A5 Wagyu tataki with grapefruit ponzu. Though Delgado started working on Maru San three years ago, the place feels quite timely. It’s relatively affordable. There are no servers—you check off whatever you want on a sheet of paper, and one of the handful of cooks behind the counter will give it to you. There’s also no kitchen, just a lineup of rice cookers and induction plates. And yet every detail—whether the custom-made stones your hand rolls arrive on or the perfectly calibrated reggaeton and ’90s hip-hop soundtrack—has been considered. Tiny octopus figurines hold your chopsticks. Look up and a full-ceiling painting of half an octopus cleverly runs alongside a mirror, giving the optical illusion of a larger space. Maybe someday.   Maru San location_on325 Seventh St., SE languageWebsite Maru San’s counter–the only place to sit. Photograph by Rey Lopez. Open Thursday through Monday for dinner Neighborhood: Eastern Market. Dress: It’s dark and everyone is seated at a horizontal bar–nobody will care what you’re wearing. Best dishes: Crab, scallop, shrimp, and spicy-tuna hand rolls; Wagyu tataki; octopus with olive sauce; ceviche; flounder tiradito. Price range: Hand-roll sets $22 to $37, à la carte hand rolls $7 to $35, share plates $9 to $45. Bottom line: This tiny, no-reservations hand-roll bar is DC’s best new restaurant so far this year. This article appears in the April 2026 issue of Washingtonian.The post Maru San Is DC’s Best New Restaurant (So Far) This Year first appeared on Washingtonian. ...read more read less