When you are seated , You are given a pad to order your food. A robot brings out your lunch one plate at a time which causes the food not to be hot, and over 10 minutes in between the robot bring out the plates. Staff was friendly, but absent during the meal. I was the first one at the table to receive my plate and had to look for someone for utensils. And by the time the last person at our table got their food. Everybody else was almost finished eating. Also had to flag someone down to refill our drinks. Hopefully, they'll be able to work out their kinks since they've only had their official opening last Saturday. read more

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I was not going to leave a review of Mala Chili because frankly, unless it's remarkable one way or another, for the most part it's unfair because opinions are so subjective. Plus, I will usually give places more than one shot if I didn't have a good experience. But I am making an exception for Mala Chili. I am going to start with the most important aspect-- the food. Between two of us, we had fried pork dumplings (I took one bite and couldn't even finish half), kung pao chicken (the most unappetizing thing I have ever seen on a plate) and Mongolian beef (looked great, was mid). With every bite, no exaggeration, my head slowly began to ache. The kung pao was not as terrible as it looked, so I got through maybe 1/4 of it (with help) because I was hungry. We both left with headaches that lasted the remainder of the day and I can only chalk it up to very high MSG. The service was meh. The restaurant itself, it was hard to believe they had just opened within the month. So run down, unkept, and just ew. I'm talking boxes piled in a corner (ripe for cockroach hotels), greasy iPad to order food on...I'm going to stop here and just say we spent the next morning in the bathroom at home. No pics because like I said, it was unremarkable from the beginning so I never expected to write a review. But having had pounding headaches that wiped us out the rest of the day, and wasting a morning running to the bathroom the next, I wanted this to serve as a warning. We won't be back, not even to try again. read more

Still looking for a standout Chinese restaurant. Mala is the 3rd iteration to try their hand at producing quality Chinese food in this location since I have lived in New Braunfels, and the 3rd to fail. Admittedly it is better than what has been here before, but if Panda is mid, this is mid+. Hot & Sour soup was warm and spicy, great flavor. Orange chicken was chewy and very peel forward, no spice even when I asked. Fried rice was basically white rice with a bit of egg. Best part of the meal were the crab Rangoons. Strange ordering process, which may change. They dropped off the server tablet and showed me how to order myself. When you press send it dings loudly in the kitchen so the entire meal was peppered with ding notifications. No music or any real ambience during my visit, but about 50% full. read more

Mala Chili - Crab Rangoon (6Pcs) - Chinese Near Me - New Braunfels, Texas

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We've been to/love the Austin location so we will simply say that some dishes and the customer service needs retraining. Scallion pancake- lacking in scallion department. Red bean pancake - lacking in red bean filling department. The chicken lo mein was mid compared to the Austin location. Bland. Chicken was dry, and the noodles were too soft. No bite. Moo goo gai pan was actually very good. I can give points toward our rating because of this dish. The family enjoyed the portion sizes and tastes for the orange chicken and yuxiang chicken lunch specials. We also enjoyed the mango green tea as well as the pineapple bubbly. What was a bit confusing- they wouldn't let us do separate tablet orders even though we were splitting just two checks until the end. Downside: the older male server was rude as hell to us and if we ever dine there again, I'll respectfully ask for the younger fella. My aunt complimented the food and was completely ignored. Overall the vibe was very unwelcoming. When we would ask for anything its like as if we were a huge bother to them. I would rather make the drive to the Austin location to have a better dine in experience and the hospitality is TOP TIER. Another thing. That bell my goodness. We understand that is the system they use to hear incoming orders. But we had trouble communicating amongst each other for long periods of time cause it wouldn't stop going off. We really want to see this place succeed. It's our next best thing chinese food wise in our opinion. But at this rate, we will only do take out if some things don't change. read more

