Kraving for Korean: a "Masil (Seoul Fusion)" Review

I’m not a big fan of Korean food so I tagged along half-heartedly when my food trip buddies asked me out for a Korean dinner (they were craving for some kimchi). I really wanted Buffalo wings that night but what can I do? I was outnumbered!

Surprisingly though, I enjoyed my meal at Masil Korean Charcoal Grill (previously Seoul Fusion). We’ve heard some good stuff about it before, and the fact that it impressed a non-Korean food lover like me has to count for something right?

You can find Masil at Unit 157-158 at the Ortigas Home Depot complex along Julia Vargas Ave., Pasig City. The location isn’t very strategic as it’s not really that easy to find on your own, but just ask around the guards and they’ll point you to right place. It looked like a typical Korean restaurant. There was nothing fancy about the place but it was spacious and comfortable enough.

Those "tentacles" look suspicious...hmmm

There were a lot of things going on in the menu, and most of them were foreign to me so we decided to play safe on our first visit. We got the more familiar Dolsot Bibimbap (Steamed rice mixed with assorted vegetables served in hot pot, Php 280.00), and several servings of pork and beef to grill. The lady who was serving us recommended Sam Gyup Sal (Thickly sliced pork belly marinated in special sauce, Php 250.00) and the LA Galbi (Marinated US beef LA ribs, Php 400.00).

The Bibimbap was great, it had the right mix of vegetables and meat and the stone hot-pot helped in cooking the raw egg. The grilled meat was also good and tender. I don’t know if grilling with charcoal helped to improve the taste compared to cooking in smokeless grill, but I do remember competing over my buddies in gobbling up all the meat. Yum!

I dub thee - Charcoal Tubes!

We ordered only a few dishes but look at all the side-dishes that came with our orders! Radishes, kimchi, soup, our table was getting full but we didn’t really run out of space since we ate up the food as they came. Hey, no judging we were really hungry!

Customer service was a two-thumbs up. The lady who was serving us was very nice and she entertained all our questions. She even stayed by our table all the time and grilled the food for us. We felt like we had our own waitress!

I wish we knew about this earlier but if you wanted to have a full Korean meal experience, ask for the Masil Hanjung Sik (Masil Full course), only at Php 450.00 per head at a minimum of 2 orders. You’ll get to have porridge, water kimchi,  vegetable salad, mung bean jelly cake, boiled squid in spicy sauce, steamed pork *breathe breathe* fresh crab in spicy sauce, chicken breast fillet salad, bamboo rice, vegetable side dish, spicy fish dish, house soup, japche (no idea what this is), apple wrap, fresh potato salad, and more. Nope, I can’t tell you what the “more” part is.

The food was great; I think I’ve already made that pretty clear. However, the price is a bit heavy on the pocket. Price range goes from around Php 250 to over Php 500.00 per dish. This is okay until you realize you can already have some decent Korean or Japanese buffet at the same price.

Masil has made me enjoy Korean food, but I still don’t think I’d pick a Korean resto if I had other options.