Maru Ramen Bar — Restaurant in Elk Grove

CALLED THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT, AND THEY CONFIRMED THERE WERE STAPLES ABOVE WHERE THEY PREPARE THE FOOD. (the owner's response is a lie according to the actual health department)

My girlfriend and I got food last night, and while she was eating it, she found a STAPLE in her food as she was chewing the pork in the maru ramen. She tried to call at 8:49 PM when they close at 9 PM, and got no response. Made a yelp review about this and the next day went in to get a refund for the meal as she did not eat the rest of it for fear she would find more METAL in her food. The employee called the owner of the store and the owner told her she would not issue a refund for the whole meal (2 maru ramens), but would give her a refund for the 1 ramen bowl, ONLY IF SHE TOOK THE REVIEW DOWN. what kind of owner says this sort of thing to their patronage? This is absolutely ridiculous and I'm sorry for the employees who have to deal with a management who reacts in this way over $20 worth of food when they know they have made an EGREGIOUS ERROR in their service. I used to work in food service and have seen many times managers give refunds to customers for less. She was not hot-headed and all she asked for was a refund of her meal. We have been customers here since 2019 and this kind of treatment for anyone let alone long term customs is absolutely ridiculous. She told her she would rather get police involved or get sued than give her the refund for the meal. Absolutely insane management. This entire time she was there for 45 MINUTES, because the employee had to continually call the owner, speak to her about the situation, and then come back out to tell her the situation because she told her employee she was too busy to even speak on the phone about it.

I don't think I've ever heard of something so insane. She tried to blame my girlfriend insinuating that she herself put the staple in the food, and implied she would be happy to go through with a lawsuit but she refuses to give a $20 refund for the bowl.

On a side note she said if she was to give a refund for the bowl (upon the yelp review getting taken down) that the refund would be issued as a check, and mailed. As appose to just cash in hand, which is the way we paid for the meal...

As a side note for anyone ordering takeout, just don't. They just batch prepare the ramen and put it in to-go bowls and microwave the bowls as they need. I know this because there have been multiple times when I get a maru ramen to-go and the eggs and meat have been cold in the center, in the same way a microwave would heat them. Just ridiculous for $19 when you could easily go somewhere like 8-hours ramen which is right down the street and actually cooked when you order it.

EDIT TO RESPONSE: "The only time we use a stapler around the food is to secure the to-go bag" - The health department via phone call confirmed this is not the case, that there was staples found in the food preparation area, not just where the to-go bags are.

"It's not about the money but the truth and our reputation" - If you truly cared about your reputation more than the money, you would've just refunded the money to a customer that has been loyal to you YEARS. It was clearly about the money.

"She was quick to blame" - Are you joking? She literally eat a piece of the meat in the ramen, and got a staple stuck in her mouth, are you actually saying that someone else other than Maru Ramen, the place we got the food from (in a stapled shut bag) would maliciously place a staple in our food? That could seriously hurt someone if they bit down on a staple in the wrong way.

"She then threatened us and reported to health department" - She told you she would do this IF YOU DIDNT GIVE HER THE REFUND. At this point you were already being difficult with her and making her wait 30-40 minutes in your store refusing to speak with her. You had already told her at this point she needed to take down the review, and thats when she said she will just report you to the health department, never...

If you want a refund don't go ask the manager, she'll cuss you out. On Friday I ordered two ramen bowls on a third party website (DoorDash) and wanted to go pick it up at a later time which was around 8:20-8:30pm but they close at 9pm and I got a text saying that my order is getting ready around the time I asked to go pick up. I will say it is my fault that I was so far away to go pick it up and I tried having someone go pick it up for me but couldn't do so. I told the staff member that I would be late to pick it up and how long are they willing to wait for. He said they'll wait around 9:05pm and my eta was 9:11pm so I told him hey I won't be able to make it at all can you issue a refund for me and he said yes but it would take 3 days for my refund. I said alright then. Three days has come by and I haven't gotten my refund at all. I called and told one of the staff members my issue and she said she couldn't do anything about it and that she'll have her manager call me. I waited for a minute or so for manager to call me and she told me that because I ordered it on a third party website, it is their responsibility to issue my refund not her's and she told me to call DoorDash. I did and the person that helped me out said that because its been more than 24-48 hours that I called she couldn't issue my refund and then she explained why she couldn't and that I should've called doordash ASAP for the refund and then I told her that the person that took my call on Friday didn't tell me to call DoorDash but promised me that I will get my refund. We had a three way call with the store and manager wasn't on duty and the girl I had called earlier answered the phone again and I told her what happened ands told me she can't do much because she has no upper power for it and I understand she couldn't do much and that she was just an employee not a manager. While the person from doordash tried calling the manager, manager didn't pick up, I'm not sure what number they gave to the person but I told the person the number that called me and the person called the manager and the conclusion that they told me was that when the manager answered she sounded mad and didn't want to talk to me at all and said what she told me that it's not her responsibility to issue the refund and cussed at the poor person saying that none of her staff members promised anything to me and wouldn't do so but how can the manager know when she wasn't even working the day of? I'm honestly not mad at the fact I didn't get my refund anymore, It's the fact that the person trying to help me out got cussed out for...

So I will say I have waited to post this review because I enjoy consistency. We have been to Maru ramen bar now five times. The fifth time was this past Wednesday for our first New years Day dinner out.

No joke every single time we have gone the consistency of the flavors, the texture of the noodles, and the quality of service has always been superb.

Even at it's busiest times, you will always have someone greeting you that lets you know what are your options on where to sit and they always greet you with a smile as you enter the restaurant.

I really enjoy this restaurant not only because of the amazing food which I'll talk about in a little bit, it is also the Ambiance that's there. Don't get me wrong we are not talking about super elaborate decorations it's just simple items within the restaurant like the tree in the middle that has bar seating around it, the signs and banners that are above the cash register slash cooking area that because they are simple doesn't take away from what is really meant to have your focus on which is the food.

So speaking of the food like I said I love love a flavorful Ramen broth and again we've been here five times and we've tried different ramens and each one has such a wonderful umami flavor. And I really enjoyed that you can customize it a little bit more with the different options you can add on for an additional cost of course. Seriously though you do not have to add anything else flavor-wise because again these broths hold up so well on their own.

Also we get the wonton dumplings every single time we go because they are perfection. The chili oil that they have them in is the perfect amount of spicy with a little bit of that oil. We usually take a few bites of our ramen and then have the dumpling because we like the two flavors combined

So again if you want to try out a wonderful consistent Ramen place please check out...