Haru

June 11, 2026

Haru is a Japanese restaurant located in Karen, just along Karen road. They’ve been in business for over 16 years and are a staple in the Nairobi food scene.

I’ve been here a good amount of times in the recent years mostly because I’m surrounded by people who love sushi. I’m not a sushi fan like that but I do enjoy Japanese cuisine overall so I tend to have their other ‘cooked’ dishes when I visit.

My most recent visit was for lunch with my bookclub on a nice, sunny Saturday. Haru is usually good with walk - ins but they recommend making reservations especially for big groups and on weekends which is their busiest time. The restaurant has both indoor and outdoor seating, with the teppanyaki table/s set up in the outdoor area.

I’ve never actually been to the inside of Haru until this last visit and I was surprised to find out they have a VIP section upstairs that’s so pretty! I didn’t have my phone at the time so forgot to take pics poleni! But just trust me when I say the inside is outfitted really well and the VIP rooms are for private/exclusive dining especially those that involve getting the traditional sake experience.

The menu is vast with a variety of options of both hot and cold dishes. We got started with some miso soup (KSH300), prawn tempura (KSH1800) and pork dumplings (gyoza - KSH900). I’ve tried a bunch of Japanese spots in Nairobi and the prawn tempura at Haru is my favourite of the lot. The batter to prawn ratio is excellent, not too overwhelmingly coated with batter and doesn’t taste like an insane amount of oil. The portion is a good amount to share but I can really eat all of it on my own too

I haven’t had miso soup in a minute, I forgot how much tofu tastes like nothing to me lol. Miso soup is made up of fermented soybean paste, soft tofu, rehydrated seaweed and green onions. It’s a nice bowl of warm goodness for your soul and your gut. I could just do without the tofu part of it though.

The pork gyoza I found were too deep fried for me but the pork inside was quite flavourful. For mains we had: Tuna salad (KSH1000), chicken teriyaki (KSH1700), crispy salmon roll (KSH1600), the tropical mango roll (KSH1600) and a sashimi set (can’t recall which one exactly).

I had the chicken teriyaki - anything teriyaki flavoured is my go-to at a Japanese spot. It’s quite a filling dish that comes with teriyaki fried chicken, stir fried veggies, a side of steamed rice and a bowl of miso soup. Very tasty! Have it with their fresh cold passion juice and thank me later.

Like I said earlier, I don’t eat sushi and seafood in general outside of prawns but for this review I was willing to at least taste each of the rolls to be able to share my honest thoughts. The crispy salmon roll was masked by the chilli and crunchy taste a lot so that helped me not notice the raw salmon too much and I didn’t die eating it. The tropical mango one was a larger size, could barely fit it all in my mouth but the girlies cheered me on and I managed! With this roll I could taste the salmon more but the sweetness of the mango and the rice helped mask the raw taste as well so again, I didn’t die, yay!

Hapo kwa sashimi I won’t even speak, I did not even attempt to try it. I also did not have room for dessert so didn’t try any.

The vibe at Haru is nice and chill, great outdoor ambience especially on a sunny day. The place gets very busy in the evenings, and I noticed that people really like doing sushi dates. Especially the youngins, saw quite a number on cute little dates

Haru fits the vibe for any type of dining experience i.e a nice sushi & wine lunch with your bestie, a birthday lunch/dinner, graduation lunch/dinner, business lunch/meeting, great place for a date night be it a first date or a usual date spot. The service is top notch as well. I highly recommend it.