Spicy hot pot 乐小福麻辣烫 malatang — Restaurant in Walnut

A fairly new malatang that opened less than a year in the Vons plaza on lemon and la puente rd. It’s right next to the laundry place. In the city of walnut, or in city of industry on valley blvd, a malatang restaurant is super rare.

I have seen their names on doordash, tried it a couple of times through the app, it is decent but only thing is that even the mild is too spicy for me.

I saw their yelp reviews and they got a 4.8 average of ratings which its very good so i decided to come down to the restaurant to try dining in.

There is plenty of parking out there as the parking lot is shared with Vons and other stores in the strip mall.

Upon coming in, there is only one lady thats working. She doesn’t speak English that well. I told her a couple of times a party of 1 and i asked where do i sit but she seem lost. Maybe she was too occupied on her task but she was nice. This place is somewhat small. There are approximately 8-9 tables and some counter seats the more you walked in. The interior of this place looks more like an old chinese restaurant comparing to other malatang place. The food area is clean but the store inside looks old.

They have 4-5 different soup base and one of them is called “secret soup” base. She recommended me to get that and i asked her a few times what is in there but she didn’t tell me. I understand its “secret” but at least she should try to find out if theres anything i dont eat or not able to eat thats contained in the soup base right? Fine, not a big deal but that frustrated me a little. I decided to give the “secret soup” base a try. The taste is decent and spice level is above mild although i wanted mild. However, i never got the chance to find out what is so secret or special about it nor did the staff told me. Plenty of food options to pick and price wasn’t the most expensive comparing to other malatang places.

They were slow to provide me with my utensils and water after i sat down. Then for the longest time, the lady/staff there was gone or went inside and i tried getting the bill but couldn’t find anyone to help me. Then a guy/staff came out and start helping people with their need. HIS english is worse than the lady and i had to help another customer pointing something to the guy/staff to get something.

When i was paying for the bill, they didn’t add the soda i took out from the fridge and I had to remind him because the lady/staff didn’t input it in the system.

Overall this place is not bad, just an average malatang place. I normally would give it a “3” star however since they are small business and the staff was nice although they speak limited english, I will give this place a “4” star for their helpfulness and effort.

The high rating of the previous review isn’t consistent with what I experienced but maybe they too wanted to be nice to this place.

I hope they really read everything i said and improve in their business because if not, you cannot be competitive enough to stay in business for...

La Xiao Fu is a newly opened malatang restaurant. They have a soft opening special of $9.99 a pound when their usual price will be $13.99. Just grab a bowl and tong and choose what ingredient you want in your bowl, price of your bowl depend on how heavy your ingredients are.

Selection is smaller than other places I've tried but they do carry various mushrooms, and several types of greens. For meats, they have thinly sliced mutton, beef, various kinds of fishcakes, shrimp, sausages, intestines. For vegetables, they had cilantro, seaweed strips, bean sprouts, bamboo, broccoli, potato, lotus root, wintermelon, and various types of mushrooms. For broth, it's either beef or pork bone broth. They do have a secret soup which is a mix of the two. They don't have tomato based broth but they do have a house special beef rice noodle with tomato that's separate.

I like to get spam, sliced beef, rice cakes, quail eggs, bamboo, lotus roots, tofu skin, wide glass noodles with bokchoy and cabbage with the secret broth in slightly spicy which was not too spicy for me. The bowl was large for one person and the broth was rich and spicy. I also got a side of fried sausage ($5.99) which was basically deep fried hot dogs with chili powder so I won't get it again, it's good though.

They have a small table that has the ingredients for dipping sauces. The sauce bar is set too close to the ingredients table since if there's a person at the sauce bar, you have to wait to get the ingredients in the upper corner. They do have crushed peanuts as one of the ingredients. They also have oyster sauce, chili oil, chopped garlic, sesame paste, cilantro, fermented bean curd, green onions, black vinegar, soy sauce, leek flower, and vine pepper oil.

They also have a small menu of fried sides to get such was sausage, fried bread with condensed milk, sweet potato balls, and brown sugar rice cake. Once you're done, you pay after you finish eating.

The lady was nice, the wait time was not long. Good amount of tables and a nice size parking lot...

Secret Soup: 5/5 Tasting more like a regular hotpot, the broth was very flavorful and had a strong kick. Even at medium spice, the broth had a solid warmth without burning your mouth. The ingredients were fresh, the sauce bar full, and I think they give you free rice. Come here with confidence knowing that their food is great. Also, when you see only Chinese customers, you know that something is hitting right.

Peach Gum Resin: 4.5/5 Maybe a 2/10 for sweetness, but the slightly chewy and gelatinous resin in cold milk really soothes the stomach after a spicy and hot meal. Slightly floral and peachy, a great little dessert.

Ambiance: It is what it is. It’s clean but does have a sort of “cheap” restaurant dinginess to it, but I think it’s charming.

Service: Food came out kind of slow but the workers are very nice for a Chinese restaurant. It’s a Chinese restaurant for Chinese people.

Parking: The restaurant is located in a huge plaza....