Mala Restaurant

Came here several times both for dine-​in & takeout. Good portion and quality for its price, especially their mala pot.

You know this place is good when you see hordes of Asians crowding up this small restaurant. The line of people waiting for tables during meal times can be quite intimidating but the small staff here does an amazing job serving the customers and speeding things along. Be warned, the food here can be really spicy! So if you like a lot of spice then you’re in luck! Otherwise, there are non-​spicy food options available. Also the portion size is quite generous and you can easily feed a large party by sharing the spicy pot. There’s no room to be shy so get ready to be friendly and share some delicious food with your fellow table mates.

A new restaurant (as of 2015) to try Sichuan style Chinese food. Nice seating and décor, very good service, and authentic spicy Chinese food. Highly recommended.

We got the mala bowl with beef and it was delicious. The broth was perfect and comforting. HUGE portions for the price. We also got the skewers which was pretty salty but good for about 2 $ each. this would be good to drink with beer. The shiitake mushroom skewers were surprisingly tasty and flavorful. we also got the hot and sour noodle soup with beef. This one was exactly what the title said, hot and sour. I liked the first bite but then the oiliness and unique flavor doesn’t really allow you to continue.
They’ve got a variety of other dishes that looks enticing and we would definitely come back to try them. Be prepared to eat spicy when you come here. The spice will numb you.

It took me back to my days in living in China. It made me very happy.
The mala pot taste was spot on and the hot pot had plenty of meat and vegetables that brought all the more memories of living in China.
Since I came back from living in China, I have been dreaming about the mala tang, but now I have a place to go when I am craving the tongue numbing mala pepper.
Price was reasonable for the size of the pot. It really was a hot pot for two.
Start with mild and move up slowly if your tongue or stomach is not used to this kind of pepper spice.
There I was surrounded by all Chinese international students, I felt like I was in a local food court in China.

As you can see in my photo I tried a lot here and it was all good. A lot of food for lunch specials. Great new flavors but very spicy if you can’t handle spicy food don’t come here. Cumin beef was extremely spicy but great. Tofu and shredded pork was amazing… But best of all was the dumpling appetizer the sauce it was in was the best ever!

This is my fifth time coming to this restaurant and I have to say is it my favorite Chinese restaurant. Just sometimes there are tons of people and you may need to wait for hours.

Tasty Barbecues! The squid is recommended! The hand-​pulled noodle is not hand-​pulled at all, which is kind of disappointing. Everybody can get something they want in the hot dry pot.

My friends and I did not order the big bowl! Dang it, really should’ve checked Unilocal for suggestions. We ordered three different dishes — Fish Fillet in Chef’s Special Chili Sauce, Spicy Rice Noodles, and the Shredded Beef with Hot Peppers. The fish was so tender that it melted in your mouth. If it wasn’t labelled fish, I wouldn’t have even known! It tasted kind of like chicken, because there was no fishiness that is inherent to most Asian-​style seafood (from my experience). I liked the sauce more than the fish. It was amazing on top of my rice. The Shredded Beef with Hot Peppers wasn’t at all spicy. I found it to be an average dish, but I can’t say that about the Spicy Rice Noodles… The title is so generic but this bowl was amazing. It is kind of like the Cantonese beef brisket noodle soup, if you have ever had that. The soup was super spicy and there was tons of meat!
The prices are very low and the portions are above average. I will be back!

Came here with one other friend in the afternoon for lunch. Lucky it wasn’t as pack (if you come here for dinner, be prepare to wait or try to head there early). Ordered a lamb skewer (I’m not really a fan of lamb food so I didn’t enjoy it as much as, my friend did), the szechuan flavor dan dan noodles (total disappointment. It wasn’t like the usual dan dan noodles I had tried at other places. Nothing special), an appetizer and a noodle soup dish. We do enjoy the appetizer. I will come back for other dishes.

Extremely great place to go if you’re the type of person that likes to try everything! Most items on the menu are small plates so you can order a huge variety without breaking the bank or feeling too much like a fatty
Their dry hot pot is a great deal! I split the large with someone along with some appetizers and it was the perfect way to go. A large only costs $ 6 and comes with 6 veggies of choice at no cost
I loved that I could come here with my family and dine here easily. I’m vegan and there aren’t many Chinese restaurants that offer a huge variety to my kind
The cucumber salad was good but not what I expected. It was served at room temperature with a lot of minced garlic. I’m used to having this served cold with chili oil and vinegar
We also got the house rice jelly which was interesting. It came with a sweetish bean curd paste sauce and fried soybeans. It was a nice change to the other flavor profiles present in my meal

The Malta spicy pot tastes so good! Quite similar to those back in my hometown Chengdu, Sichuan.

