Mapo

The tempura chicken bibimbap here is super delicious! The waitress was very knowledgable, very friendly and helpful. If you want a great tasting bibimbap, then absolutely have the tempura chicken one, the Gewürztraminer wine they have on the wine list also pairs well with the dish. !

My goodness, how good is the food here.
Korean Fusion is what they serve here and it’s great. well worth that little extra money…
Their Triple cooked pork is utterly amazing and the duck breast is so good. I can only say. EAT HERE…

Had the degustation menu tonight. It consisted of 7 different dishes, small portion for each but felt satiafyingly full in the end. Not over eating is always a good sign.
3 entrees n 3 mains (means protein base) n a dessert to finish.
There are wines to match but we didn’t take the option and happy with water which had been attentively filled up.
Entrees were great start but an over kill with ‘green herb mix’ for 2 of them. Rice ball with Kim chi to b eaten with toasted but actually deep fried seaweed as a wrapper. Interesting which gives me an idea to make a sushi roll with Kim chi for lunch one day.
The pork rib (cooked twice) was the best dish for me, tasty marinade, bit sweet but ok, the salad was a welcome accompaniment.
Tempura chicken was not well drained, bit greasy for my liking n the thin slice of beef fillet was tender but too cooked, I was expecting at least a hint of pinkness but not to be.
Staff are friendly enough n attentive n find that there’s not much ‘breathing’ time between courses, it was ok for us but if u had taken the drinks option, there may not b enough time to savour the drinks with a couple of mouthfuls of food.
I am glad I have tried the menu but will not do it again.

When we went to Mapo a few years ago we loved their mushroom wantons (entrée) and Morton Bay bug tails (main). Going back there recently, we were keen to order them again. Unfortunately the bug tails main has disappeared from the menu, so I ordered the next closest thing — «spicy seafood» topped with a tempura bug tail. It was nice, but NEEDS MOAR BUG TAILS.
The chilli mushroom wantons were still delicious. We also ordered the scallops (lovely) and the kinky chicken (tasty).
Mapo is quite expensive so it’s not somewhere we visit very often. The food is worth the price though.

Why are the meals so small? You will be disappointed until you realize that you’re going to puke from how ridiculously full you are.
It’s deceiving. It’s black magic. I’m convinced it’s something to do with the Higgs Bosson.
Coffe pork? Sweet baby Jesus yes. Eat that right up.
Want dessert? You bet your face you do.
The most filling and satisfying, delicious modern Korean is served in disarmingly small serves that allow you to eat like Hedonism-​bot without embarrassing yourself in front of your date.
The only reason it gets 4 stars is that the very very good looking waitress doesn’t work there anymore. You know who I mean.

This is not your average Korean restaurant. It’s quite upmarket modern Korean fusion and a very good one. We went as part of a group of eight last Sunday night and everyone raved about it. If they are offering the mixed shared entrée plate go for it as you get to experience four of the entrees on offer which all sound great so hard to make up your mind. Wow! This is lovely imaginative food. The boys particularly liked the coffee ribs but the duck and fish mains were all enjoyed immensely.
Only one small issue, our table was a little squished in which meant that we had to hand plates of food down to the end of the table. Overall a great dining experience, we will go back.

First impression of the venue is the nice décor and ambience — it gave the impression that the food here is above the normal Asian restaurants and their price menu shows it eg mains starting from $ 25 and above; coke for $ 5 (?!!). In my mind, it is good to experience something classy so I was excited to use my Groupon voucher for a six course degustation menu with a friend.
Six-​course degustation is a misnomer as the night unfolded itself. We were thinking ‘Masterchef’ style culinary creation while Mapo was thinking ‘how do we provide a 6-​course meal for these cheapskates?’. Solution, provide bite-​size entrée and make them wait really long while we focus on full-​paying customers. This is exactly what we got on the night. Seated at 7pm, we got our first entrée (2 scallops on some sauce) at 7:20pm — that’s a 20-​minute wait! If that’s long, the second course took longer to prepare (entrée squid with vegetable strings) served at 7:55pm — a 35 minute wait. We thought the chefs were just busy due to other diners, but when the third course (Korean Kimchi with a rice ball and toasted seaweed) was presented at 8:15 pm, we resigned to the fact that it was going to be like this and we predicted we would finish somewhere 9:20pm while suppressing our hunger as the dish served were baby proportions. The other courses served: Tempura style chicken breast drizzled with honey mustard sauce at 8:40pm; Succulent coffee pork spare ribs with a fresh salad at 8:55pm and Black Angus Eye Fillet drizzled with ginger flavoured teriyaki sauce at 9:15pm. In all those time waiting, we finished each course in about a minute due to the tiny proportions. We expected entrees to be small, that’s why they’re called entrees. But for the 5^th and 6^th dish, we expected them to be the main courses. But Mapo had a different idea: serve these courses as entrée size too since these people are only using a Groupon voucher.
Some positive notes: the scallops were good and the 5^th dish (the pork spare ribs) was very tasty. Service was polite but not attentive enough as asking for tap water seems like a pain to them where they prefer us to order more drinks.
I paid $ 90 for the voucher and for the meal that we got, I still felt that what I paid was very expensive.
Safe to say that I am not going back to this restaurant again. Don’t be fooled by the nice décor, there are better Asian dishes with much better value for your money. I am curious why they won these many awards, maybe because the chef can but on that night, the chef was probably asleep. But going to restaurants should be an enjoyable experience but this was a bad experience where we paid a lot, waited for 2.5 hours to eat and went home feeling hungry.

