Mala Town in San Mateo is one of the better spots for authentic mala tang in the area. The broth has a solid balance of numbing spice and depth -- not just heat for the sake of heat, but actually flavorful. The ingredient selection is great, with a wide variety of meats, vegetables, and add-ons to customize your bowl exactly how you want. Everything tasted fresh, and the portions felt fair for the price. Service was efficient, and the whole process is straightforward even if it's your first time. If you're craving something bold, spicy, and customizable, this is definitely a spot worth checking out. read more

First saw this concept in China, where you can choose your toppings and they boil it in soup for you. The toppings are measured by weight and if you're not careful, it can really add up! The broth I had was not very flavorful, maybe because they usually use spicy numbing soup for everyone. The toppings were the same that you would expect from hot-pot restaurants and were not that exciting. Some vegetables looked dry, as if they had been out for quite a while. read more

Mala Town - Chinese Near Me - Richmond Hill, Ontario

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This place is cute and interesting but the service could be much much better. I came in yesterday and the girl working there only said a quick hello all the way standing behind the cashier. She saw us trying to understand how the place works and she did not come out until i asked for her help. She was really nice and informative once asked but it should have been done without asking. Restaurants like for example even Mandarin has the hostess ask the customers whether they have been there before and if they havent they will explain where everything is. So once we knew that you can grab a bowl (at the top of the little roof above the food) and a little clamp.. Because we thought for the noodles we just use our hands to grab.. We slowly started adding our food into the bowl. You guys need to put some labels on your food!! You have to understand that not everyone will know what they are. Especially if you are not Asian. I asked the waitress and she said theyve never had labels for the food before. When i asked her what the purple meat ball was she said she isnt sure. She had to go back to ask somebody else... We figured out on our own that the meats you purchase at the front where the cashier is which would have been nice for her to let us know as well. When we went to pay for the food she was patient when we were trying to make up our minds on what soup base and meat we wanted. She is really sweet but she just needs to be trained better. We got our food seperately, time management is also important. My friend got their food first and when he was almost done i finally got my food. As for the water we didnt get any until we asked after 15 minutes of sitting at our table. The food was delicious and presentation is nice. They just need to fix up a few things and this place would do better. Customer service is a huge part of owning any business and for higher customer return. read more

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First Impressions ============= Host greeted us with a warm welcome and made sure we knew how everything worked. Super friendly service--good explanation to English speaking clients as well! Super Clean, like serious CLEANEST restaurant I've ever stepped foot in, but it's new. Food: ===== Ordered sauce noodle and soup noodle. Sauce noodle: SO GOOD! Very bold flavours and I picked medium spicy & zero numbness. Soup Noodle: Also delicious but out of the two we preferred sauce noodle. Would we come back? ================= YES! Great service, great food, we will be back for sure! read more

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I was craving for some hot soup noodles so my husband and I decided to try this restaurant out. The reason I'm giving it a 3 star is because when we walked in, we only got a "welcome" and that's it. We basically had to find our own seats and we were waiting for someone to come explain the rules to us - but no one came over. (This was our first time at this restaurant, so we weren't sure if they were supposed to take the order for us - because usually in a restaurant that's what they do) The waitresses were sitting at a far end corner eating their food and chatting. I got fed up with waiting, so I spoke up and asked the waitress if they are going to take our order. The waitress then said "oh you've never been here before?" Um... I'm not sure why she would assume that I've been here before. Pretty silly if you ask me. So then I told to tell her that it's my first time here. She briefly explained the rules and so we finally started with our orders. Basically you can customize your order. You pick up a bowl and you put whatever ingredients you want into that bowl. Afterwards, you go to the front counter and they will weigh your bowl - so the cost of your bowl of noodles depends on the weight of your ingredients. Then you get to choose whether you want sauce or soup base. After that you choose the spicy level and how "numb" you want it to be. I chose regular for both numb and spicy. I ordered the soup base since I wanted something hot on a cold night. The soup base is pretty good and not too salty either. It has the right amount of spicy and numb level too! I pretty much finished more than half of the soup base~ Even though I didn't get a great first impression, I will still come back because I enjoy the noodles! read more

