Bournemouth: Maru, Korean BBQ restaurant

Maru - Korean BBQ Restaurant

182-184 Alma Road, Charminster, Bournemouth, Dorset BH9 1AJ

Tel: 01202 536 760

Since trying the Korean Grill in town I had wanted to try this placed called Maru. It was reviewed in the Bournemouth Echo and the taste of the spicy and crispy bibimbap I had made we want to creave for more. It took a while though. There are a couple more Korean restaurants by the railway station as well.

Unfortunately Autumn had descended onto Bournemouth and this place was pretty cold, or at least we felt it in the front section by the entrance. It might have been slightly less cold if we took a table in the side room or at the back of the restaurant.

I started with a beer called OB and thought the Namool Combi would go really well, although the weather and restaurant temperature were not the best compliment to it. Slightly pickled beansprouts, spinach and radish would have been fantastic on a summer evening but still tasty for an autumn's evening.

The other starter we ordered was Kim Chi Geon which is a Korean style pancake with kimchi. Kimchi encompasses a variety of spicy pickled vegetable. This was quite large a filling starter.

I ordered the Ddukbaegi Bibimbab. This dish is serve in a hot stone. When I say hot, it is scorching enough to cook meat. This dish was made up of cooked beef (usually it is raw and it cooks with the heat of the stone) and a mix of vegetables all sitting on top a serving of rice. You get a small dish of chilli paste. What you do is spoon in as much of the spicy sauce as you like and then use you spoon to turn the whole mixture around and around the hot stone bowl. This is part of the fun as you have to cook your dish to the way you like it.

It might sound strange but it is the crispy caramelised bits of piece that really make this dish, otherwise you might as well order stir fried beef on top of steamed rice. At the Korean Grill it came with raw beef and I suspect that for non Korean customers they might err on the side of caution and place cooked beef on for you.

My friend had the Chicken Kasu. This was a large piece of flattened chicken breast, covered in breadcrumbs and then deep fried. It was served with a nice side salad and rice. I like it, and expect it, when restaurants provide a saide salad made up of the more interesting lettuce/leaves. If they bring out iceberg as the main ingredient then it is all a bit disappointing.

Both main courses also came with a small bowl of miso soup, which went a small way towards warming us up.

We were very satisfied with our meals. Their noodle dishes caught my eye and next time I will look forward to trying their veal bone marrow soup with noodles.

Bournemouth has a good range of restaurants and cuisine from all around the world which I think is a reflection of the language schools in the area and the diversity of their students.

Me and Angela tried this on a Friday night at the end of November and it seemed much warmer inside but quite dimly lit at the back.

I got to order the veal marrow soup that caught my eye first time round. Very tasty and boiling hot. It came with a fair bit of noodles in the soup but also a bowl of rice which confused me a bit as this is carbo-loading to the max. There were also some thin slices of tender meat in the soup.

Angela had a spicy sweet and sour chicken with rice.

We also ordered the spare rib and that came as really tender meat, along with lettuce leaves, chilli, garlic and a spicy sauce to wrap it all up in and eat.

We also saw a few tables had ordered the big casserole dishes. That looks interesting for next time. Got two stamps on the loyalty card now.

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The rib soups are my favourites.

These noodles were really, really salty.

The squid was quite expensive for what you get and not really that great as they hadn't got rid of the thin film of skin and the salad was boring. I should have kept the money and used it on another main course.