I you like truly authentic Chinese food, this is the place for you! This place is gorgeous! Clean, beautiful lighting and art work! The lady at the counter was so helpful since it's my first time. Basically you get a bowl, pick your protein and veggies, they make it for you with different sauce. The choices are very high quality and so many variety. I got some fatty pork, a lot of seafood, and basic veggies. I picked the spicy sauce. Trust me, this is the one to go with. It was mind numbing, mouth numbingly good. I'm a total Chinese food snob and I love this place! read more

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Mediocre taste, Low price efficiency. The cashier didn't even tell me how much the meal costs until I swipe the card. read more

Spicy Tang - Chinese Near Me - Champaign, Illinois

Spicy Tang serves hearty make your own soups that some might call comfort food. The food is good. There is a wide selection of meats and fish cakes, along with vegetables, I particularly like their mushrooms. The fish cake is their main show, its different from what the rest of the UIUC campus has to offer. A few caveats, the wait staff doesn't speak very good English, ordering your food can be a little tricky & spicy "S4" may be a little too much for the uninitiated. If you like soup and fish cakes, go. My son wrote this review but I concur completely read more

Spicy Tang - Tom Yum - Chinese Near Me - Champaign, Illinois

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Okay, so first of all. This place is visually appealing and easy to access since it's in a prime location next to Green St. It has this very inviting feel that invites people in. The moment I stepped in though, I was a bit overwhelmed. Their signs are all in Chinese, no one greets you at the door, and you're kind of expected to know what you're supposed to do. Thank goodness I went with friends who already knew how the system works, but if I was alone or with other newbies, we would probably have felt lost. They have a wide variety of meats and things to include with your stir fries or hot pots. I kind of let my friends take care of selecting what goes in, but be aware that there are a lot of interesting selections! They price you by the pound (including the bowl) so make sure you put in only what you want to eat. We ended up getting mala, and they cook it up for you after paying. Everything here is pretty much self-service, which I honestly don't mind. There are plenty of tables and seating. It's pricey though. For the two bowls you can see in my picture, our total was around $85. We did fill our bowls with a lot of stuff, but dang... that total surprised me! read more

Spicy Tang - Mala Classic Stir-Fry - Chinese Near Me - Champaign, Illinois

The food are not fresh, my stomach is sensitive, I already feel like I'm going to throw up when I'm halfway through the meal read more

Spicy Tang - a tray of food with rice and chopsticks - Chinese Near Me - Champaign, Illinois

I love this place. Fun to eat and easy too. Very customizable and hassle free way to eat custom soup

I love the concept and i wish there was something like it near my hometown. I probably got a bit carried away with the ingredients as it came out to ~$20. (For comparison, i could have gone to and AYCE hotpot for around $25. But lots of variety. The only negative thing is that since the customer grabs a bowl and 1 thongs to pick out ingredients, the same thongs that touched the raw meats/seafood also touched the vegetables. While everything gets cooked, but it cross containminates the veggies on the bar... (bacteria divides about every 20 minutes... while the bacteria is killed... but some releases endotoxin or have cell walls that can trigger a mean immune response resulting to diarrhea). Personally... i would move the raw meats/seafoods to the very end. read more

Food quality and all is pretty good. My favorite part of this place is that they have different type of mushrooms. Thats how u know this place is real. Only downside to this place is the price. Normally, they weigh the meat and the veggies separately. But they weigh the whole thing together. Idk if thats a huge concern but when I shared this meal with my friends 3 times, I paid north of 40 bucks. In China, u would be able to feed a whole family for 20~30 bucks with this dish read more

Id have to give this place a 2 stars. Only becuz theres a cute black pekinese dog in the front. But overall, its not that good. When u walk in, they dont greet you. Theres no labels, nothing in English telling you what to do. I was kinda guessing everything. I grabbed a bowl and got to work. The first station had like, meats, varieties of them. From seafood to beef to pork to poultry. In the way back corner theres udon noodles. Next station you get a variety of veggies. Of course nothing label, so just grab what looks familiar and go. Everything gets weighed at the end, and then sent to the back kitchen for choice of broth. They had 4 choices. I got the one i thought was familiar. Spicy beef broth i think. It was ok. But not for $25 . The soup was very oily, like extremely oily. Hard to swallow and i burned my mouth taking a sip even 30 mins after it came out. Becuz the oil stays hot on top of the bowl. I wont come here again. Its nice to have as an option if there was nothing else. read more