After 3 months from opening, we decided to give this place a shot. Oddly enough, we didn’t go to try their specialty. Hot pot.
We opted to try a variety of skewers. If you are not into strong/​bold flavors, the skewers would be overwhelming. It was too salty of my party. I was drinking loads of water to rinse my tongue. The grilled corn was not grilled. It was more along the lines of cooked in boiling water and then dusted with spices.
We also had a couple spicy dishes. THe spicy fish filet and the spicy pig’s blood. Both were superb. Great flavor. Great texture. Great portion. It was HOT!
The service here was awesome. The servers were helpful in helpful us decide what to order. They were regularly walking around topping off the water glasses. The food come out fairly quickly. We were in and out under an hour during the dinner rush.

Quality and quantity! Beautifully presented dishes with fresh ingredients and such generous portion that makes one curious where do they do their grocery shopping?! Ideally located, great value, thoroughly satisfied my chinese spicy craving better than any places in town.

This week, BACONS (Boston-​area Chowhounds Nibbling on Saturday) visited MaLa Restaurant in Allston…
I’m not sure why, but the Boston area just abounds in Sichuan restaurants. Perhaps it has something to do with the legendary Sichuan Gourmet having trained and inspired a legion of imitators, but it does make it easy to feed the (spicy) beast.
Boston’s latest entrant, MaLa in Allston opened sometime in June, on the same stretch of Brighton Ave that hosts Bön Chon and Jo Jo Taipei. The space was previously occupied by Afghani restaurant Ariana, which has recently relocated, and the remodeled interior is attractively modern-​Asian, with white and blue fluorescent lighting and stenciled Panda art providing a bit of a hip vibe. Not to mention the dance music sound track, which I could easily have lived without (although, thankfully, MaLa lacks a laser light show, a la MDM Noodle). As one might expect, the half-​full Saturday lunch crowd looked to be largely local Asian students.
The relatively short menu (for a Chinese restaurant) features the usual Sichuan classics (Dan Dan noodles, twice-​cooked pork, fuqi feipian…) as well as noodles, including «hand-​pulled» noodles (although the latter were to be found in only two dishes). But the main focus is clearly on two things: BBQ skewers; and MaLa Pots (2 types). So for a Saturday lunch, we largely stuck with those:
MALA CRAWFISH ($ 13.95)
~I was particularly excited to try this, and happy that it turned out to be a delicious, if messy, start to the meal. The ~20 crawfish (or more properly around here, crayfish) were on the smallish side and drowned in a spicy brown broth. We chose to go for «extra spicy», rather than «spicy» or «mild» (the 3 choices for all the pots), but I would have to say that although flavorful (and worth taking home to pour over something else), extra spicy wasn’t really all that spicy. Amusingly (at least to me), we were provided with plastic gloves for the twist, peel, pinch and sucking process, but of course it was easier to do this without gloves (wipes were kindly provided). I enjoyed this dish (although the broth was a bit salty, I only noticed that when I tasted a couple of spoonfuls), but next time I’m getting a bowl all to myself.
BARBEQUE MEAT ($ 1.50/skewer): Lamb, pork belly, and sausage.
~The lamb was the clear winner, tender, with a slightly cumin flavor. But on the whole, I wasn’t particularly excited by these and would probably pass on all but the lamb next time. They also offer a wide variety of other meats (such as lamb kidney, frog, chicken gizzards, quail eggs, and assorted vegetables).
MALA SPICY POT (custom ingredients, $ 22, YMMV): With lamb, sausage, beef tripe, pig blood, enoki, taro, lotus, potato, gluten, bok choy, served «spicy».
~Two types of hot pots are offered, «Mala Pot» which comes with broth; and «Mala Spicy Pot» without broth. We went with the latter, and chose the option of specifying our own ingredients (how to total up the price of the ingredients was a bit complex, but our waiter was able to explain it to us). Whereupon, we were presented with a giant bowl of «Mmmm…Chinese Comfort Food» (Homer Simpson’s voice). Nothing complex, but this was still really well done, with all the ingredients cooked perfectly (although they forgot to include the potato). Interestingly, this time «spicy» turned out to be more spicy than our «extra spicy» crawfish, but still nothing to write home about. $ 22 and shared among 4, we still took home leftovers, so I thought this was a good deal.
A big bowl of rice was $ 5 (grrrrr, not such a good deal!).
A short list of generic beers are available.
Service was not a particularly strong point at MaLa, since once we place our order and received our food, we were never visited again until we flagged a waiter down. Parking is of course abysmal around Brighton Ave, so go early and be prepared to drive around in circles for a few minutes.
Not really a destination Sichuan restaurant like Sichuan Gourmet in Billerica (admittedly we didn’t try any of the classics), but I really enjoyed this meal and will definitely return.

Great food. If you love hot and spicy, this is great place for it. Chili and fresh pepper loaded in mala pot and fish with sechuan sauce. Yumm…
You also can cool down with grilled sweet corn.
I have good experience there. Recommended!

