YGF Malatang — Restaurant in Irvine

In a food court-like setting, YGF Malatang is bright and draws your attention immediately when entering. The setup allows you to customize your meal by: 🥣 Fix Your Own Bowl with proteins, vegetables, and/or noodles - Choices can be overwhelming but just take your time. My favorites proteins were lamb, beef shank, bullfrog legs, pork belly, and duck blood. I love cabbage and enoki mushrooms in soup! I love a think noodle so rice vermicelli were perfect for me, but I also loved the tofu noodles that reminded me of parpadelle. 🍲 Pick your soup base - We chose the thick beef bone broth with mild spicy level. It does pack some heat but very flavorful. 🧂 Create a sauce for dipping or add to your hot pot - I created a sauce to pour into my soup - sesame sauce, dry spice, smashed garlic, and chili oil. It gave the soup a creamy flavor like tonkotsu ramen base.

Parking may be a challenge as there are so many restaurants packed into this center. I would suggest avoiding main meal times and check the google wait times when planning to visit. We ate at 6:30pm and were lucky to find a spot in 5 minutes. When we were leaving, there were people double parked (one car actually parked behind us and couldn't leave for a while) or waiting for a...

Decent.

This place is set up like a food court which is different than other restaurants. You pick the ingredients that you want, place them into your bowl, and the price of your meal is based on the weight of the food. You, then, choose the broth you like and the kitchen fills up your bowl.

I like that we were able to pick more of the ingredients we liked, but wished they also gave us the option to choose how much broth we wanted. That way, it doesn't go to waste because I doubt people are drinking it all considering how much they give you.

Beef Bone Broth Base: 8/10 - good flavor, but be careful with the spice level you choose

While we were eating, we kept getting bombarded by these fruit flies which was really annoying. I'm not sure where they came from because their doors were closed most of the time. The place is located in a plaza with a large range of different restaurants. The workers, on the other hand, were very friendly and nice. Parking was pretty easy because there was always someone going in and out.

Glad that we got to try it, but don't think we'll be coming back...

I recently dined at Yangguofu, the new malatang restaurant in town, and it was a fantastic experience! The staff was incredibly friendly. What truly stood out was the freshness of their ingredients; you can tell they take pride in offering the best quality.

The broth at Yangguofu was a highlight of the meal, incredibly flavorful and delicious. What's even better is that they don't hit you with any unexpected extra charges, which is always a pleasant surprise.

On the flip side, I tried another new malatang place, Zhangliang, and it was a bit disappointing. They charged 9.5% in sales tax, whereas Yangguofu only charged 7.75%. This price difference definitely made me appreciate Yangguofu's transparency even more.

Overall, if you're looking for a top-notch malatang experience with friendly staff, fresh ingredients, and no hidden charges, Yangguofu is the...