Best hot pot in Columbus, $19.99 for 2 meats and an appetizer can't beat it. Mala spice broth read more

Mala Hotpot Columbus - Hot Pot Near Me - Hilliard, Ohio

Food is difficult to order, and the price goes high because it's a la carte. The quality is not so great either. Recommend ERGE Buffet in Dublin. read more

We went tonight to Mala Hot Pot in Hilliard for the second time. The first time we went was about one month ago to try their hot pot, a concept my husband, adult daughter and I had heard about but had never tried. We were surprised to discover that despite the name of the place, they no longer served hot pot due to new owners, and they were primarily a dim sum restaurant now. As we happen to like dim sum, we were not deterred and sat down to have one of the more enjoyable dining experiences we've had in quite a while. The menu was quite extensive and contained pictures and short descriptions of each dim sum. There were also a very few entree-type items to choose from, as well as noodles. Be warned that rice is not provided with these entrees, so if you want some you need to order and pay for it as a side. Nevertheless we thought each item we ordered was delicious, from the egg custard to the sesame lotus balls, to the dumplings, as well as the Dan-Dan noodles, the Ma-Po tofu, and the Szechwan chicken. Since everything is a la carte, the restaurant can be a little expensive, based on your appetite and number of people in your group, but we declared it one of our new favorite Asian restaurants. What a difference a month makes... We returned for our second visit, only to find that the restaurant was now a hot pot place again! We were handed a menu that contained the hot pot information, and at least still had an abbreviated list of dim sum appetizers, though some of the ones we had enjoyed on our first visit were gone. They also had a one page sheet labeled "old-fashioned menu" that listed some odd dishes, not odd as in authentic Chinese dishes but just dishes we'd never heard of on a Chinese menu, like salmon filet and flank steak, but also one recognizable listing for kung Pao chicken. Just weird. So we ordered sesame lotus balls, barbecue pork buns, noodles and the Ma-Po tofu again, all good but we missed the expanded dim sum menu from our first visit. Frankly, this place seems very confused as to its identity and we wonder what it will be serving if we chanced a third visit. If we decided we wanted to try hot pot, would they have dropped it again? Will they totally have stopped serving any dim sum next time? Will all Chinese entrees be gone also? I don't think we want to be that adventurous. We'd rather have some idea what style of cuisine we're going to have before we walk in the door of a restaurant. Sorry, Mala Hot Pot. It was a promising start but a sad and abrupt ending. read more

