Date-night restaurant in Millak, Busan: basil oil pasta at Marento

I visited Marento, a restaurant at Millak Waterside Park in Gwangalli, Busan, where you can enjoy brunch dishes like bread, pizza and pasta, plus bingsu (shaved ice dessert) and café drinks, all in one place!

Marento hours, parking and amenities

Marento is open daily 11:00–24:00 (last order 23:00), Sundays 11:00–21:00 (last order 20:00), and closed every Tuesday. For parking, use the Waterside Park public parking lot in front of the restaurant; they support ₩1,000 per table.

• Parking fees: ₩300 per 10 minutes, ₩900 per 30 minutes, ₩1,800 per 60 minutes, max ₩8,000
• Free corkage
• Groups welcome
• Takeout and delivery available
• High chairs available
• Wi-Fi
• Separate men's and women's restrooms
• Dogs allowed
• Naver reservations available
• Outdoor tables

Getting to Marento: how close is it to Millak Waterside Park?

Marento, a great Gwangalli brunch spot, is right in front of the waterside park parking lot, about 15 minutes from Gwangalli Beach. By public transport, exit Millak Station at Exit 1, take bus 210 from the stop you see, get off at Millak Waterside Park, and it's a 2-minute walk.

The Waterside Park public parking lot is the closest and it's cheap, so I recommend it. They also give you the ₩1,000 per table support. Millak The Market is nearby, so you can browse after your meal, and the coastal walking path is lovely for a light stroll after eating!

Is Marento a good date-night restaurant?

Marento is a lush, green-themed restaurant with about 12 tables, group seating and bar seats facing the sea. Both the inside and outside are so pretty!! The interior was also quite spacious.

Wine bottles are displayed beautifully, and the paintings have a lovely mood. It felt like being in another country, haha. It was perfect as a date course! 👍 If you reserve, they set a table aside for you in advance, so reserving before you come seems like a good idea.

Marento menu and what we ordered

At Marento, all brunch items are available at any time of day, and you can add desserts like thread-style bingsu and coffee. Some dishes can only be ordered after 5 p.m., and with wine, beer, soju, highballs and non-alcoholic drinks, it works for both lunch and dinner. You can also order just from the café menu, so it's a good stop after eating at a nearby raw fish restaurant! 👍

Two of us visited, and this is what we ordered :-)

• Eggs Benedict ₩15,000
• Pistachio cream gnocchi ₩25,000
• Basil oil pasta ₩17,000
• Blueberry juice ₩6,000
• Shine Muscat lemonade ₩6,000

Pickles, jalapeños and water are self-serve, and every seat has salt and peperoncino (chili flakes)! It's nice that you can season to your own taste, haha.

What does Marento's pistachio cream gnocchi taste like?

Marento's pistachio cream gnocchi (₩25,000) is handmade gnocchi, chewy and crisp, served over a rich cream made with cream and pistachio. The pistachio gnocchi came out first, plated with flowers and crushed pistachios, and it looked so pretty that I went "wow~" 🤍

The sauce was thick and nutty, and the gnocchi was textbook crisp outside and chewy inside, easily in my top three gnocchi ever. Maybe because it's handmade, it's nothing like store-bought gnocchi. My partner had never had proper gnocchi and said, "So this is what it's like?" and that it'd become their benchmark! If you like gnocchi, definitely visit, haha 🤤

Marento basil oil pasta: which spice level to choose?

Marento's basil oil pasta (₩17,000) comes in mild, slightly spicy or spicy, and the writer recommends slightly spicy. Next came the basil oil pasta, with plump, big shrimp, broccoli and grated cheese, and it was just as prettily plated!

The portion of noodles was quite generous, which I liked. I don't usually like oil pasta, but with its basil aroma and nutty, savory depth I really enjoyed it!! In fact my hand went to the pasta the most, which surprised even me 🤤 With slightly spicy, the heat was just right, so I recommend that level 👍 Even someone who can't handle spice would find it not spicy at all!

The sauce had soaked into the noodles well, so the flavor came through even more. I highly recommend it to basil lovers!!

Marento eggs Benedict: salmon, shrimp or bulgogi

Marento's eggs Benedict (₩15,000) lets you choose salmon, shrimp or bulgogi as the filling, and I went with salmon :-) The last dish to arrive, the eggs Benedict, was gorgeous, just like a brunch dish should be!!

The poached egg and cheese sauce on top looked so appetizing, and it was plated with balsamic sauce and pistachio powder, which made it even prettier..!! 🤍

The salad greens were fresh, and the tang of the balsamic whetted my appetite!! There was quite a lot of salmon too, and everything went together so well that I thought I'd like to come back for daytime brunch, haha 🤤 If you break the poached egg and dip the bread in it, it goes down smoothly!! 🤍

Marento blueberry juice and Shine Muscat lemonade

Marento's blueberry juice and Shine Muscat lemonade are ₩6,000 each, and with such a variety of desserts and café drinks, we finished dessert in the same place! They said the blueberry juice is original fruit juice blended fresh, and with the slight chew of blueberry pulp and no sickly sweetness, I loved it so much!! 🤍 It was on a different level from places that pour in tons of syrup and call it fruit juice, haha.

The Shine Muscat lemonade felt like a grape bonbon-style drink, with slightly plump fruit to chew, pleasant fizz and sweetness! I think it would go well with food too.

Is Marento worth a return visit?

I liked everything at Marento, from the food to the desserts, and being near the waterside park, it was perfect for a stroll along the Gwangalli beach path afterward. I heard the pizza is good too, and I'm curious about the other dishes, so I'll be going often when I'm in Gwangalli, haha. They say the thread-style bingsu is great too!! 👍

If you're looking for a date spot or brunch spot in Gwangalli, or a place for light wine or draft beer in the evening, I recommend Marento!!