Maru - Korean Restaurant in Robinsons Place Manila

MARU Korean Restaurant in Ermita

We had coupons that entitled us to try something new - Korean dishes! 

Another fine Sunday, we went to MARU - a Korean Restaurant, as planned. We chose that day to use the vouchers my sister bought online in Ensogo. Everyone got excited because we all wanted to indulge in a cuisine we hadn't much explored. Now, I came up with this blog post in order to share with you something about the place, the food and the overall dining experience. Let's begin!

Something about Maru

Just to give you a little background, MARU is a Korean Restaurant claiming to provide authentic Korean cuisine ranging from popular dishes to table grilled Korean style beef or pork. Although it has some branches elsewhere, we dined in the one found in Robinsons Mall (Ground Floor). This may sound inconvenient, but it is not accessible if you are inside the mall. You will have to exit through the Midtown Wing, and walk to your right until you reach the corner where you need to take right again. Anyway, you'll know you're near once you see either Starbucks or National Bookstore.

The Place

To give you an idea of what's inside MARU Restaurant, let me show you this:

Inside MARU - Korean Restaurant

I was fascinated by how the place looked like. The Korean ambiance was definitely felt through the designs, tables and chairs.  One sad thing though was that the air conditioning units weren't functioning well during our visit. Hence, we were left with no choice but to endure the heat throughout our entire stay. Undeniably, this negatively affected our dining experience but not substantial enough to ruin everything.

Table Setting - MARU Restaurant Robinsons

Cool Silverware! 

Check out the lovable utensils and "rice bowl" above.

The Food

Authentic Korean Set Meal

The first voucher enabled us have this set meal (good for 2) for only P488 whereas the original price, as indicated in the voucher, is P1,176. The second voucher costed us P799 (valued at P2,072) for a set meal (good for 4). 

The Sidedishes

Side dishes in MARU, Korean Restaurant

I very much appreciated the unlimited side dishes. Somehow, it compensated for everything they lacked during that time (i.e. slow service response and uncomfortable temperature). My favorite would be the spicy dried small fish" I don't exactly know how you call the side dish so let's just name it Dilis. I enjoyed three of the the sides dishes, in which I can't recall how they are called. The first one was already mentioned. The second one was the potatoes, and the third was something I also love because of the tolerable spiciness. Unfortunately, it's hard for me to describe it, so sorry for that.

Doenjang jjigae that comes along with the Authentic Korean Set Meal

Up until I wrote this blog, I didn't know that this was not a Miso Soup. Hence, I wasn't able to try this out, believing that it was indeed a Miso Soup. Now, when I browsed online, I found out that this is Doenjang Jjigae which is a soy bean soup boiled in a hot stone pot with clams, vegetables and other spices. Lesson learned: always grab the opportunity before you end up regretting not being able to.

Chadolbaegi of MARU Korean Restaurant

Chadolbaegi is a premium fat beef that is usually imported. It is usually thinly sliced similar to that of a bacon to maximize the absorption of the flavors. As a Korean practice, this dish is served raw and cooked straight on a charcoal or electronic grill. It was my first time to have something like this, so I didn't know what to expect. As a consequence, I didn't have any benchmark to compare the taste with. Luckily, my taste buds coordinated with me and did its best to bring delight. 

Living up to its definition, the Chadolbaegi was indeed fatty, but still quite enjoyable especially with the special Korean sauces served. 

Something about the Service

The service is not highly commendable, since they were somehow slow in providing what we need. Plus, I was looking forward to see them actually checking once in a while in case we needed something, but they didn't considering that the place wasn't filled up yet with customers. Due to this, it took a while before we got siding-refills, creating an unwanted "bitin-effect". 

We Surrender!

After about an hour of feasting over the Chadolbaegi and the unlimited side dishes, we decided to surrender! We deliberated shortly about our experience, and my mom told us that she wasn't much satisfied. I, on the other hand, was really delighted by what we had because of the exciting new flavors I was able to savor!

What other Authentic Korean Restaurants can you recommend? What's your favorite side dish? Share them by commenting below. 

RATING OVERVIEW

Place:  ★★★★
Taste: ★★★★
Service: ★★☆
Price: ★★★★ (2.5 if no voucher)
Overall Experience: ★★★★

Note about the rating: These scores are based on this experience alone, as well as the food that I had during this time. 

MARU Korean Restaurant
Robinsons Place Manila Branch,
G/F Adriatico St. Ermita, Manila
(closed)

Operating Hours: 11:00am to 4:00am