Mala Cantine 麻辣食堂 — Restaurant in Petaling Jaya

The environment is very clean and comfy! Which outstands most of the hotpot restaurants. The staff are attentive and helpful. They have less choices on sauces but it's good enough for me already. Their mala spicy soup 重庆正宗麻辣汤底 is really fragrant and rich. You get to choose the level of spicyness, I haven chosen less spicy. They serve one pot per person, so it's definitely a good place if you wish to practice good personal hygiene. Their one-person-pot is actually ample for two persons. You can choose double-flavour if you want.

Their anxin pork belly slices安心五花肉 is really good! One mouthful of long and thin pork slices 🤤 is so satisfying. The asparagus was handled well and taste good, no strong and pungent odour which quite a lot of hotpot restaurants overlook it. Love frozen taufu冻豆腐 with mala spicy soup base. Sweet potatoes noodles are good too.

It's really commendable that their hotpot ingredients are generally fresh.

Chives pork dumplings猪肉韭菜水饺 are quite good, the dumpling fillings(chives and spring onion) are fresh and tasty. It taste like they freshly made upon order. It would be better if the dumpling skin is thinner.

The mala spicy beef slices麻辣牛肉 was a disaster to us. Every single piece of beef is fully covered with enormous chilli seeds(the most spicy part of the chilli). The beef slices taste like raw chilli padi. There is a strong after effect. The burning sensation stay at my throat after eating it. The beef meat was tough, nothing much except for extraordinary spicyness.

香橘桂花冰粉 Ice Jelly with Tangerine Syrup taste average but it's a perfect dessert for spicy hotpot. It's shaved ice with strong scent of osmanthus,not too sweet but good enough to relieve the spicy burning sensation from mala soup and comfort our stomach.

Sichuan sour pickles and pork slices with rice noodles 酸菜猪肉米线 taste good. Love their rice noodles, smooth. But it was too oily, taste like great amount of Sichuan pepper oil is added, but...

Extremely disappointed with my visit to Mala Cantine today.

I brought a friend to try their Mala Xiang Guo, which I had takeaway before and really enjoyed. But when we looked at the menu, it wasn’t listed — we were only given the hotpot menu. When we asked the staff, they told us Mala Xiang Guo is not available on weekends. That already made no sense to me, because I’ve previously ordered it as takeaway on a weekend.

When I pointed that out, the staff suddenly changed their explanation, saying it’s only available for takeaway, not dine-in. This feels very misleading. Why can you cook it for takeaway but not for dine-in? There was no mention of these "rules" in any of their ads. From a customer’s point of view, it just seems like they’re trying to force people to order hotpot instead — which is clearly more expensive option — while avoiding serving the more cheaper option Mala Xiang Guo (RM19.90).

Honestly I just felt dishonest. My friend purposely made the trip to try this because I recommended it — and we left feeling disappointed and misled.

The hotpot soup (collagen & mala) itself was good and the ingredients were fresh, but no matter how good your food is, dishonest service kills the experience. If there are restrictions like "only available on weekdays" or "takeaway only," then make it clear upfront in the ads. Hiding these conditions and changing your explanation only after being questioned is not how you treat paying customers. Probably won’t be...

Love everything about this place!!!

Food

1. Especially love the mushroom soup and mala soup (both vegetarian)!! Can definitely fight with the non vegetarian soup. (Who says vegetarian food not nice haha). Love that it also comes in a smaller pot to accommodate small number of pax.
2. Condiments are freeeee!!! Again good for ppl who just take once/twice since the soup is already flavourful.
3. Hotpot (raw) items are consistently fresh!
4. Especially like that they come in small portions so you get to order more items w/out having to eat too much of the same thing. Because of that price is also very reasonable!

Service

1. Service is quick and you get the attention of staff almost instantly!
2. Staff are polite, approachable and friendly!
3. Eventhough adding soup is self service, staff will help to add if they notice you’re running low.

Atmosphere

1. Clean and bright!
2. They not only play Chinese songs but also English songs. Can sing along while waiting for soup to boil haha!
3. Table size is big enough to accommodate the food items (imagine cafes w tiny tables but huge plates) and the hot plate is placed strategically in the middle (good if you have kids).
4. Toilets are clean and presentable.

Overall very good experience here! Definitely recommend to everyone. Please don’t viral this place so I don’t...