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Mala Town

4.7 (483 reviews)
Open • 11:30 am - 9:00 pm

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MALA TOWN ATMOSPHERE

What's the vibe?
Good for groups
Dogs allowed

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Medium beef bone broth
Jasmine C.

First time eating mala town and will be back. It's build your own hot pot. You pay by the weight. Pick your broth and the kitchen will cook it for you. There's a lot options. vegetables, noodles, dumplings and fish balls. Seafood. And just a few thin meat options. For the broth I got the beef bone. It was really good. Got spice level medium but I can do hot next time. Wasn't that spicy. There's also a sauce bar station. My friend got the tom yum broth and it was really good too.

Shrimp & Crab Balls (no.)
Alison C.

Respectfully, I come to Malatang for the fish balls, and I know others come for the meat. Both were horrible. Noodles and veggies? Great variety and cooked to perfection. But the protein was abysmal. The fish balls with roe aren't fresh, they're the orange swirled ones that taste like egg yolk and have a rubbery outside. I know other malatang places either don't offer these at all, or specify that they're orange yolk roe. The shrimp balls and crab balls are mushy yet dense? Maybe you'd like it? But no it doesn't taste like imitation crab/fish cake like ANY OTHER malatang place offers. I've never had to do this before, I spit every single one of them out into their paper water cups. The meat was extremely over cooked and dry. My mom and I only tried the Angus beef slices. Mine was cooked better than hers, hers might as well been one notch from cooked ground beef, so it's inconsistent too. But, the rice cakes are also kept so frozen that they were still hard when in my soup. Someone needs to figure that out, other places do it, it can't be that hard of an ask. They have a 0.8lb limit (~$13.50). We both got the beef bone broth, my mom got mild and I got medium. Medium is definitely spicy enough and I was told that "Hot" just has a lot more oil. We took the broth to-go and made our own noodles with the soup to salvage our $. Employees we nice enough, 2/5 we interacted with spoke english, the rest spanish. The place was relatively empty during Sunday lunch.

Grace L.

I really like the concept of the place. It is simple, you have a choice, and they provide delicious savory soup. As you enter the establishment, it's obvious you have to make a little bit of decision what you want on your soup. So, grab a big bowl and a tong to get started. There are veggies, toppings, noodles, seafood, & meat sections. It's $16.99 per pound, so get only items you think you will eat, or it will add up. After you pick all your ingredients, they will weigh it for you, and they will ask you what soup you want. They will then give you a number, and basically, you can pretty much sit wherever you want. I enjoyed everything about this experience, and I can see why people rate it pretty well. I can picture us coming back real soon. While this review is not too detailed, I will give a more detailed update during my next visit. Stay tuned.

Dee L.

I like the wide, shallow hot pot bowls, they're spacious and make it easy to cook and scoop ingredients. The beef bone broth is rich and flavorful. However, the beef itself wasn't very tender. The sauce bar was also missing Thai chilies, which was disappointing since I prefer a spicier dipping sauce. Overall, the meal lacked the level of heat I was hoping for.

Alpine T.

Food was really good, and the service was great! Didn't get the name of the cashier but he was super helpful

Meat area
Lj Q.

Went on a Saturday afternoon, been a fan of Malatown for a long time! This time around I wasn't too thrilled with the service. My order was served to someone else and a minute later was tried to be served to me. They claimed that it was brand new and even offered to remake it which was nice. But at this point, I have been waiting for so long that I've lost my appetite. While I try not to let one bad experience ruin my whole perception of a place, it was pretty disappointing how they handled it. Not one apology was said to the other person who was served my order or to me. Probably won't be back for a while at this location. I definitely urge you to try Malatown at their other locations! Malatown is still delicious overall and have been happy with all of them

Tomyum broth
Kelsy H.

Stopped by MalaTown in Pleasanton and built my perfect bowl - you grab everything you want (and they have everything) and pay by weight. Had to load up on my must-haves: fish balls with roe, enoki mushrooms, quail eggs, udon, veggies, and LOTS of beef belly + premium beef. Then finished it off with sesame paste, chili oil, and green onions from the sauce bar (they didnt have ponzu ) I went with the tom yum broth (spicy + sour = my fave), but my fiancé got the spicy dry pot with this peanut sauce and it was too flavorful with the perfect kick. Super clean space and really friendly staff, which always makes a difference.

Set with Beef Bone Broth Base 招牌牛骨汤套餐
Lily M.

