Lai Lai Malatang — Restaurant in Fairfax

I want to start off with the pricing. It’s expensive for a limited amount of items compared to other malatang places. It’s also inconvenient that they place all the ingredients (contrary to most places where you put the ingredients in a bowl/basket yourself) so if there’s a wait time, then it’s going to be a long day for you. i had less than a pound and it ran me a little over $17, a small bowl for nearly $20 when the ingredient I initially wanted weren’t even there. It took an extremely long time to get the food, which is fine if it’s yummy, except it wasn’t yummy. I took a bite and it tasted way off. The spam wasn't even the original colour of pink but rather grey? The ramen was still undercooked so it was rather hard. The broth tasted off as well, no actual flavour except just the mere spice. I tried stomaching it because I am not the type to complain about the food but almost $18 for a small bowl made my stomach hurt more than the food. So my friend and I kindly asked the cashier if it was okay to get a refund and return the food as i only had one bite. I understand that this is a smaller business but no offer to remake the food or even a half refund is crazy considering I couldn’t stomach eating any of it. The cashier rolled her eyes and caught an attitude despite me feeling extremely uncomfortable with the situation and trying to be nice as possible as I also work at a restaurant and know how these situations feel. The gentleman that got my ingredients was very nice. I’m not sure if they don’t care about the customer’s satisfaction but I just ended up throwing the entire bowl out and wasted my money. The chicken and rice place next to the malatang place is very yummy and good prices! Very nice man, would recommend...

This place is inside the 99 Ranch Asian grocery store. We were browsing pork buns next door but when we saw Malatang, we just had to try it. The staff didn't speak English that well but at least he was able to take our order correctly. It strangely gave me a good vibe because I felt like the food would be authentic. I was correct! The Malatang was quite good but it's not the best I've had. For a grocery store restaurant, I'd rate this Malatang 7/10. The base taste is there. I didn't like that I had to pick the ingredients. I didn't know how much of what was enough. I was just checking boxes and we had a language barrier. It turned out I had too many noodles and not a lot of other ingredients. Maybe I'll get it right next time. The wait time was quite reasonable for freshly cooked food! There's a bubble tea place right across the place so you can wash it all down nicely. I'm stopping by again if I'm ever...

My parents and husband were SO excited to discover this place at 99 Ranch. We got the mala xiang guo. My husband has traveled in Szechuan province and considers the flavors here legit. The proprietor is SO kind and meticulous. After you choose your ingredients, he double checks how large of a portion by weight you are okay with, then he carefully fills the bowl with your selections, and drains any excess water before weighing. At least 2-3 other similar places I’ve eaten this at don’t bother with that extra step and I really value how transparent and thoughtful he is with customers. He even gave us some dipping sauce to use with the steamed buns we got from...