Ok! It's been a few months with the new owners and things seem to have smoothed out. They have settled on a hybrid menu which includes both hot pot and dim sum (so HOT POT IS BACK!) The dim sum options have been reduced and streamlined, but still have a decent variety, some traditional Chinese dishes, such as mapo tofu and fried rice, have been added, and hot pot is back on the menu. They worked out the kinks with their ordering, which you must do with your phone from a QR code at the table. I find I don't mind the QR ordering, since it allows me to add extra things as dinner progresses. There was a new front staff guy (first white guy I've seen working there) and he was on top of things. I have never seen the restaurant that clean. He was also very helpful, quick, and attentive. A+ hiring choice. I think the new menu items are great additions to the hot pot fare and am very happy with them. Note: you are not required to get hot pot. People can just order dim sum, or the Chinese menu items. I am not sure how sharing hot pot is handled. I would imagine it is not allowed or discouraged since it comes with a few unlimited things, but I don't know the official policy. Since other reviewers were confused on hotpot procedure, if you are doing hot pot: Scan the QR code on the table. You will only use ONE phone to order for the entire table. Do not have everyone using their own phone and ordering separately (if you need to split the bill later, they can do it at the register, so don't worry and just use the one phone) Scroll to the hotpot section and select your "set" (basically, pick what meat you want. Your meal price will be determined by the meat). Mala Hot Pot does individual hot pots, one per diner, rather than a shared, communal hot pot. After you select which meat set you want, you will be prompted to choose what flavor of broth you want to cook things in, and to pick what type of noodles you want. Pass your phone to the next person and let them sort their order out. Repeat until everyone has ordered. Add whatever drinks, sides, and extras people want as well. Hit "submit" to send the order to the kitchen. Soon, the front staff will drop by your table with your pots of broth and set things up for you at the table, turning the table burners on, etc. The little robot will also swing by your table, bringing your meat and your noodles. Take them from the robot and hit the button on its screen to send it back to the kitchen. If you forget to hit this button, it will stay at your table, staring at you, until a staff member realizes what is happening and comes by to push it for you. You will have a black bowl with tongs at your place setting. This is for vegetables. You may have as many vegetables as your little heart desires, included for free. Take your bowl and tongs and head to the little buffet where you will grab the vegetables you want. On your way back, stop by the sauce table and pick a dipping sauce. Hopefully by now your pot is boiling, so you can begin adding your vegetables, noodles, and meat. Do not dump everything in at once. Hot pot is meant to be drawn out. So add some things, eat those things, add some more, eat some more, etc. Definitely do your noodles in small batches to prevent them getting all bloaty like they will if you dump them in and don't finish eating them until 10 minutes later. Cooking times will depend on the items, and range from 20-30 seconds for something like fresh noodles or spinach, to 7 minutes or so for a potato. You'll get the hang of timing as you go. Use your small plate and little bowl to hold cooked food as it finishes so it doesn't stay in the broth and overcook. You can adjust the heat on your pot up or down with the settings in front of your spot, to prevent or encourage boiling. Use your sauces and have fun dipping things as they finish cooking. If you run out of meat or noodles, or decide you want another drink or dim sum, pull your phone back out. Add additional sides of meat or noodles from the a la cart menu (not the set menu) and submit the order. The robot will be by soon to deliver them. If you run out of vegetables, take your black bowl and you can go get more (just don't be a jerk and get a mountain you can't possibly eat) When everyone is done eating, turn your pots 'off'. Then pull your phone back out. Click "checkout". You can either pay with your phone by adding a credit card, or you can now walk up to the register and pay with card or cash. read more

My mom hates this place but yk I realize that that's not a fair assessment because my mom actually hates all restaurants. Except Chipotle. Personally, I think this place is ok - the ingredients are decent quality and they even have pan-fried dumplings next to the sauce bar! I'm gr8tful bc I'm a hungry lad who cannot wait for food to reach a safe internal temp. I also enjoyed the structure of the place: You pay for a meat + soup base, and the veggies, tofu, and fish balls are all-you-can-eat. Regarding the vegetarian option, I failed to confirm if the miso soup base contains dashi (which is typically made from bonito flakes). I mean, in general, I think miso as a hotpot base is very weird. But my primary gripe with the vegetarian combo is that the menu states that it comes with a variety of tofus. In reality, though, those tofus are in the same place as the other free-for-all ingredients so everyone has access to them. So you're paying the same price for the vegetarian combo as the meat combos...but you actually get less?? In the words of my friendo who shall not be named for privacy purposes, I think this would count as "Violence Against Vegetarians TM." Ig luckily (?) since I'm not vegetarian, I requested to switch to a meat combo and the server was very chill about it ("I don't make the menu"). Service in general was very patient - our group got the closing time wrong and didn't realize that we were keeping them late but they never rushed us or anything :') (very kind ty) Overall, a very clean establishment! The slow jazz did kind of throw me off a bit though. Like hotpot? And slow jazz? What, are we about to make out over these boiling pots? Ahaha...ha? read more

Mala Hotpot Columbus - From top left clockwise: chicken mushroom, mala, beef tomato, miso - Hot Pot Near Me - Hilliard, Ohio

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Second visit... the app used to place an order is frustrating at best. If you've never been here there is no one to explain the food, the preparation process etc, so visit their website before coming. Food is decent but then again , you're cooking it so if you don't like it you probably messed it up read more