Mala Chili in New Braunfels absolutely surprised us! Since it's my birthday month, we decided to go ALL OUT and order a little bit of everything. Looking at the menu, we honestly assumed the portions were going to be on the smaller side, so we kept adding dishes to our order. That assumption disappeared VERY quickly once the food started coming out. The portions here are HUGE. And when I say huge, I mean several of these dishes could easily be shared between 2-3 people. By the end of dinner, our table was completely covered and we already knew we were going home with a ridiculous amount of leftovers. My fridge is FULL. One of the biggest surprises for me was the Peking duck. I had never tried Peking duck before, so I really didn't know what to expect. I ordered the HALF portion not even the full duck and it was still so much food! The duck was incredibly tender, flavorful and beautifully presented. But what I really loved was that they also used the duck bones to make a soup that came with it. The broth was packed with flavor and had clear noodles inside. It was warm, rich and seriously delicious. Nothing felt wasted, and getting both the duck AND that flavorful broth made the experience even better. And that was just the beginning. We also ordered Kung Pao chicken, combination lo mein, regular lo mein, fried rice, Triple Delight, tofu, spicy wontons, green beans, a dumpling sampler and several other dishes that we had never tried before but sounded too good to pass up. The kids had chicken and French fries, so there are definitely familiar options available if you have little ones who aren't quite ready to branch out. Everything that came to our table was beautifully presented, full of flavor and made for sharing. My husband did mention that the Kung Pao chicken had a slightly different flavor than what he is used to, but overall we were genuinely impressed with how much we enjoyed everything especially considering how many different dishes we ordered. And DO NOT skip the drinks! They make these refreshing bubbly drinks in-house, and the strawberry bubbly was easily my favorite. So good and perfect with some of the spicier dishes. Something else I thought was really cool was the ordering system. Instead of waiting for a server every time you want to add something, they bring two iPads to the table and you can browse the menu and place your order directly. Your selections are sent to the kitchen, so food can start being prepared while you're still deciding what else you want. We kept adding dishes throughout our meal, and it made the whole experience feel really convenient and innovative. The staff was also incredibly friendly and welcoming, especially with this being such a new restaurant. As far as pricing goes, after seeing the actual portion sizes, I think the food is VERY reasonably priced. This is definitely one of those places where you can order a few dishes for the table and share family-style instead of everyone needing their own entrée. Had we realized just how generous the portions were beforehand, we probably would have ordered completely differently. But I'm also not complaining because now we have leftovers for DAYS. If you're looking for a new restaurant to try in New Braunfels, Texas, especially somewhere you can go with a group and order several dishes to share, definitely put Mala Chili on your list. And perfect timing they're celebrating their Grand Opening this Saturday, August 22, including a dragon show! We went in expecting dinner and somehow left with enough food to stock our refrigerator. Birthday month dinner was a SUCCESS. read more

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High hopes.... Big let down... placed order on their iPad menu, person came and confirmed. Checked 20 min in and same person confirmed the order. 3rd time 40 min in ask again as now we have been watching people coming in and leaving without getting food, now told that it somehow got canceled.... place is a mess, you would have thought it had been figured out during the soft opening. Only 3 people working and a dysfunctional kitchen! read more

Once again I spent my money here. Money well spent... unfortunately I'm going to be craving this 24/7 read more

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I was really excited to try the duck. It was pretty good, very tender. I also enjoyed the soup dumplings. The boa buns were just ok, nothing special. I didn't care for the soup that came with the duck, it was pretty salty, and the noodles I got just weren't good. Service was great! He was super nice. They are just opening but there was still plenty of tables and we didn't have to wait to be seated. read more

This restaurant has a fresh makeover and is inviting. Unfortunately once seated, you are handed an iPad and left on your own. The waiter did finally come back to help us out. I could not have wonton soup for lunch. It is not an option. I ordered a chicken dish with lots of delicious vegetables with egg roll but the sauce was supposed to be a garlic sauce and it had a strong vinegar taste. I added some sweet n sour sauce to counteract the tart. I would go back to try something different as I did not care for this dish. But I did appreciate the freshness of the vegetables and chicken, just was unprepared for the tartness. It's worth trying as New Braunfels lacks good quality Chinese food. read more

We ordered the orange chicken, which in the picture online had broccoli but did not actually come with broccoli, which was disappointing, although the chicken was good. Also tried the chicken and eggplant - the eggplant was delicious but the chicken was just okay. We ordered pickup for 7:30, but were notified it was ready at 7:10. I wish they would've timed it better bc I don't really want my food sitting out for 20 minutes before I pick it up. Overall, it wasn't bad. We'll give it another shot one of these days. read more

I ordered 30 minutes before coming in store, when I came in they told me it wasn't ready. I waited there for 45 minutes before getting my order. Several people came in after me and ordered in person and got their food before me. Absolutely AWFUL Service and rude employees. read more

Fantastic addition to new Braunfels. We've needed some options and Mala's Szechuan options are awesome. Tried the Mei fun, dumplings, boiled fish in chili, salt and pepper fish, and the Mongolian chicken. Everything was great. Excited to try it again! Hope the town ventures out side their comfort zone and tries some of the more fun dishes on the menu! read more

The won ton soup was flavorful, however the won tons were doughy. The orange chicken was tough and unchewable. The sesame pancake with red bean paste lacked enough bean paste to taste the dish. The waitress helping me place my to go order was very pleasant and helpful. I like the variety of menu options, but the first order lacked enough for us to return to try again. read more

So we didn't realize that Golden City had closed but decided to order from the new restaurant Mala Chili. The gentleman taking our order was very rude and said in a nasty voice "next time I won't take your order over phone you must order online. I entered to picked up order and noticed dirty dishes on all the tables not cleaned up. Ended up paying $89 for two people and he again said to me "next time won't take order on phone." Reel your husband. We were disappointed as the food was terrible. Too much sauce on main course, the fried shrimp were okay, but the dumplings were dry and the sauce was like vinegar. Plus it cost us $89!!!! We will definitely NOT be going back there. read more