Maru Korean BBQ - Brisbane

I have really given this place a chance. I’ve eaten here 3 times in the past (because I do enjoy the cuts of meat) and it’s always been the same, however, this time was worse than normal. The service at this restaurant is abysmal and we are always treated like second class citizens. To begin, my girlfriend and I had a few friends in town so we decided to take them out to Korean Barbeque as they had never tried it before. The waitress placed the 5 of us at a table in the back corner of the restaurant (which was completely empty). The table was for 4 and she grabbed a chair and stuck it at the end. Fair enough, as there may have been reservations at the other larger tables. We later realized there weren’t, as the restaurant was empty throughout our meal and even when we left. The restaurant is BYO, so we brought a bottle of wine and asked for some wine glasses. The waitress looked confused and came back several minutes later asking us how many glasses we would like. She came back with the glasses (costing $3 each), which were dirty and had lipstick prints on them (a steep price for some dirty glasses). We then asked for some water and she pointed to the bar area and said that we can go get it. She came back 30 seconds later asking us if we were ready to order. After ordering, another woman came out and asked if we were sure of our order as “it’s a lot of food.” My friends and I are indeed adults who understand the amount of food it requires for us to be satiated. Moving forward, the food was brought out and there was clearly not enough room on the table to place the trays of meat. The waitress careless handed us the plates to figure it out on our own, without any assistance or offers to move to a larger table for comfort. In addition, we were not given the normal sides of garlic, jalapenos, chili sauce that have been given to us in the past, nor did we receive all the sides that we had paid for. After dropping of the plate of meat, the waitress never came back to ask if we had anything we needed or remove any of the empty plates to make room for us. Due to the lack of space, we essentially were all eating out of our lap, and the waitress had no regard for our comfort and gave absolutely no effort towards moving empty plates and providing assistance to make our experience more enjoyable. After leaving, I felt embarrassed in front of my friends who came so far to visit me. I do hesitate to use the word “racism” given the political climate of today, however, after all the opportunities I have given the restaurant, I do consider this as a possibility. We all work hard and when we do go out to eat and pay with the money we worked hard for, I had assumed there was a certain level of respect that should be expected. This is not the case at Maru, and for this reason I will never return. I suggest you don’t either. There are plenty of other fine Korean Barbeque restaurants around and I truly hope they will provide you with a better experience.  Note: If you chose to eat here, bring cash or debit because there is a 2% surcharge for credit cards (even if you’re spending over $100 to eat here).

I have really given this place a chance. I’ve eaten here 3 times in the past (because I do enjoy the cuts of meat) and it’s always been the same, however, this time was worse than normal. The service at this restaurant is abysmal and we are always treated like second class citizens. To begin, my girlfriend and I had a few friends in town so we decided to take them out to Korean Barbeque as they had never tried it before. The waitress placed the 5 of us at a table in the back corner of the restaurant (which was completely empty). The table was for 4 and she grabbed a chair and stuck it at the end. Fair enough, as there may have been reservations at the other larger tables. We later realized there weren’t, as the restaurant was empty throughout our meal and even when we left. The restaurant is BYO, so we brought a bottle of wine and asked for some wine glasses. The waitress looked confused and came back several minutes later asking us how many glasses we... read more

Found myself in the city looking for something a little different for lunch and decided to give Maru Korean BBQ a try. I went with the Marinated Beef Bibimbap in Stone Bowl ($15.80), which consisted of marinated beef, wombok, mushrooms, cucumber, carrots, spinach and bean sprouts. The stone bowl was served blistering hot and I enjoyed mixing the raw egg throughout the dish. Everything was delightful with the exception of the beef, which was very bland and disappointing. The dish rated a 3.5, but could have been much higher if the beef had been flavourful. Lots of seating and quick service.

Food was average, service can be quite slow especially when it is a full house. Seems to be a local favourite but I haven't taken to the taste of most dishes here.

Maru is a popular eatery on Elizabeth st. The Korean restaurant houses a large indoor dining area with the usual traditional Korean offerings and some specialty fusion cuisines. We had their BBQs and fried chickens in the past but want to explore their menu further. With that in mind we ordered: ziggle curry omu-rice, beef rib soup & an entrée serving of beef bulgogi.  Appetisers: kimchi, mayo crunchy glass noodle & seasoned Korean gluten. All dishes were well made with nothing outstanding. The kimchi tasted mass produced (factory made) with big sour and thin chilli flavours. Crunchy glass noodles were interesting in texture but lacked flavour punch. Korean gluten was over seasoned with sesame oil. As an overall package: 3/5 Beef bulgogi: was served room temperature as an entrée. The beef presents fragrant sweet soy and onion flavours but was let down by the dry and chewy texture. If only it was cooked to order. 3/5 Ziggle curry omu-rice: contains fried chicken bites, red sauce fried rice wrapped with egg sheet and Japanese style curry drizzled with mayo & sweet chilli sauce. The dish was served on a mildy warm hot plate thus the ziggle ziggle name. The fried chicken presents a crunchy outer coating with a dry and chewy centre. The fried rice was soggy, mildly warm with overpowering ketchup taste. Curry on the other hand was well cooked and flavourful. As an overall package it’s a below average 2.5/5 Beef rib soup: with radish, scallion, needle mushroom, shredded eggs and big hunk of beef rib. First impression: decent serving size. The meat itself was juicy, tender with big beefy flavours. The soup on the other hand was on the watery and salty side with overpowering sesame oil. As an overall package it’s a good 3.5/5 Service: Considering it was a busy weekday night, service was friendly with minor English communication issues. Several follow ups were made on requests. 3.5/5 Hint: their fried chicken and bibimbap selections sampled so far scored 4/5 on average.