YGF Malatang 杨国福麻辣烫 — Restaurant in Artesia

YGF Malatang is a fabulous, delicious, affordable, clean, and thoughtful low-key restaurant that allows you to select the ingredients for your bowl of broth! As you walk into the establishment, you are encountered with a refrigeration system that provides an endless array of ingredients that are fresh, some slightly frozen, and some in small-sealed packages (i.e. mushrooms, noodles). There is a glass enclosed shelf that provides tongs and large plastic bowls for your selected items. Keep in mind that a little goes a long way. If you get there hungry, keep in mind that eventually, your eyes will be too big for your stomach (hint, hint, this is a figure of speech). After you select your ingredients, you will go to the register and place your bowl on a weight scale. At that point, you select from a choice of broths (my favorite is the beef-bone broth). You will also decide how spicy you want your broth. If you like spicy food, I recommend "mild" because you can always add more spice from the condiments that are provided free of charge. If you don't like spicy food, request no spice, and you can always add condiments for flavor. The cashier will send your ingredients to the back of the house for preparation and assign a table for your group. You are given a number to identify your particular bowl. At the table, you are given a table number, cups of water, and utensils. Your broth with your condiments is provided in a timely manner. You pay once you finish your meal. The servers are polite and attentive, but if it is busy, it's not a realistic expectation to be catered to instantly. This is a wonderful place for family meals and meals for individuals who prefer a low-key experience. Enjoy! You will not be...

Feeling froggy? TGYGF

15% off Grand Opening Special

Occupying the former home of The Skewer Bar, YGF Malatang is a DIY hot pot restaurant. A style of eating common in the SGV area, customers build their bowl with various ingredients, thereupon priced per pound, frozen yogurt-style. The kitchen then takes your bowl and cooks it, where it's brought to your table when ready.

For $13.99/lb, there is a wide array of items to choose from. Once I saw frog legs & lamb, YGF Malatang found a special place in my heart. Not to be outdone, seafood of all sorts, offal, mushrooms, blood cake, noodles & more are at the ready to choose from.

5 soup bases available, beef bone broth is YGF Malatang's signature soup base. A well equipped sauce selection can be perused through and doesn't count for the total weight.

Beef bone broth soup (medium)- Quite the hefty bowl of soup. The ingredients I selected didn't seem like much, but a liberal amount of broth afforded a generous amount of food. I found the soup delicious, especially when adding garlic, green onions & more from the sauce bar.

Service was good. Staff gave a sample of their tomato flavored broth, which I didn't care for. Ample seating via booths & tables, which can accommodate large groups. Parking is at the Artesia City Plaza, which can be difficult to come by during peak hours.

Frog legs, blood cake, cuttlefish, squid, octopus, lamb - I'm in heaven! $13.99/lb is a tremendous deal for all a customer can get at YGF Malatang. The beef bone broth soup was jam-packed with flavor, from my custom melange of food items. I'm eagerly looking forward to coming back, especially with the 15% off Grand Opening...

My favorite place to go whenever I'm craving hot pot nowadays! I'm not able to handle spice so I've only tried their Tomato broth, Chicken broth, and the extra mild version of the Beef Bone broth. But all 3 broths are delicious; the Tomato is sweet & tart without being too much of either, and both the Chicken and the Beef Bone are deeply flavorful without being either too watery & bland, nor too fatty & heavy. The selection of ingredients is nice as well, a good variety of tasty fish/meat balls, veggies, tofu's, and a surprisingly numerous offering of different proteins, including seafood, as well as various starches. Service has been pretty good thus far, every time I've been there, there were wait staff regularly coming by to check for water refills and napkins etc. I had to take a star off for Atmosphere though; there basically isn't any. But as long as the food stays as good as it is now, i could care less about the atmosphere to...