I’ve been to Haru twice now. The first time I went with
friends we ordered off the Haru Hour Menu. This is great if you are trying to
save money and have fresh sushi. From 3-7pm, everyday they offer discounted
rolls and appetizers such as Edamame ($4), Tuna Roll ($3), Tuna Avocado Caviar
Roll ($5), and a few other gluten free safe rolls.
I had the Tuna Avocado Caviar Roll and the
Salmon Jalapeño Roll ($6.75) from the regular dinner menu. It was hot. I
was daring and tried it and I liked it but I needed 5 glasses of water after I
ate it. Of course, Erica loved it and it didn’t affect her quite as much.
Haru also has gluten free
soy sauce served in a special container marked on the top with a white Japanese
character, which, I’m going out on a limb here, but would guess it means “gluten
free”.
The second time I ate at Haru was last week with my dad and
sister. Katie had a $20 Birthday Certificate, which anyone can sign up to
receive and I highly recommend you doing it! Sign up here.
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| Yes, we ate everything! |
As an appetizer we had the Ceviche ($12.75). It was delicious,
made of citrus-marinated tuna, salmon and whitefish (you can have all three,
you don’t have to choose one so don’t let the menu fool you), with grape
tomatoes, red onion, avocado and green apples. I really enjoyed this, I loved
the citrus flavor.
Strawberry Fin Special Roll ($16.75). Spicy yellowtail (hold
the crunchy!), jalapeno peppers and mango topped with scallops, wasabi tobiko
and fresh strawberries. This combination really peeked our curiosity. Strawberries? Jalapenos? I would never have
thought of mixing all these ingredients, but it was great. Extremely flavorful
and fresh, it had a kick to it from the jalapenos.
My favorite roll, by far, is the Gramercy Park Roll ($18).
Spicy super white tuna and jalapenos, wrapped with tuna, yellowtail and salmon
and topped with lemon, cilantro and tobiko. Again this roll has a “crunchy”
ingredient they left out, as tempura flakes are not gluten free. Our waitress
also brought the yuzu miso sauce on the side, also not gluten free, and also
not very good. We all tried the sauce and none of us liked it. But the roll was
amazing. I couldn’t taste the jalapeno like the first roll, but I could taste
the cilantro and loved how fresh it was.
Sweet Potato roll ($6). Usually it is is fried in tempura,
but the waitress offered to make it steamed instead. I’ve had it without
tempura before and it was delicious, cooked nicely – soft and tender. This
sweet potato roll was not so great, the sweet potato was undercooked and it was
a bit hard.
At the end of our meal when our waitress gave us the bill
she asked us if we were from Boston. After we said yes she handed each of us a
Mystery Envelope. She explained that inside each envelope was a gift
certificate to Haru worth anywhere from $5 to $500 and you can’t open it until
the next time you come back, and the Manager must be the one to open it. Well
of course we are coming back! Even if we only have $5, it would be worth it to
get a roll or two from the Haru Hour menu or one of the more expensive rolls,
because it would really be $5 off. She told us we could use two during one
visit, as long as we had separate checks…um…OK!
The service was good, our waitress was very friendly and attentive.
She was so knowledgeable about gluten I really liked that. It can be hard at
Japanese or other ethnic restaurants (even American restaurants) to find serves
who really know what gluten it is and are that knowledgeable about the menu
they can answer every question. Now, if only we could teach the rest of
American’s and people in the restaurant industry what gluten is and what it’s
in, we would have a much easier dinning experience.
Location: 55 Huntington Ave., Boston
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