Spicy Tang - Spicy broth soup - Chinese Near Me - Champaign, Illinois

I think this is the first authentic Chinese stir fry place on campus. A friend introduced me to Spicy Tang about a week after it opened, and I absolutely loved it. You select your ingredients -- meats, veggies, and noodles -- and put them in a bowl for the cooks to prepare in whichever style you specify. You'll have to order at least 2 pounds of ingredients, which is about $24, so I suggest you try this place with a group of friends... or by yourself if you're hungry enough. You can always put the leftovers in a takeout container if you can't finish it. Unfortunately, I see a lot of negative reviews for this restaurant and I think it stems for some misguided expectations. Spicy Tang isn't a fast food restaurant and it does get crowded during peak hours, which is the case for a lot of restaurants. For the best experience, I suggest you get a group of friends and try this place with an open mind. read more

Spicy Tang - Lots of stir fry - Chinese Near Me - Champaign, Illinois

There was honestly nothing special about this place..unless if you've never had this type of cuisine before. First of all, it's way overpriced. This place works by putting various raw ingredients into a bowl, where they weigh it at the end of the line (meat, veggies, fishballs, noodles). Being me, I decided to weigh the bowl first, which came out to a quarter lb (that's almost $2.50 right there). I then got my ingredients, there is a decent variety, I'll admit. But then again, it's not too hard to buy raw ingredients. There were no labels, so you kinda had to use intuition for some of the items. There were about 5 soup bases, they were eh (yellow curry I think? was not appealing to me). Asides from the price..expect over $16, there were also limited sauces, and once again with no labels. (Don't get me wrong, I'm Chinese, but a lot of my friends struggled). read more

Spicy Tang - Chinese Near Me - Champaign, Illinois

Never going there again. Cashier was rude throughout the ordering process. After I order, my 2 year old daughter had pooped. I just need to clear her up with diaper bag in tow. Bathroom closed to us. No compassion for a customer. I got my money back and left. Not a friendly place. read more

I'm reviewing this place because I experienced something here that I have never experienced anywhere else: I was turned away for being a vegetarian. A few of us walked in and looked at the menu. I asked whether the item that said "Vegan" on the menu board was actually vegetarian (broth often isn't). The lady at the counter had no idea, and didn't know what to say. Then, an older lady came from the back, crossed her arms, leaned on the sneeze guard, and said they do not have any vegetarian food. All vegetables are cooked in broth with meat. She was not making any effort to be friendly or apologetic at all, and basically repeated this and stared at us with an unfriendly expression until we walked out. I'm in my 30s, and I have literally never experienced this in my life. Every other place I've been to, including other Asian restaurants and even side-of-the-highway steak diners, have all made an effort to feed me and successfully done so, even by putting together side dishes or making something up for me. Not here. Their "Vegan" item actually contains meat, and that's the end of it. read more

spicy tang is my favorite place on campus. you get to pick your own ingredients and the cost is by weight. if your food tastes bad here, that's just because you're not picking the right ingredients. i crave spicy tang everyday and i want the taste in my mouth at all times. read more

Spicy Tang - Chinese Near Me - Champaign, Illinois

Amazing flavor. The stir fried spicy pot is amazingly seasoned and the spices are just amazing. You gonna try it if you love spice. Yea English might be a problem so bring your Chinese friend or simply ask the cashier. If more people come maybe they will add labels to the dishes. You can also ask them to choose for you. read more

Spicy Tang - Ma La Tang - Chinese Near Me - Champaign, Illinois

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I love ma la tang and was really excited when I found this place. They have a pretty large selection of meats, veggies and noodles to choose from. There's also a good selection of soup bases to try. My favorite is their Tom yum soup. I'm giving this place 2 stars because (1) it's pretty pricey for what the restaurant is offering and haven't been able to try the dry stir fry by myself since you have to buy 2 pounds worth of food at $10.99/lb. And (2) the owner can be a bit rude at times. They offer 10% off if you check in on yelp and was refused every time because the owner said they "forgot to take it off" ‍ The food itself is not bad but some of the soup bases can either be pretty bland or so spicy that you'll have to bring milk with you when you eat here. Overall, if you're having a craving for ma la tang then this can give you a quick fix! read more

Spicy Tang - Chinese Near Me - Champaign, Illinois

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Surprised by the number of bad reviews. It is a no-frills, hotpot place with a number of delicious options to create your own custom hotpot. As a vegetarian, I seldom find hotpot places with a veggie broth, and here they have two. The tomato based broth is to die for in the winters and on rainy days. I agree with some of the other reviews in that the staff are not the warmest people - and most of them do not speak good English which makes the communication a bit difficult, but you go once, figure out what combination you like and then just order by the number on the menu. Ambience is decent too. read more

Spicy Tang - Tomato Veggie Broth with all my favorite add-ins! - Chinese Near Me - Champaign, Illinois

