MáLà Project 53rd St — Restaurant in New York

I’ve been wanting to try MáLà Project for a while and the deep freeze this past weekend provided the perfect opportunity. Similar to hotpot places, you get to choose from a variety of ingredients that in this case they mix up with spices. You also get to choose your level of heat - I went with spicy which I found ideal without being overwhelming. The range of ingredients and flavors I found pretty authentic. The quality of beef was good but found the pork to be a bit tough. We also had bamboo shoots, pigs ear mushrooms, and bean curd sheets all very good. Having read the reviews I was also eager to try their Dan Dan noodles. Sadly it was a disappointment, a far cry from the dish I’d so often have in China - too many noodles, too little sauce, and the depth of flavor and peanuts sorely lacking. Still, for an easy dinner it was alright and a good cold...

It has been two times that we ordered delivery from them. First time the food doesn’t have any flavor and missing a meet I chose. Both times they don’t update their preparing status, and after giving them a call, the guy told me he doesn’t know where is my order. After waiting for 1.5 hours, he told me I can cancel my order with very bad attitude. Will never order from you again!!!!

The guy who picked up the phone was extremely impatient and told us he doesn’t know where is our order without check the name and phone number and told us to hang on he will go check. He put us on hold for 15min and still didn’t respond🤦‍♀️🥲 we have to hang up and call them again. It was end up him who picked up the phone again and said he doesn’t know where is our order and he raised his volume and said you can cancel the order after we waited for 1.5hour...

Initially I and my friend were looking to reserve table at other ma la location but turns out every restaurant apart from this was busy for Sunday lunch. I think this is a new location for them and hence not lot of crowd which was a bonus as the atmosphere was quite good in the dining with few people.

I had decided to go for dry pot which my friend had highly recommended, went with lot of options like fish cakes, lotus root, crab stick, noodles etc. Added so many options that even I forgot it now! The meal was tasty and satisfying to the core, probably the best Chinese meal I have had in the city so far.

The staff was pretty friendly and helpful with the selection, the ambience though can be improved a bit as the entrance to the restaurant felt a bit dull. Overall a great experience and looking to visit...