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I have visited other Malatang places, and the prices were decent. I love the fact we can customize and personalize our bowls with a variety of toppings, so if I'm a small eater, I pay accordingly. So I thought I'd give this place a try with my friend. I went in at 7pm (prime dinner time) and only one lady was eating there. No one greeted us. When I saw the food display carts there were only 2 carts, both of them one level... no variety. Other Malatang places I've visited have multilevel of choices. Then there were no labels for any of the food I'm choosing. I had no clue what I was getting, fillings in the fish balls or if they were some other kind of ball. The veggies and noodles had no display either. With lack of transparency, it should have been a red flag for us to leave. The cart also didn't display the price unit ($/g). I expected to be around the same as the other places I went as they serve the exact same things and style (Malatang), so around $15-25. There were no meats displayed.. turns out you have to add it by telling the cashier and the price of the meat is pre-selected and separate from the weighing. So you have no clue how much meat you'd get from $3.50 (the time of my visit). Both my friend and I added the lamb. The selection for the soup base only had 4 types. I chose the original, and my friend chose the curry. The soups had no price, no clue if it's included with the food or separate. We also ordered 2 cans of pop. Again, don't know the price as there wasn't a single price listed in their store except for the meat. The total of our bill (I paid for us) was $68 for two people. 34 DOLLARS FOR A BOWL.. Please keep in mind I am a small eater and I didn't put that much in my bowl. I eat around $14-17 on average when I eat at these places, and $17 is with lots of leftovers. I can get more toppings and same soup base at Dahu Hotpot AYCE.. why the prices not displayed baffles me. Aka-Oni has a premium lobster ramen for around this price. We sat down and they gave us disposable chopsticks.. for a $34 bowl of noodles. We received our food and it was mediocre at best. The curry soup was watered down, just had a hint of coconut but no curry taste. My Malatang is as generic as it gets. The lamb was the cheap types you can get at T&T with no fat. Other places have same type of lamb but I'm paying half the price. Paying $34 for a bowl of noodle with a drink is fine dining price. I can get two full bowls at other Malatang places. The prices are not in line with other competing restaurants. I understand the increased prices were to sustain their business, but these prices only scare any returning customers to come back. I'm not going to visit this place again. I hope they close down. read more

Super stoked there's finally a mala tang closer to me! They also open a bit later so if I'm craving for a late night bite I'd pass by sometimes. I've went roughly about 4 times before I finally decided on a rating. Mala Town has the ingredients laid out for you to pick and choose. The pricing is based on weight. You also get to choose your level of spicy and numb. My first visit was phenomenal and the richness of the soup base was mouth watering. After my first visit I went back a couple of times and realized quality control isn't steady. The soup bases were starting to taste more water downed and even if I were to increase the level it wasn't spicy... plus the last two times I went my order was consistently wrong even though all I asked for was no cilantro and green onions... After you leave make sure you drink loads of water because I feel super dehydrated every single time meaning they probably add a lot of MSG into their broth. Staff are super friendly and helpful if it's your first time coming they guide you on how to order. They can all speak Mandarin and fluent in English. I'd come back just to satisfy my craving. read more

Mala Town - Chinese Near Me - Richmond Hill, Ontario

Was greeted (from the back) as soon as we walked in. This place is self-serve: you grab a bowl and tongs and fill up your bowl with what you want to eat. I liked the variety of noodles that they have on offer. After you're satisfied with your bowl, you walk to the back and pay by weight (I believe it's $26.99/kg). They only take cash, and debit cards over a certain amount ($25? -- I'm not certain). You also choose how 'numb' and 'spicy' you want your bowl. I went with medium numbness and small spiciness and found it much too 'numb'. There was a not-thin layer of oil at floating at the top of my bowl. The broth was fine but I found that it lacked complexity. You have to ask for water and it comes in styrofoam soup bowls (the type you'd get miso soup takeout in). Overall it was mediocre at best. Perhaps if I'm craving malatang I'll come back but I'd try to make it myself at home first. read more

Came here out of Random. A pretty legit Chinese express hotpot place. I would say it's an authentic 麻辣烫 spot。 I like given the option to pick the spicy and numb level. The ingredients are pretty fresh as well. The cost is reasonable at $23/kg of ingredients. Check them out! read more