Experience and food was TERRIBLE!! Hot pot - very little selection, meat was so dry even tried quicker cooking time. Only 2 types of fishballs and the rest is little selection of veggies. Dim sum is all prepackaged items from CamS and reheated. Except xiaolong bao is made in house which I would give 5/10. Even prepackaged items took 15 plus minutes to come out. Even egg tarts are from cams and reheated. Dim sum items-if u do all u can eat, it is one item per person at a time. They really stressed the $11.99 lb waste, like multiple times talking about how they don't want people to waste food. Service- two servers and not once was asked if we wanted to order more. Had to track down waiters. There is one tablet in the entire restaurant to take orders so it is VERY slow to order. Would not recommend with all the hot pot place in Columbus. Save yourself the drive/money. This is by far the worst experience I've had at a restaurant. Btw this is now called bund taste...but their website is still mala hotpot. read more

I went here probably about 5 years ago and had a great experience. But returning in 2025 was completely different. They changed the ordering process, and the waitress offered 0 help even though we obviously are not regulars there. So we tried to order the hot pot for 2 like it said on the menu (by the way now you have to order online from your booth), and the waitress came by to tell us that we ordered wrong. No solution offered. Isn't hot pot supposed to be something that's shared around the table?! Now the stuff to mix into your pot is done buffet style. You don't really know what's what on their buffet if hot pot isn't part of your culture. Again, that's different, and the waitress offered no orientation there. We totally missed the dessert that we paid for. We had to figure out their process as best we could by watching other diners, but we still missed the dessert we paid for because it was around the corner from the rest of the buffet. Didn't see it till we left out the back! read more

Mala Hot Pot is located around the Hilliard area and just right by the CAM International Market. The interior is very open and filled with booth seating. You will start ordering by scanning the QR code at the table. It can get confusing at first, but they also provide a list of instruction on the side. It take me a minute to get how it works, but the server is there and patiently answer my questions. Basically, you would need to start with at least one combo meal. For each combo meal, it would need to select the one broth and one protein. Of course, you can order additional protein as well. All the condiments, veggies and desserts are included and self-serve. Each person would have their own individual mini pot. You can also control the heat level from the control panel on the table side. Also expect a little robot server deliver food to the table. I love their wide range of veggies option and most important all of them are fresh. For the condiments, there are some basic must have such as soy sauce and sesame oil. They also have a couple pre mixed sauce available as well. Remember to leave some room for dessert, which is ice cream and my favorite sweet red bean soup. With all thing consider, I would highly recommend Mala Hot Pot. The pricing is decent with the fresh and variety option of protein, veggies and dessert. If you haven't try hot pot before, this would be a great place for you to ease into the new experience. read more

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Wonderful place for hotpot! Small and cozy right next to CAM. The menu is extensive and I found prices to be fair. The place was very clean with the robots that delivered food being very clean as well. I was most impressed by how sanitary the dipping sauce and condiment station was. Each sauce was pre-portioned in individual cups. I had the beef belly, bok choy, ramen and enoki mushrooms with the mala soup base. Everything was delicious! I 100% recommend. read more

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It was our first time here. We wanted to try something different, and well, it was definitely different and definitely coming back. There is a very simple sign giving instructions, that was easy to follow. We did talk to some of the regulars, and they gave us some advice/tips. Food was really fresh and really good! I like how the you take what you want, but want what you take, and they will charge extra if you waste food. The ambience was very casual, clean with light oriental music playing. read more

Finally I tried this location, and surprisingly very happy with the quality of the food, pricing and ambience. When I went there (Thursday 08/24/23) the offering system has changed. Customer was offered to pick one type of protein: meat, chicken or vegetable - and the pricing was set in here. Ranging from $15.99 - $23.99. Some a la carte could also be ordered. You will also need to pick the type of broth and carbs if you want (no extra charge). Then a black bowl with a tong was given to the customer to pick from the cold spread buffet style area for the vegetables, variety of tofu and fishballs. Also there's a build your own sauces (black vinegar, soy sauce, hot oil, hot mala oil, bean spicy sauce, chopped garlic/cilantro and spring onion, fried peanuts, etc). And small cups of premade dipping sauce (variety of sesame and peanuts basically). At the end, there's a free offering of serve-yourself some Sweet Mung Bean Porridge for dessert and Free Ice Cream Cups (chocolate and vanilla: Homemade brand). My friend and I were EXTREMELY SATISFIED with what we have and will absolutely return to the business. Highly recommended. 5 stars. read more

