MalaTown Express 自选麻辣烫 — Restaurant in San Mateo

Full disclosure the guy at the counter gave me two free drinks and told me to write a review, so I will. I'll still be honest about it.

Of the three Malatang options in Downtown this seems like the cheapest per pound.

To cut to the chase, the food is pretty meh. I got the dry sauce, they had no spicy option just mild which was still alright in terms of the spicy level. However it was not "dry" at all. More of a wet creamy texture. Not sure exactly but had a really earthy thick consistency, seems like Tahini? The end result is that I can't really taste the underlying ingredients much because of how strong the sauce is and how it completely coats your mouth. Kind of unpleasantly for my own taste. Also the cook on the vegetables was maybe done with not enough heat because everything came out super watery and soggy. Not that stir fried dried feel that I expected.

The ingredients on the counter are a bit more limited than Zhanglian Malatang or Tang Bar which are both in the same downtown area. The quality seemed.... mid. Some of the seafood stuff (like the fish fillet) looked a little messy and unappetizing. Some of the veggies were not that fresh looking. They had 3 meat ball options but not the roe filled one which I prefer.

They also charge extra for sauces like green onion or garlic..? I guess it's because they're the cheapest option, but I mean how much does that cost to let your customers take a little spring onion or garlic sauce? Seems like unnecessary friction.

Also hygiene. The store is fairly new but it sure doesn't feel like it inside. The tiles are cracked and sticky with some unpleasant feeling. It gives the entire place a feeling that it's not very clean. That's a problem when I'm looking down at a bunch of raw meat and seafood and trying to decide if I want to risk putting it in my bowl.

The employees were nice, price was lower than what I would pay at Zhanglian or Tang Bar so there's that. The food wasn't terrible, just not as good in my opinion as those other options.

If you eat Malatang A LOT and you need to optimize price per pound plus you're not picky about ingredient variety or taste then maybe it could work for you. Personally I don't have Malatang enough to prefer this over the other two options since I'd rather pay slightly more for a better...

Tried mala town express for the first time. I am going to draw comparisons between here and the other san mateo mala places. The selection of ingredients is about the same, if not a little less, than zhangliang malatang. It does have some meats not at zhangliang, I personally liked the marinated garlic beef. A lot of ingredients were soaked in water, but you can easily avoid those. The meat is where it's at. It's 9.99 a pound and you are charged at a minimum a pound of food, but I got 1.2 pounds so that didn't bother me. It's also an extra 2 dollars for the soup, but with a place cheaper than tang bar or zhangliang I expected there to be some trade offs. I got the classic beef broth, similar to zhangliang classic broth, with beef, lamb, dried noodles and other veggies. Service was very fast and everything came in a take out container which was very convenient. Not many sauces, but they got soy sauce, vinegar and chili oil. Food was overall very tasty and came out piping hot. I was very satisfied with the meat and soup quality, and its flavor is similar to zhangliang. For me this a great alternative to tang bar as a backup (imo i don't think tang bar is worth the price increase for more meat options). For me, mala town express tastes Dunlap similar if not better than tang bar for less money. Zhangliang is still my number 1, but I'm coming back again to mala town express for take out or to get that...

My fiancé & I wanted to visit the newest Mala restaurant in town to see how it compares to the other two in San Mateo. Overall rating if I would to rate all three, Mala Zhang still sits at first place, then Mala Town, and lastly Tang Bar.

Mala town review: Food The selections are great. They had so many available options and I love that they offer crown daisy, potato noodles & lamb (though they didn’t refill the lamb when we arrived around 8, 1hr from closing time). I ordered the beef broth - DELICIOUS, and to make it a little spicy, I added the chili oil provided for free (photo). You have to purchase the green onion, garlic, cilantro, sesame sauce, and beef satay. Food also came in a Togo container, which I believe they’re trying to mitigate having to wash dishes. It’s an interesting move to me.

Service I was recommended that the Szechuan was super spicy, so I decided against it. I’m glad I didn’t because I could adjust the spice lvl to how I like it. Not much service going on here tbh. Customers are meant to be self sufficient. Aside from that, I LOVE THE PRICE. Great option for affordable hot pot.

Atmosphere Super chill vibes. We had jazz music playing in...