B.D. Chilipa Restaurant — Restaurant in Boston

Standalone, no-fuss Sichuan Mala dishes, especially Mala Xiangguo are hard to find in Boston (or you gotta go to full-service restaurants for it, which cost muuuuch more). It says it is a restaurant, but it really is a hawker stall in a food court, and it is pretty much self-service. You order at the counter, they cook it up, and you go take it from there, find a seat, eat, and deal with the tissues / disposable utensils by yourself, and you have to return their big wooden bowl back to them. Yet its quality has been steadily going down since they moved from one end of the food court to another end. They used to give you ample serving and you can be happy with the price and food. Now, less transparency with what you get, and the last time I went, the quantity was shockingly, drastically reduced -- only a very small serving in that giant wood bowl. It is so tiny that the giant bowl looks totally ridiculous. To top it off, they give me a pint of lukewarm white rice (rice is not free, you have to pay for it), barely any moisture and warmth with the rice, as if it has been sitting on the counter for hours -- and the rice is in a Styrofoam container. I don't know if this is because I did not give them a tip and they are being passive-aggressive with it -- but this is a mostly self-serving food stall in a food court. Think it is greedy and inappropriate to ask for tips in this situation. You don't see people being passive-aggressive over tips in places like Qdoba, Chipotle, McD and some Thai self-service restaurants. (I do tip in full-service restaurants.) I won't...

Extremely under-rated. A lot of haters. But ma la xiang guo is extremely rare in the states, and especially ones where you can select what gets put in the pot from a buffet. This place was one of the highlights from my grad school years in Boston. Can't go wrong with all the veggies, fish, and assorted mushrooms and tofus. So fast and amazing. Wish they had a branch in Chicagoland.

You hear me Chilipa? I need you back in my life. 😭 Without you I no ma nor la nemore. How do you make the sauce btw? Please...

I like the food but customer service is really bad. The people taking orders and at the register(especially) are rude for no reason. Last time they didn’t even call me/my number when my food was served. I was sitting right in front of them but my food stayed there on the counter for a while before I walked to them and asked if it was mine. It wasn’t rush hour or anything they were just being rude! I really like the food but I will think twice before going again because...