I made a to go order on RICEPO. I used to be a loyal customer at spicy tang. However, this time the spicy hot pot is tasteless. It's like they use water to boil the beef, the fish without even adding some salt! I tried to contact the manager to solve this problem. However, the manager said that was a normal thing in afternoon. They are very busy and they have nothing to do with my to go order. So I end up throw away the "water" boiled beef and vegetable and it wasted me $20. read more

Spicy Tang - Chinese Near Me - Champaign, Illinois

I was visiting UIUC and wanted to try something new. What sparked my interest is basically it's create your own type of noodle shop. You get to pick what you want and what you want to put in. It cost $10.99 per pound which is a little pricy. You get to pick the soup broth you want out of 5 choices (some spicy and some non), the taste was disspointing nothing that stood out in flavor or spices. Overall the idea and concept was creative nothing about the food blew me away. read more

Spicy Tang - Chinese Near Me - Champaign, Illinois

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I went here for lunch earlier this week and I actually really liked it. We walk in and there is 2 bowl sizes to choose from. You pick whatever items you want and put it in the bowl. They have an assortment of fishballs, meats, and noodles that you can add to your bowl. Once you get to the register, you put your bowl on a scale, choose from 4 different soup bases and pay ($10.99/lb). My bowl was just under a pound. They take the food that you picked and cook it in the soup base that you chose. You then receive a buzzer and you seat yourself. During busy hours, it gets pretty packed but we were lucky enough to find seating. The bowl that you get is a soup with all the ingredients in it. It is almost like Boiling Point if anyone has been there or a precooked hot pot. Your order comes with rice if you ask and overall I really enjoyed the taste, speed, and quality of the food. I wouldn't recommend taking this togo. The store is big but it gets crowded so seating is limited. Also, the raw items that you can choose from are not labeled so people who have never seen some of these foods might get confused. And for those reasons, I took off a star. read more

The menu is so confusing. It's on the wall. When I walked in, i had no clue how to order my food. I walked to the register and asked the cashier. Basically you just pick the raw ingredients you want and put them in a bowl and they charge you by weight. After that, choose a broth. They charge extra for the broth. I had the spicy broth 4$. And it came out very plain. I didn't like the flavor. And it was overpriced. read more

Spicy Tang - 18$. Spicy broth doesn't look like spicy - Chinese Near Me - Champaign, Illinois

the service is horrible here. The cashier was very mean about our request. The food is pricy and the menu is not updated. The cashier lady was impatient with our question on the menu. Do not recommend! read more

Despite the not so great reviews, I gave this place a try, and I loved it! Had the beef noodle and it was great! Good price for a ton of food. Beef was really tender. Will come back to try their spicy tang stuff. read more

Spicy Tang - Beef noodle - Chinese Near Me - Champaign, Illinois

Very authentic "mala" (Sichuan spice) flavor, but only if you ask for extra spicy. The "mala" pot is the way to go and a great reminder of the flavors of my home town, which is hard to find on campus. Try them out if you like hot and spicy food, try something new, and want to try some authentic Chinese "mala" flavor. Oh, and I'm from Sichuan, China :) 地道麻辣味，但是需要给服务员说要"最辣"的麻辣。去这儿就要点麻辣味，吃起就想到四川，在学校类很难找到。 如果您喜欢麻辣味，想吃点川味麻辣，就去这儿。 read more

I went to spicy tang a while and just got the chance to write the review. I like the many choices of small hotspots flavors. I was surprised that they even have non-spicy options such as bone soup and tomato soup. Sides are also very good. If you like Chinese food or spicy food, this is a definitely a place to go around the area. read more

Spicy Tang - Delicious bone soup - Chinese Near Me - Champaign, Illinois

OMG the worst experience possible. Arrived at 9:10, Open sign was on, people were in the spot eating and was told they were odes. Sign on the doer said they closed at 9:30. The damn place is trashy fast food. Never Again!!! read more

Stir fry soup is what is offered at Spicy Tang. I can't speak to the authenticity of the food but I hate to admit that I didn't like a single ingredient in my soup, and I stacked it pretty heavily. The staff were pretty helpful in assisting me with the ingredients, but I still didn't understand what half of them were. Just not quite my tempo. read more

We walked away feeling robbed. Some of the stuff we chose from the bar weren't there in the soup we ordered. The food and service are waaaay overpriced. For 10.99/lb you'd expect some fine dining experience. Instead, it's the typical Chinese restaurant service you'd find at ANY Chinese restaurant on campus. The taste is drastically awful, almost like instant noodles. Bottom line: don't go here. read more