The first time I came to Mapo was in year 11. Ever since then, it has only gotten better.
I thoroughly enjoy myself every time I come here. The service is great, staff are friendly, the food is delicious, and the décor and setting of the restaurant is laid back yet stylish.
I love sitting outside wherever I eat, so I love that this place has quite a few outdoor tables and chairs.
Korean food is generally fresh and healthy, so you can’t really go wrong here.
My personal favourite would have to be the Dullsot Bibimbap. I love the crispy bits of rice at the bottom.
Overall, intimate and laidback atmosphere, great for catching up with friends for dinner, and the food is exceptional.

There have been some great Korean restaurants popping up around the city in the last few years, but Mapo takes the cake. It’s classy, it’s well-​priced, and the food is outstanding.
I remember going to Mapo for the first time around three years ago, and it quickly became one my favourite restaurants in Chinatown. This is quite an achievement, as the caliber of restaurants on the Gouger Street strip speaks volumes. As you walk in through the entrance, one of the staff hits a giant gong bell, making the customer feel like some member of royalty. I’ll admit, little things like this have always won me over.
The restaurant offers traditional Korean dishes, but I consider it a fusion restaurant, as there are many items on the menu demonstrating the «east meets west» concept. The «Money Bags» is the perfect entrée to start, and the bibimbap is a delicious, yet modest main. Each dish is an exciting reinvention of a Korean classic.

Our family had a celebration dinner here last month. The website promotes their degustation menu but there is also an impressive à la carte menu.
Service was friendly, nice atmosphere. Each meal was great! The beef was amazingly tender, the prawns spectacular. The servings were a good size so we didn’t have room for dessert. Highly recommended, I’m looking forward to going back soon.

The food and service is consistently fantastic and the staff are lovely.
The menu is a good mix of traditional and modern Korean.
Pescatarians are well catered for, and there are a few dishes suitable for a gluten free diet but vegetarian options are limited but what is there is great.
You can’t go wrong with the dullsot bibimbap served in a stone bowl with sliced potato, rice, marinated vegetables and egg. It keeps cooking at your table to crisp up the rice and provide a cool spectacle.
The dish can be vegetarian and gluten free, or contain bulgogi beef, chicken and local tiger prawn.

What a discovery Mapo was for me this year. I love this unassuming little Korean restaurant. I went along with a group of friends after purchasing a deal on” Soul Deal” for a seven course degustation.
I was delighted from the moment I walked in, the décor was intimate and modern at the same time, which seems to be something few restaurants achieve. I loved that they had candles on the tables and the colours of the restaurant were soothing so you felt completely relaxed. The service was excellent and prompt and the staff were very friendly, going out of their way to ensure we had a good experience.
But, most of all the food was amazing. Each course of our degustation brought a new taste sensation. The food was light Asian style with flavours that packed a punch. There wasn’t anything that I didn’t enjoy in this degustation experience. I will certainly be back

If there is an award this Korean restaurant has not won, I’d like to know about it. As winners of the 2011 ‘Flavours of the World’ Lifestyle Food Award and Best Asian Restaurant, there is little that the famous Mapo cannot do.
Founder of Mapo and Executive Chef Chung Jae Lee has also won himself a plethora of awards and has featured in a couple of television appearances to demonstrate his cooking abilities. The best thing about Mapo is that its menu is constantly evolving, and every few months new items appear while others are omitted. This makes for excitement every time you go, because you’re never too sure what will be next. However, two of my favourites are the ‘kinky chicken’ and ‘coffee rubbed pork ribs’ which are both so amazing. There is also a great range of Korean desserts to try (if you were like me and wasn’t sure exactly what a Korean dessert was).
The décor is beautiful with loads of chocolate browns and albeit very low seated chairs. It is definitely one of the most up and coming places in Adelaide and with really great table service, a must for your next dining experience.