Montbéliard. The Japanese restaurant Marù, always full, is moving to a location twice as large.
The beautiful story continues for Marù , the Japanese restaurant in the Cité des Princes opened in June 2020 by Julien and Suphawadi Pégeot on rue de Belfort. It has moved a few steps away to 1 bis, rue du Château, in place of the organic restaurant M&A . Opening in the middle of a health crisis has not prevented Marù from making its mark, and making a name for itself well beyond the Montbéliard region.
"We have customers from Besançon, Colmar, Strasbourg, Switzerland, Haut-Doubs, and Dijon," says Julien Pégeot. It must be said that the magic quickly worked, with Suphawadi's talent in the kitchen and Julien's ease in the dining room. Two qualities highly appreciated by customers who remain loyal.
The success has continued over the years. The unforgiving reviews on Google (4.9 out of 5, based on nearly 500 ratings) and Trip Advisor (4.8) confirm this. From the start, the restaurant, which only had about twenty seats, quickly filled up. "At the beginning, I told Julien that if one day we turned a lot of people away, we should think about buying something. And last year, we saw that the house was for sale," explains Suphawadi.
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The couple can now double their dining room seating capacity, and will soon have a terrace seating around thirty. The number of employees is also increasing; there will soon be seven of them (including the manager) working at Marù , not counting the extras.
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The couple did their calculations before taking this step, with reservations book to back it up. "We were turning away an average of 70 meals a day." With peaks of 127 turned away, and even 177 on Valentine's Day evening. Marù will remain faithful to what its regulars like. Prices should only increase slightly, given that they were already reasonable. There are also some new items on the menu, such as tempura, whether as a starter or to complement udon and ramen (Editor's note: noodles served in broth and garnished with meat and vegetables).
"One day, a Japanese team who came to sign a contract with Stellantis came to eat. There were nine of them, but I recognized two of them. In fact, they had come to scout before and they loved it, so they signed the contract with us," Julien rejoices, proud of this symbol. "Some told us it was better than in some restaurants in Japan," Suphawadi adds.
“Later, if we’re settled in, I’m thinking about offering cooking workshops—that’s my dream,” says Suphawadi, who likes to draw inspiration from vacations to discover new flavors. “We usually try lots of things. Julien eats to enjoy himself. I eat and study at the same time!”
Marù , 1bis, rue du Château in Montbéliard. Tel. 03 81 35 95 72. [email protected]
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