Wandering for food last night with my gym buddy looking to eat back up our calories, we stumbled onto this place by chance. A banner hung outside declaring its grand opening and we were sold, didn’t even know what cuisine we were trying until we asked our server. We purely enjoy trying new places. Fortunately for us this restaurant was not a let down. The inside houses the typical mid/​high class décor, complete with dim lighting, black furniture, booths, and a bar. The whole time we were there the restaurant blasted Kpop even though it was a Chinese eatery. One of the workers must’ve been a huge fan of BIGBANG because that’s all he/​she played. Not that I mind though.
Onto the food/​drinks. We ordered 2 bottles of soy milk, a fried shumai appetizer, and a spicy mala pot to share. You can either choose a preset pot from the main menu or make your own from the white print out they give you. We opted for the mild spicy customizable pot, adding in chicken wings, fish balls, tofu, mushrooms, and rice noodles. It came out to be a deliciously salty and spicy noodle dish. My friend thought it a bit too salty after a while, but I was fine. Maybe add less sodium next time. The shumai was good too, even better was the sauce that arrived with it. It all went down great with soy milk! The table next to us ordered soy milk after they saw us drinking it too. Definitely a must try. As for the service, the waiter was kind and patient in helping us put in our orders. Being our first time here, we were confused about the process. Overall he had a good sense of humor, laughing along with the table. Even offered us a discount to come back again! But I would’ve done that even without him saying so.

This place just opened up recently, and it is really good?! The skewers are really good, and I’d say that it is better than some yakitori places I’ve been to. I’m not usually too crazy about spicy things, but getting a medium spicy pot of assorted vegetables and meats is really refreshing with some sake. Speaking of sake, it was technically not on the menu when I went there, but it should be soon.
I would recommend to get the skewers first and then the spicy pot to enjoy the flavors or the lamb, squid tentacles, quail eggs, and all the guts (hearts, kidneys, etc) before their tongue is numbed by the spices. If you don’t tell your friends what gizzards are, I think they will like it. The portions are not bad here.

I live in the neighborhood and have been waiting for this restaurant to open for months. The name of the restaurant is actually a bit misleading because even though its supposed to be ‘hotpot’, which entails ordering raw things and cooking it yourself in a broth of your choice. But instead, what they serve is actually mala tang, where you select some meats and veggies and they will have it cooked for you in either broth or no broth.
There are two options when ordering the ‘hotpot’, once involving a pre selected combo of veggies with either lamb/​beef/​seafood for $ 8.50, the order comes with a full bowl of mala broth at the spicy level of your choice. The 2^nd option involvings picking either a small or large basket of veggies (3 veggie selection vs 6) and individual orders of meat at $ 3.50 for small and $ 8 for large. These orders come without broth. They also offer bbq skewer options and other sichuan dishes.
The portions here are HUGE, we couldnt believe how big the bowl was and how much food we got for $ 8.50 for the preselected option, must have been a whole pound of food in there. The select your own option actually have more concentrated flavor because there wasnt any soup to dilute the spices, the style is similar to Chilingpa in super 88 food court, but this place is cheaper and better!
Even though you can choose small, medium and very spicy, I was surprised that even the very spicy really isn’t spicy, even my girlfriend who doesnt eat much spicy food thought it wasnt spicy, and given how many native chinese student comes here, you would think they would give you the real ‘mala’ deal, not the tooned down wimpy version.
The bbq skewers here are delicious, as good as Wow BBQ food truck in chinatown, with very authentic tasting skewers full of bbq flavor and cumin, definitely worth a try.
We also had their 夫妻肺片, spicy beef slice, which was really tasty as well.
The 酸辣粉, sour rice noodles, wasnt very good or authentic. It tasted like their regular hotpot with some vinegar added to it, definitely not what its suppose to be.
I am surprised at how popular this place has gotten given that it just opened, on a regular weekday night (except friday), expect to wait 15−20mins. On fri-​sun, expect to wait 30mins. Even though they claim to take reservations, they do not really honor it when busy, we called 20mins ahead and wanted to put our names down, the waittress didnt even take our name and we ended up waiting the normal amount.
In summary, this place hits my 3 criterias for a 5 star restaurant —
1. Delicious
2. Big portions
3. Cheap
Try it out!

The food here is extremely mediocre. Honestly, there are so many korean restaurants around that my friend and I were intrigued that there was a new restaurant to try. We went in to a cozy restaurant with plenty of seating. This was during lunchtime so there wasn’t as many people as we thought there would be.
We actually got the Fish in Spicy Chili Sauce, Dan Dan Noodles, Jelly fish, Takoyaki and Shumai. I felt that the food took forever to get to us even though there was barely anyone there. The takoyaki seemed premade and tasted nothing special. My friend and I weren’t actually impressed with our meal, however we are going to go back to just try the barbecue and the hot pot on another time.
Hopefully this place will redeem itself.