Temporary Shutter for Fremont East Izakakya

Launching inside Fremont East’s Emergency Arts building last July, Shinya Maru Ramen & Izakaya has made the surprise decision to shutter until March to make some physical interior upgrades and also revamp the menu.

Promising to return with the “finest Japanese cuisine of sushi and ramen,” permits have already been filed to add new sinks and a “sushi case.”

Operated by California's Octopus Restaurant Group, the new changes bring the restaurant closer in concept to the company’s own H2O Sushi & Izakaya at the Hughes Center, serving a Japanese menu with a “modern, exotic touch” since late 2017.

The company first debuted the Shinya Maru brand across from the Hard Rock Hotel in March 2018 and that restaurant is also undergoing its own changes, unveiling a newly streamlined menu stripped of all the original rock music-inspired names and puns.

Gone are the “We Can Pork It Out” or “Another Chicken the Wall” rice bowls, and instead diiners can now order the more sedately dubbed “black garlic tonkotsu ramen.”

An exact March return date for the downtown location has yet to be announced.

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