TLDR: DONT GO! It's a FRAUD!!! I registered Yelp for writing this. It reads 10.99 per lbs. I saw mine weighed 9oz and it cost me freaking 19 bucks. The cashier speaks little English. read more

Could've given 0 stars if I could, or negative infinity. I placed an order to go, received a buzzer that never vibrated, so I questioned a staff on the progress of my order after a 1 full hour wait. They told me that they handed my food to another customer, and there's nothing they could do at this point. That's the end of the story. I never received my food. I was told that I could repick my 2.5 lbs worth of food items across 20 categories, and wait again. Or go to my afternoon classes hungry, and receive a refund. I chose the later. The refund process was not satisfying either. They could not locate my credit card transaction in their system, handed me an approximate amount in cash, and compensated my misfortune with a $2 coupon, which I rejected kindly, telling them that there wouldn't be a need for it since I will not return to this mess again. Going to my class hungry now, but a lesson learned. read more

Terribly bland food and way too overpriced! The cashier kept speaking Chinese to me even though I spoke to her in English. Don't waste your time and money there. Worst restaurant ever. read more

Terrible service, expired - tasting ingredients, and tragic flavors. It's an ideal place for you to take your boy/girlfriend if you wanna breakup and hate each other for every second in the rest of your life. read more

AVOID THE PLACE!!! You have to pick up at least 1 lb for the spicy bowl, and it is way toooooo overpriced. There is almost no flavor of the soup and the raw ingredients are soooo bad! They won't tell you that you have to get more than enough until you check out, and you have to go back to the end of the line to pick more stuff so that they allow you to check out. There is no waiter, and the cashier has no idea what he is doing. read more

My friend and I were intrigued by the buffet-style vegetables and meats you stick into a bowl that they turn into a soup. We did not like that nothing was labeled in there. Unfortunately, they were out of 2 of their 5 broth options, Tom Yum being one of them. They have a large amount of meat and seafood options available. $10.99/lb. of meat and vegetables is a steep price for soup especially if you are not getting the shrimp and other seafood items. But what frustrated us was there were so many different options we were unfamiliar with, and had no idea whether to put it in our bowl or not. The obvious common items were beef, pork, and eggs. But there were so many different types of sausages, meatballs, and strands of what I thought was udon but was actually squid. I'm all for trying new things but tell me what it is. So, I asked the server at the register if she could tell me what they all were to make sense of it. She asked me what I wanted. I said anything pork. She pointed to bacon. Then, I asked for beef. She just pointed at one item. I'm sure some of the sausages and meatballs had beef and pork in them but she just left. Vegetable station was the same. Great diverse amount but half of the vegetables I had no idea what they were. I ended up having over 2 lbs of ingredients which added up to over $25. Well, no biggie as long as it's good, right? They had small cups for complimentary water and a sauce/condiment station. Again, great amount of sauces but none were labeled. The soup came out really fast and was just okay. I had the Golden Yellow Hot and Sour Soup. It had a good sour taste until you reached the middle of the bowl. Then, there was a bitter, sour cabbage taste to it. They added sliced peppers to the soup which did make the soup mild. But the broth was extra oily and had too much raw garlic in it. The ingredients did not absorb the soup's flavor well. My friend had the spicy soup and was not too impressed by its flavor and oiliness. The women's restroom had a strong, sewage odor. The interior of the restaurant itself was clean and wonderfully decorated. The best part of the restaurant was the adorable dog that sat on the bench next to the front door. He stayed where he was at and welcomed petting. If you enjoy seafood and are well-versed in all Asian meats and vegetables, you might enjoy this place. read more

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It is very pricy specially when you didn't pay attention and got too much iced stuffs. But tastes ok, the spicy tomato soup is not bad. But just too pricy for that small bowl read more

The food is good. The only problem is the price. I'm from China so I know this dish is usually among the cheapest Chinese food. But it's kind of expensive here compared with other Chinese food. read more

This is my favorite spicy food restaurant near campus. Authentic and delicious Chinese food

Don't go unless you want to spend at least $20. They advertise only $10.99 per pound for the bowls, which is reasonable, then charge extra for the soup base, the cost of which is conveniently written in small letters and not advertised up front. Broth was basically oily water and spice. Not that I am against spice but it had no flavor, just heat. Staff was rather rude. Something in the food made my tongue and lips tingle and numb, and not in a spicy way, more like an allergic reaction way. I've never had an allergic reaction to anything, so I am not sure what caused this. Overall bland food. read more

The food was very cheap and the cashier was absolutely rude to my friend. She yelled at the customers with an attitude.

Over priced and has a 2lb minimum for stir fries. No choice for stir fry sauces either. The stir fry was so oily that it was impossible to eat it. We left our 2.5lb meal on the table and just walked out. read more