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What an awesome experience. The food was fantastic and the service matched! Can't wait to go back and eat there again. Love the way the seating is set up. Try this place asap! read more

Mala Hotpot Columbus - Hot Pot Near Me - Hilliard, Ohio

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sichuan beef broth is so yummy. Love the veggie bar too. food and dishes are brought to you by a cute little cat robot, make sure you're nice to it :) love this place, we visit often! read more

My go to is the Chicken Mushroom broth, goji berry, lotus root, white fish, tung Ho greens, and ginger ... delicious healing food I love mixing a few ladles of Mala Spicy broth to it ! Everything is super fresh ... plus you get to walk it all off next door at CAM International Market ! #malahotpot #614eats #hilliard #columbusfoodie #columbusliving #foodiegirl #foodies #soup #hotpot #614 read more

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Very good food if you are looking for that Hot Pot experience. You have to cook all of your meats and vegetable and the robot comes and serves you them. There are extra sauces and sides you can get too with any spice level. Very unique experience here in Columbus! read more

Mala Hotpot Columbus - Hot Pot Near Me - Hilliard, Ohio

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Mala Hotpot is located in Hilliard right by CAM grocery store in a strip mall. It's right on the Hill Run intersection, very easy to find. The place very pretty empty for Sunday lunch. We reached around 2pm. The host seated us right away. Our waiter asked us for drinks order and as well as took our order. What makes it unique is definitely the robot getting you your food once you place the order, quite a fascinating experience especially here in Columbus. Now for the actual food, couple of pros and cons. Love that they have individual pots, makes it easy to cater to groups with mixed food habits and restrictions like gluten free or vegetarian. Everyone can choose what they wish. Cons is The menu is very restricted for a hotpot place. Limited options from vegetarian to meats as well as sauces. I have to been to all hotpot places here in Columbus and most of them have so many options and I love that about them. Keeps it interesting. Overall decent place to visit but not my top hotpot place in Cbus. read more

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A little different from the usual because everyone gets their own mini hotpot! I liked their combo menu since it offered a variety of options and kept a great balance among proteins, vegetables and carbs. They also have an a la carte menu that you can order from as well! The price was reasonable too. I do wish they had a better DIY sauce bar though. I think this is the 3rd restaurant in Columbus I visited that had Bot delivering the food as well. If you like hotpot or have always wanted to try it out, it is a great spot to go! read more

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I had the Miso hot pot and it was delicious. We received the soup, meats and drinks that were delivered by a cute robot but the waiter/attendant was also nearby in case of any issues. There are salad bar type set ups filled with veggies and tofu and another space with sauces and seasonings. I am a novice hot pot maker/eater, but felt comfortable with the set up and enjoyed the food. I will be back! read more

The food, amazing!!! Service was perfection! And the restaurant was peaceful, clean and wonderful! Thank you. read more

Mala Hotpot Columbus - Chicken broth and veggies! - Hot Pot Near Me - Hilliard, Ohio

We normally hit up Cam's Asian grocery store that is in the same plaza. I have seen a few of my friends hit up this place and had to try it. The place is bright and clean. They have plastic covering to separate the booths. The booths are spacious, so room to pile on all the fixings. They service was great. They give you a paper and pencil to Mark what you want. It's broken down by broth, spice level, and then all the fixings to go into it. My kids especially loved the tomato base broth and all the noodles that came with it. If you do the bundle, that should be more than enough. We add all the extras and couldn't finish it all. Highly recommended if you are looking for a great hotpot experience. read more

