hot POT SESSION Lilac Branch — Restaurant in Marikina

I tried this resto because it’s the only hotpot place in Marikina, had a decent rating, and I was craving for mala hotpot. I saw they had mala on their menu. Great.

Well, I tried it and I was sorely disappointed. They should just change the name “spicy mala” to “spicy broth” because this is definitely NOT “mala”. There’s no numbing whatsoever, you will not even taste the tiniest bit of sichuan peppercorn flavor. It’s just boring spicy broth. I ordered the solo and they just load it with noodles underneath. Barely had any meat. The only reason this gets 2 stars instead of 1 is because at least the ingredients are fresh and their pickled cucumber is pretty good.

As for the service… The servers are friendly, but I don’t think they were trained well? They were talking loudly to each other and one of them was watching a video on their phone with the volume all the way up. Another was box opening a pair of nike shoes!😰… This was all happening in the dining area btw where customers can see and hear them. It was weird and annoying tbh. Never coming back here. It’s also really overpriced for what you get.

Anyway, if you want real mala hotpot, or just great hotpot in general, you will not find it here. Look elsewhere. You’ll find nice...

It was my friend and I's first time trying Hotpot. We thought it was closed at first since someone forgot to turn the little Close sign at the door. The food was tasty, really filling, especially the colorful balls. I liked the tonkatsu soup and enoki mushrooms. We had a wonderful time and the staff answered all of our questions. Would've been better if they were proactive in explaining what to do though. My friend and I had no idea what to do at the beginning. CR needs a bit more supplies like toilet paper and a change of light bulb, and staff needs to keep an eye on the flies coming in. It was also weird how there was a lot of staff and they huddled around near the cash register, loudly discussing the latest chissmis meanwhile only 1 staff member was attending to our needs. I also think they don't need that many people especially if most of the process was self service but that's...

The shabu shabu food is fresh and high quality, but the entire experience is marred by a shrill waitress explaining so many buffet rules! These are routine buffet rules but she makes them sound like an exam is about to happen. Plus they charge for flavored soup refill which never happens elsewhere. We also ordered shrimp tempura as a side dish but the shrimp came thin as french fries, a letdown to us used to the crunchy biggies. To top it all, they ran out of beef in a buffet, but refused to offer a discount for the deficient offering. Oh well, the soup flavors are great and the balls are topnotch, and they are kind enough to allow us to bring in our own dessert since their dessert menu is unsatisfactory, so we can say that perhaps there will be better...