Pizza Maru: Korean pizza in Vancouver

Pizza Maru is a new Korean-style pizza joint that opened in downtown Vancouver back in February of this year. We were pretty excited to try it because Vancouver doesn’t have any other options for Korean-style pizza yet.

The vibe

We didn’t have a reservation and waited around 30-40 minutes to be seated for a table of 2. We came here during March so it was only 1 month after they opened, perhaps now that it’s been awhile, the wait is shorter for a table of 2.

The inside is quite modern with some a container-looking bar in the middle, fake brick walls, an d wooden tables and chairs. The space can fit a decent amount of tables, but I would say they mostly have tables for 2-4, so if you have a larger group you may need to wait longer for the larger tables to open up.

Food review

Here is everything we tried between 2 people.

Holy honey sweet potato pizza ($18/25/34)

They have a large selection of Korean-style pizzas, but we had to go with one of their “best” recommended ones. When we think of Korean-style pizza, we think of sweetness and corn, so in the end we decided to go with the holy honey sweet potato pizza. It comes in 10″, 13″ and 16″ and the prices are $18, $25, and $34 respectively.

This pizza has the following toppings: pizza sauce, cheese, cheddar cheese, corn, onion, honey and sweet potato mousse. There was a lot of promotional and marketing material in the store that talks about how they use green tea dough for their pizzas, giving it a different taste and texture that is also healthier than other pizzas.

For 2 people, we got the smallest 10″ size, and we also added a crust option. Again, we went with their “best” recommended crust, which is the “gold” and it the crust comes with sweet potato mousse, string cheese and cheddar cheese stuffed inside for an additional $5 ($7 if you get a 13″ pizza. If you order a 16″ pizza, crust customizations are not available).

Basically, our pizza has a lot of sweet potato in it 😅. I felt our pizza was decent – it is super cheesy and has a thick crust. There is the sweetness and the corn we were looking for, but it wasn’t as good as we had imagined (or as good as the pizza actually in Korea).

Overall, it is tasty and a good representation of Korean pizza. But at a price point of $18 + $5 for the crust, I do find it pricey for pizza.

Sweet corn chicken ($28)

Along with pizza, Pizza Maru also offers fried and baked chicken options. Looking at the photos on the menu, we were most interested in the sweet corn chicken (it’s corn! 🌽).

This boneless fried chicken is served with corn and finished with a sweet honey powder. We were actually pretty disappointed upon seeing it because there was a layer of potato chips underneath so there’s actually less chicken than you think and for almost $30, we expected a lot more chicken and not just chips on the bottom. Also, the corn was kind of hard to eat because we thought they would be fried like fritters, but they actually left the cob on so you still have to bite the corn kernels off.

Overall, I would not recommend this dish as the value is not there and the chicken wasn’t amazing either (a little dry and small portions).

Meat cheese spaghetti ($9)

Lastly, one of Kelvin’s favourite HK-style dish is the bolognese spaghetti. So when he saw this meat cheese spaghetti, he wanted to try it out.

It is more like a side dish because it’s not that big, but if you share with 2 people it can be a side (or a main for 1 person). In this little baked dish we have spaghetti, cheese, sliced onion and mushrooms, ground beef, diced bell peppers, white wine, stock, tomato sauce, Parmesan cheese, black pepper and parsley.

Kelvin was a happy boy with this little bowl of spaghetti.

Final thoughts

Loewe’s rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

So focusing on the pizza, which is their bread & butter, I would say it’s good but not amazing. Again, my Korean friends say it is not as good as the pizza you can get in Korea, but it is good enough to satisfy the craving of Korean pizza.

For the price you pay, I am leaning towards it is worth it (for the pizza only). This is because Pizza Maru is currently the only choice for Korean pizza in Vancouver and so it is the only place where you can find these toppings. Saying this, I would only recommend Korean-style pizzas/toppings you cannot find in other places. So if you’re looking for a cheese pizza, margarita pizza, veggie or pepperoni pizza, you should probably go somewhere else because there are far more options at lower price points.

I personally can’t really tell the difference between their green tea dough or regular pizza dough, and the health benefits also don’t really matter to me since I am literally here to eat pizza and fried chicken 😂.

On the note of fried chicken, I would not order the sweet corn one again. And I am hesitant to order any of their other fried chickens as well. I think I would stick to pizza if I were to return.

Sincerely, Loewe