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Location: 3777 Park Mill Run Dr Hilliard, OH 43026 Price: Inexpensive to moderate Social DIstancing Score: A Great experience at this restaurant on Sunday for lunch with family. Portion size is enormous - I challenge you to finish your bento kit. Not one of us could - but we all really enjoyed trying! I am fairly new to "Hotpot" and in love with the concept. Essentially you cook your vegetables, carb, and protein(s) to your liking and enjoy them with your own crafted sauce(s). Unlike the experience at a restaurant with a shared pot, each diner has their own so you can prepare your very own meal exactly to your preferences. The "mala" cooking broth is deliciously spicy and I really enjoyed pairing it with the spicy "mala" beef and "mala" dipping sauce. The vegetables are generous portions and really great quality. The process is simple - you choose your options and your selections are brought directly to your table. read more

The best hotpot in the town! It is my favorite mala in cbus. They recently have a change. There's veggie and assorted meat balls bar where you can help yourself and basically you can take more than once if you order a combo. They also have complimented ice cream and a pineapple soda drink (not sure if the drink is provided daily or occasionally). I went with friends and we also brought a cake to surprise a friend for bday. The server helped us hind the cake and bring it out. It was very nice! The food quality, service are cleanness are great. Totally worth the money. read more

Mala Hotpot Columbus - Mala chicken combo - Hot Pot Near Me - Hilliard, Ohio

Every thing was perfect from the robot waiter that we personally named Robert to the fact that you can cook your own food. Every thing was super fresh and delicious especially the lamb meat but if your a vegan stay clear of this establishment. the only thing that this establishment is missing is a tiktoker to spread the word. overall I think this place is a hidden gem read more

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Pretty decent hotpot. Took my husband and our family for his birthday. Love that there is a table for a large party. We had a reservation ahead of time and the staff had all of the veggies and sauces set up on the cold bar for us all to self-serve. The restaurant has been very clean each time I've been and the staff is always kind and patient. read more

As of Dec 2022, this is only one of two hot pot places in the Columbus area that I am aware of. In general, I liked the food, options, and price. This restaurant is also better than its competitor for newbies (If you've never had hot pot before) due to its menu options and sauce options. Also less busy (don't have to wait for an hour for a table) and better atmosphere. Location: this is in a plaza with a big parking lot and has no issue with parking. Plenty of spaces to park and not far. It's right next to an Asian grocery store (Cams) so you can stop by and grab some stuff either before or after your meal. Food: I ordered the chicken and mushroom broth. It was excellent. Price: of all the hot pot places I've been to, this has standard pricing. The combos are cheaper, but you don't get to personalize it as much as the a la cart items. Atmosphere: I liked that this restaurant had add booth tables so it was nice and comfy. There is a robot that delivers your drinks and food. I went in a Wednesday night and you didn't have to wait for a table. There is a sauce bar that you help yourself out to. It's nice that there are already some premade sauces for those that haven't figured out how to make your own. There is also complementary dessert (red bean soup) that you also help yourself. Staff: nothing of note. Not amazing but not bad. So I'd say good service. Though, it would have been helpful if he told us that there was a sauce bar. Also, the red bean soup is complementary. read more

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Nice build your own variety choices. Has party rooms for family or friends gathering. Friendly services.

Love this place! It's such a unique experience and with a great selection of fresh food! There are little robots that bring your food and bill to you. My kids just loved it. The staff is always very friends and helpful as well. read more

Mala Hotpot Columbus - Chicken with noodles and veggies. - Hot Pot Near Me - Hilliard, Ohio

It was a neat experience. A little more instructions would have helped. Having a robot deliver our food was different but kind of cool. I thought the spicy dish had some good flavor, but the non spicy were a little bland. read more

It is both delicious and healthy. The dipping sauce tasted very well and the service is good too! read more

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This was our first time here and we were not disappointed. The restaurant was very clean, the service was awesome and fast. The waiter was informative and knowledgeable about the food/menu. The food came out on a robot waiter, which I had never seen before and thought was cool. The food was great. We will definitely be back. read more

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Friendly atmosphere and staff. Fun to see the robots in action. A fairly good selection of items for the hot pot.

