Ibasaw — Restaurant in Malden

Alright well during these hard times I really want to be fair when reviewing our restaurants. I believe it's important to support them as much as possible but I also have a duty to share my experience and give feedback.

I'll start with the good stuff. Ibasaw is totally worth it. The food is well priced and the quality is great. We did the AYCE sushi and hotpot lunch and we went on a Sunday so it was $31.95 per person (extra charges for broth and sashimi not included). It was an amazing deal for everything you get. It's highly worth it. The sushi was fresh and delicious. The hotpot broth was one of the best we had ever had. They give you plenty of sauce and cilantro and scallions and garlic to spruce it up if need be. There are also ample ingredients available to choose from and cook. It's really unlimited. For someone who can eat ALOT (me) this is a dream come true. We got a lot of meat and veggies and apart from the Mala Beef tasting a little funky the rest of the ingredients were absolutely on point.

On the other hand, make sure that you expect pretty bad customer service when eating here. The environment is not very welcoming. The employees seem a bit unhappy and it can cause the meal to feel a bit stressful. They make sure you are aware that you will be charged extra if you don't eat all of the food you order, and I totally get it, I can see how people would come here and waste unnecessarily. But there is a lot of emphasis put on this to the point that it makes it feel like you are treading on egg shells and are being watched. Also our waitress made us tip her more when we left. She was not happy with the tip and told us to add more. Again I completely understand with Covid these times are hard for everyone however if you make guests uncomfortable they will not feel inclined to leave a high tip.

Overall I will go back here because the meal makes it worth it but I hope they will take my feedback regarding the customer service as I have seen a number of other customers complaining about the same thing. Don't let that stop you from going as you won't regret sitting down for...

We just ate here. It was pretty good but something sort of unfortunate happened at the end that made us lose our appetite a bit.

The clams come closed, so early in the meal my husband put them in his soup. Unfortunately one of them when he got it out (almost to the end of the meal) wasn’t fully opened so he opened it with a fork and it was all black inside filled with something that can only really be described as black sludge. See photo….

We let our server know and she didn’t really have anything to say, then we asked for a manager and he handled the situation very well. He said unfortunately since the clams are all closed there was no way they could have known that one was like that, fair. I don’t disagree.

He explained it does happen from time to time and this it is basically sand/dirt and that it was likely fine because it had stayed closed and didn’t leak into the soup.

Either way, wasn’t appetizing in the least bit….I think they should serve these open like they do the mussels to avoid this. Anyways, the manager comped our beer and soda which we appreciated.

The rest of the ingredients were good, the only thing is the broths aren’t super flavorful like at some hot pot places I’ve been to in the area. They are pretty bland.

One nice thing though is that this place has a sauce and toppings bar so you can doctor the broths up a bit to your liking. Anyways, we will go back since this saves us a trip to Chinatown where there is no parking, but will def skip the clams…..

$35 per person for all you can eat but they will not let you take anything to go and you have to eat it all or they charge $10 per person. Heads up on that, so start ordering slow. It is printed all over the menu...

Went there with my wife and kids the other day after a friend suggested I try it out and let her know what I think.

We love hotpot and Five Spices is minutes from us, that’s a huge plus. Overall, the experience was good. Veggies and meat seem fresh and portions were just right. It’s a buffet where you order each item and can order more when you are done.

Here are few things that I think they could improve on (these are strictly my opinions and others may be fine with it):

I wished they had tongs for the customers to pickup the raw food and put in the cooking bowl. Without it, you are picking up the food with your own chopsticks and dipping it into the soup that everyone shares. Not a big deal if you are a family and don’t mind sharing that way.

The wait staff were very efficient but a little lacking in friendliness. They were not rude though. Several times she came by and asked us to hand her empty/dirty dishes from the far end of the table while we were in the middle of eating, cooking, or having a conversation. When we were done but still enjoying our last few bites and a cup of tea, the waitress started cleaning our table and mixing all leftover food and sauces into the cooking bowl and stacking dishing and stuffing dirty napkins into another bowl in front of us. Again, she was efficient but I rather she wait till we had left.

Five Spices is a good addition to Malden, and something different. I do hope in time the services will...