Mala Town - Fresh ingredients - Chinese Near Me - Richmond Hill, Ontario

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Food is average. Taste is average. Soup base definitely has some spiciness to it but not much salt. I didn't get much food and cost over $25. For this price and quality for lunch..... maybe not the best choice. Clarification. Lunch were purchase from before and there is no mistake and never mention it's purchase was today. read more

The concept of choosing your noodles and ingredients is pretty cool! I was able to choose a relatively small amount of ingredients since I wasn't super hungry. I chose the mala soup with beef. I would go again. read more

Mala Town - Mala soup with beef and assorted vegetables - Chinese Near Me - Richmond Hill, Ontario

We discovered this place nearly a month ago and we've already had dinner here 4 times. Very delicious soup (spice and numbness level can be made to your liking). Very clean restaurant and the workers are always kind. Writing this review to cure my cravings until I go back on Friday ! I also recommend the bottled drink in the picture to go along with your meal (forgot the name but it's a perfect combo). read more

Mala Town - Chinese Near Me - Richmond Hill, Ontario

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I've had same food offered at T&T Supermarket's hot food counter, and it was nothing to write home about. They dump everything you picked into the broth to cook, for the same amount of time, which resulted in food that are partly undercooked (like cabbage), and partly overcooked (my taro lost half of its mass into the broth during cooking) depending on the ingredients. This place does it right. Everything is cooked according to the time required for each ingredient and just right. Flavor is good too, I tried the spicy level mild + numbness level regular, which is just perfect. Service is good, everyone was helpful and eager to help if you look confused. It's a self-serve establishment but they won't hesitate to grab your pop from the fridge for you, or grab the utensils for you. The place is quite small, it's only got 3 tables max plus bar seating, but for a quick meal it's no big deal. Might be drafty whenever people open the door. The only thing I didn't like was the use of disposable utensils even if you eat in. Not only does it create a whole bunch of garbage unnecessarily, the plastic spoon is really hard to enjoy your meal, wish I had a proper soup spoon. So one star off for this (to me) major down side. If they can provide proper non-disposable soup spoon it would be perfect. Will only go back once they have real spoons to eat with. To much hassle to eat your soup with plastic spoon. read more

Very good food. Seating and ambience is good. Price is reasonable. Only qualms were that there is no provided water. You have to buy a drink

I discovered this newly opened restuarant on Yelp and decided to give it a try. It's great if you're craving hotpot but not wanting to over eat or pay the hefty hotpot price. You basically choose whatever toppings you want at the ingredients bar (buffet style) and they calculate the price by the weight of the food. They cook your ingredients and serve it in a bowl! Very cool concept! Their selection is pretty good - they even had fresh clams! I got the regular spicy broth and it was already really spicy but also super flavorful! I couldn't stop drinking it although my mouth was on FIRE. Definitely going to be coming back a few more times this winter. read more

I woke up with a mad craving for mala xiang guo the other day so i looked up places in my area not expecting much and without high standards. happy to say i was in for something way better than my expectations. they had tables with tons of options to choose from. i got some sausages, beef balls, imitation crab meat, tofu skin, rice cakes, veggies, and i was overjoyed to see that they also had glass noodles!! those are my favourite noodles to go with this dish, highly recommend! i got the regular spice and regular numbing option. i waited a couple minutes for them to cook up my order and off i went. let me just say the flavour was impeccable. the spice level was perfect, as i can tolerate high spice levels but i wanted to still taste the food and didn't know what their spice was like. the lady working was so nice and the food was super delicious!! i would definitely be a continuous repeat customer here, as i'm writing this review 4 days later, i am still drooling thinking about it! read more

Mala Town - sauce option with regular spice, regular numbing - Chinese Near Me - Richmond Hill, Ontario

This place is over priced. Food is mediocre. Have had better malatangs. Service could be a lot better. Charges $1 to pay by card.

Super nice and amazing place for lunch and dinner.You can customize your own mala bowl by adding variety of toppings, definitely gonna go visit again. read more

Great service! Very friendly. We got a 10% discount and 2 free drinks because it was Chinese new year. Food was great but a little too spicy