Super fresh and great service. Overall a wonderful experience! Feels like eating at home with the fresh ingredients, and the condiment bar.

Food was amazing! This is the best hot pot restaurant I've been to. The restaurant is super clean, and I loved all the dipping sauces at the sauce bar. A robot brings you your chosen ingredients, server brings the drinks and broth. I especially loved the flank steak! I will definitely be back! read more

Mala Hotpot Columbus - Mala hot pot with flank steak, rice cakes, mushroom and bok choy - Hot Pot Near Me - Hilliard, Ohio

Absolutely excellent! We came with less than an hour from closing and they never made us feel rushed. An actual robot delivered things to our table which is so ridiculously cool! Cooking the food at the table was so fun- and it was delicious! We will absolutely go back. read more

They've change their process where you have to order via phone. Didn't get the complete order. When you then place an additional order on the phone you have to track down a wait person so still get the item. Not very friendly. read more

Loved this place and still do. Highly recommend it to friends and plugged it on FB to our community group. However, the last couple times the bar has been empty and the workers don't check on it to restock. It's not like we go at extremely busy times. In fact it's usually dead when we go, right before the dinner rush. The issue we saw was staff sitting down on their phones instead of working. The one guy in the back was working hard but the front person was on her phone! Saw one table wait forever to get refilled on water and the staff was on her phone. Dinner rush came in and it was grump city due to the empty salad bar which is more than 50% of the food. I mean come on, it's not that hard to check on the bar and restock it. Had to ask multiple times for something to be refilled on the veggie bar. And while we're talking, maybe keep a back up batch of potstickers ready to go so people don't have to wait 15 minutes to get some? One Friday night had a bunch of teenagers literally take the entire pan of potstickers twice. Asked them to save some for the rest of us and they saved 2. Oh and please bring back the bean soup thing at the ice cream bar. it was great. Would have gotten a 5 * but the empty salad bar is really annoying. Otherwise, very clean and good. read more

This place is a hidden gem. Newly renovated with a clean and open vibe. A staff member walks you through the ordering process and brings your individual hot pots that sit on safe personal burners. very soon after ordering this cute little robot wheels up to the table with the food that you ordered. You just take your food off the robot and push the button for it to return to the kitchen and begin your interactive dining experience. Note- the Mala broth truly is hot! it's a great place for a group or just one or two people. I will definitely be going back. read more

There are some pros and cons to this hot pot. It's hard not to compare it to other places but I'm going to. First off, this place is new. It's really clean, and I love that they do individual hot pots. They also give great portions. I ordered everything ala carte, and we had a group of 5. We honestly could've shared so many veggies. There weren't pics for reference. They definitely weren't stingy with their portions. My complaint is that they did have a pic for enoki mushrooms but didn't have any in house. Probs one of the best items for hot pot. The broth was good, but I wish they had more selections. I got the beef and tomato broth, and friends got the mala which is spicy. Comes with a bunch of peppers. If you got a diff broth. You could get peppers to make it spicy. There was an area to create your own sauces, this I liked because it was clean and pre packaged, so I knew other people weren't using it. Overall, it was good. Not my favorite, but an enjoyable experience if you've never had hotpot before. Def order separate broths, but share veggies and other protein. Say yes to the dough stick as well! read more

My friends and I are big hot pot fans - we used to go to Mr. Pot regularly for our hot pot fix. Ever since COVID hit, unfortunately Mr. Pot closed for hot pot and we checked this out to get our fix. This place was what we were looking for and more. High quality food, great service, prices reasonable. The place even has these robots that deliver your food tray. Make sure to make a reservation before going as it apparently is packed and for good reason!!! read more