Maru Korean Bistro - North Vancouver

The Korean bistro has a great atmosphere and a large indoor dining area. The fried chicken was delicious and came with fried rice cakes, which I actually enjoyed more than the chicken itself. The only downside was the lack of side dishes, as they only come with the combo sets we ordered (Salisbury steak and pork). The combos also included rice. Overall, it's a good spot for Korean bistro food and I would definitely return.

Video review on my youtube channel: vancity food crew maru korean bistro . This place was recommended to me by a friend and I was very impressed. I had a korean fried chicken and rice roll happy hour skewer, and the chicken was perfectly sauced and crispy. For my main I had a bibimbap and it was okay, with great side dishes. I would definitely return and try other dishes, such as the meat frisbee, japchae, or seafood pancake.

I had made a reservation through email but found out upon arrival that the hostess had not checked her inbox, so we did not have a reservation. I suggest calling instead. However, we were seated in the front section which was fine, though I suspect that if we had a reservation, we would have been seated in the larger and more private back part. I ordered the Royal Ddok-bokky, which was good overall, except for the slightly disappointing rice cakes that were doughy with a strange texture. The server mentioned that we could have substituted noodles for the rice cakes. My wife tried the Five Spiced Pork Belly on Rice, which she really enjoyed. It would be helpful if the menu or website included pictures of each dish, as the meals at neighboring tables looked very interesting. We'll try more new dishes on our next visit.

The service could have been better, as we found it challenging to get the attention of our waitress to bring us water and later our bill. We ordered the spicy chicken dolsot, kakuni dolsot, and bulgogi dolsot off the lunch menu. All three dishes were rice bowls served in hot stone bowls and priced at $11.99 each. The bulgogi dolsot was the standout, with perfectly seasoned and tender slices of grilled beef. The kakuni dolsot was decadent, featuring slices of pork belly. The only disappointment was the spicy chicken, which was simply spicy and lacked depth of flavor. The banchan served was limited.

Went there for dinner with my wife for dinner. First the car park, some with Maru signs some without apparently, Maru customers can use some of the unmarked car park lots. This was the prelude of rather unsavoury experience to come. Greeting at entry was regimental directed by the waitress to a 2 person seat at front part of the restaurant. As this part was rather noisy we asked whether we could be seated further in. Ans: a regimental no. Shortly after, another walk in couple was directed (without request to inside seats. Another reason, we dislike the front seating was because we wanted to sample 3 or more dishes. The small table simply could not accomdate all of our orders. Service was haphazard and the waitress wasn 't very communicative when asking for dishes particulars. For food: the seafood pancake was clearly mislabelled just a slight hint of some (unknown seafood. It should be more correctly called Pancake with seafood flavour! Since we ordered seafood , we thought to add white wine to the flavour. OMG, Maru served lukewarm white wine (may be they confused white grape wine with Korean Soju! Walked out with unsatisfied hunger pangs and bad taste in mouth. Come back again? If and only if with my worst enemy!