Malatang (spicy numbing hot soup)
This is the only option if you want to have malatang (a kind of Sichuan hotpot) in Brisbane CBD. You select your ingredients (vegetables, meat, seafood, noodles) from the refrigerated display units and place them in a large basin. One you have finished your selection the basin is weighed and you can tell the server how spicy you want your soup (mild, medium or hot). Your food is cooked in the broth and your buzzer will sound when it's ready.
It costs $30 per kg - I spent $15 which was a perfect amount of food for me. I am a big fan of Sichuan food so I thought the broth was very tasty and I loved being able to tailor my lunch to suit my taste (you can add extra seasonings if you like).
I didn't really like the dining space though - it's really small and cramped (people kept bumping into me as they walked past) and once you start eating the hot soup, it feels very hot and stuffy in there.
Flavoursome, spicy soup that’s good comfort food. You can choose how spicy you want it (mild, medium, hot). I always get mild, and after the recent visit, I can see that it isn’t as spicy as I remembered - probably around Nandos medium - but it makes my nose run every time for some reason.
The ingredients are always fresh and there’s a decent variety. I recommend the sweet potato noodles. Getting around $13 worth is enough to fill me up.
You can also add extra seasoning/spices, as you can see in the photo, but honestly, I think the soup is salty enough already.
The seating area is small, and it’s not uncommon to find it completely full if you go at a peak time. People rotate out fairly quickly though.
If only these choices were available when I first got here. Life would have been much better.
Look, it isn’t anything special but it is spicy and salty and soupy. It’s like when you are way too lazy to have hotpot and crave hotpot stuff, this is the place to go. It isn’t a cheap affair, it’s very easy to pick the ingredients and take up a $20 lunch.
But the ingredients are great IMO. Given the high turnover, the ingredients are fresh and inviting. My personal fav is the duck blood and offal, not ingredients easily available everywhere.
It is a tiny spot upstairs gong cha, but I think it’s perfect for a quick lunch and people tend to leave immediately after eating anyway
Had a good impression from it’s sibling at the Market Square so went for exploration of this one in the City. Location is good as so close to the Queen Street Mall and it is a good idea to make use of the upstairs area for trading. Honestly, dinning area is not that spacious, maybe the young customers are mostly students who came from overseas and would not mind about it so business was very good on the Sunday that I visited. System is the same for all Malatang eateries that diners just selected the preferred meats and vegetables then let them take the weight for evaluating the price to pay. Degree of spiciness is optional. Overall, spiciness and taste are good, which reflects that this eatery is not a bad place for casual dining, particularly Malatang is one of my favourite now.
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