MARUGO Shinjukusanchome

New Year's evening at around 7 pm. Bitterly cold and gale-force winds outside. Streets are empty-ish... even in the otherwise always bustling Shinjuku san-chome drinking/eating quarter, and half of the restaurants are closed. Marugo Grande was open and looked welcoming. Got a seat at the counter (no...t my favourite, but that is what you get as a single diner in Japan, where space is oh so precious). The menu was Japanese and English-ish. I ordered a glass of Chardonnay and some garlic bread as an appetizer and went on with the same (good) Chardonnay and spaghetti all'amatriciana. Coincidentally, it turned out that my dish was prepared just in front of me (literally at 30 cm in front of my face, with a glass wall in between), which I found very exciting :-) Verdict: the garlic bread was OK, the wine was good (at 700 JPY for a glass) and the pasta was actually quite good (and I knew exactly what had happened to it :-) ! All in all, a very pleasant surprise.

Visited December 2019

Stumbled across Marugo after a walking tour in Shinjuku. We sat at the bar and the service was friendly. The mojito was very good (800 yen) as was the pizza, although it was small. They appeared to have some nice wine available too

Visited May 2018

The wine was good starting at 500 yen. ... but there were more options at higher prices too. The wine list was explanatory about the wine variety, the type and the country of origin. As a cheese aficionado I can testify that the cheese was amazingly good and reasonably priced for Japan, the roquef...ort was soft and real (not blue cheese!) the parmezan and an other cheese I got was also very tasty and again of good quality. of course the portions are not big.... but who actually expects to have a good cheese quality and have big portions? Not even in France! a platter of 3 cheeses was about 10 euro, which for the quality and the country I find it to be quite fair. The service was polite and I felt safe and comfortable there as a western woman traveling alone. I will visit again.

Visited May 2018

First of all, as a previous reviewer noted this is Tokyo which means that you expect a certain level of service and quality of the food. Sadly this place didn't meet up to our expectations. Me and my girlfriend, had a late dinner consisting of a gnocchi-dish and and margarita pizza together with a ...glass of wine and coke which came in at 3300 yen. Pros: the flavour of the pizza was good. Wine decent since it was 500 yen. Cons: *Ridiculous portions sizes - we ordered MAINS which was smaller than an normal appetiser. *Really expensive - considering the small portions. The pizza was as advertised 21 cm and the gnocchi ever smaller.. *Selections of beer - yes this is a wine bar but come on only one bad draft beer to chose from! (In fairness you could apparently get ginger ale or tomato sauce mixed in as well) *Small portion/glasses - wine was about 100ml so smaller the a standard glass. Food as previously stated (look a pictures) *Bland flavour of the pasta *Service was lacking. All in all if you want to grab a glass of wine, this place has a good selection. Everything else needs a lot of improvement. Can't understand the 4-star rating (must be the Japanese regulars?)

Visited April 2018

We went to this bar twice as it was close to our hotel. Ground floor is for non-smoking, and the basement is for smoking. The waiters/waitress were prompt bringing our drinks. The menu was clear and reasonably priced (you are in Tokyo after all). You can order some light snacks, if you want a nibble..., but not a meal as such. For us it was convenient, pleasant, not noisy - just nice to get out of the hotel and not walking the streets - allowing us time to relax and chat.

Visited September 2017