Went here for a quick lunch during my work break, and it was delicious Mala Town is located in a cute plaza full of fun Asian cuisines, where is there is plenty of parking. The restaurant itself has a lot of seating available, and the employees are kind and polite. The ambiance is very chill, especially since I went for a Monday late lunch. There are numerous food options that are very yummy. There is an assortment of meats, veggies, noodles, and more! There is also a DIY sauce bar with a handful of sauces and toppings like cilantro and green onion. Personally, I like to load it up so that way I have enough for 2 meals. If you have enough for leftovers, they have containers available for take home. They also offer to-go which is awesome if you're on a time crunch. Overall, love going here for my malatang fix. It's so good!! :)

Interior
Helen L.

Food: It's $16.99 per pound. They have a good selection of meat, seafood, veggies, and noodles. The meat was tender and the veggies were fresh! I got the tom yum soup base. It wasn't too spicy, but very coconut heavy. Staff: They staff here is super friendly and attentive! I accidently dropped a beef ball and after picking it up, the lady staff member offered to help me throw it away and gave me more napkins!

Set with Tom Yum Soup Base 冬阴功汤底套餐 (Mild Spicy)...
Kartika H.

after more than a year, i came here again and found out that this store improved a lot, mostly for the soup taste. seriously, tom yum soup is always the best!!! i think i miss the drink that i had previously. something like tea, sweet one??? and now no longer available ~ so sad though. lol... oh not to forget, the staff's name christian ~ he is great and always very energetic and full of smile. great service...

Delicious food. Selections.
Jessie T.

Food is delicious. Service is good. Ambiance good. Lots of selections. Love the meet. Fresh. Long line.

Erica E.

The staff is very accommodating for our party of 9 on a Saturday! We came at 5 PM and they helped set up the tables for us. Very clean and spacious setting with plenty of tables for big and small parties! The staff is attentive and checked in for more water and napkins. You pretty much get all the ingredients you want at the start and put it in a bowl (theres meats, veggies, noodles, and more!) They weigh it and it's priced based on that. Then you choose the broth and they cook all the ingredients in it. I got the mild signature beef broth which is a good standard soup to get! It was actually milky and had a good flavor with the veggies and meats I got. Since it's called Mala Town the mala flavor is def there. Def would come back!

Nina M.

LOVE Mala Town and the concept! YOU get to pick what you want and how much. You walk in, grab tongs and a bowl and go through a line of different food items that you can add to your bowl. Anything from greens (spinach, cabbage so forth), mushrooms, proteins, other vegetables, and noodles. Then you choose if you want it to be a soup or stir fry and they weigh your bowl and you pay. While you wait they have a sauce bar with an assortment of options to add. I appreciate the aesthetic of the bowls and how the whole location is decorated. Customer service is ok, but I come here for the food which I 100% recommend.

Sauce and toppings section

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Reviews are largely positive. Diners highlight the fresh ingredients, customizable options, and friendly, efficient service. The space is also clean and comfortable.

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1 year ago

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1 year ago

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2 months ago

Tastes super super amazing!! Super great quality ingredients as well!! Place is also super clean

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1 year ago

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8 months ago

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10 months ago

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2 months ago

Good food and nice staff. Our kids love it ! They get the classic beef broth and I get the sichuan style.

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2 months ago

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2 months ago

I love this restaurant! There are so many variations of toppings and broth to choose from!

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2 months ago

the place was clean + had lots of food options! The food came out very quickly as well!

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10 months ago

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Eric G.

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2 months ago

The service is really fast and their stock has a large selection. perfect to share or for yourself. Very clean place too

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11 months ago

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Eric G.

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11 months ago

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2 months ago

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2 months ago

Their tom yum broth is my favorite. Love coming here for a warm meal. So delicious!!!!

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2 months ago

Love it here! Will come back again and again! Everything was perfect! Very tasty! Everything was cooled and prepared well!

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2 months ago

Great food and service. Always come here for the pot. Very easy to find parking. Always have tables available.

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Page 2 of 13

Mala Town Reviews in Other Languages

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Top Pot - Peking Duck Wraps

Top Pot

4.0(375 reviews)
0.1 mi
•$$$

Absolutely amazing. I haven't had hot pot this good since I was a child. The customer service was…read moretop-notch too. This was our first time here, and we were greeted right away by a very warm and welcoming hostess who helped get us situated. The food and sauce selection was great, and I honestly never found myself thinking, "I wish they had this." There was plenty of variety, everything tasted fresh, and we left very satisfied. Definitely a place we'll be coming back to.

Top Pot is in a very busy Asian strip mall in an area with a lot of different food and Asian food…read moreoptions. They have a pretty good All You Can Eat menu. My wife and I went on a Wednesday night a little before 6pm because we were in the area and craving hot pot. There are various AYCE packages with premium meats, we ordered the basic because we felt that would meet our needs. The meat seemed fresh, and the service friendly and responsive. They also had an area to get sauces and various cooked food (fried rice, honey walnut prawns, chow mein, Sichuan cold noodles) and other items. One thing they made this place unique is you could order Peking duck wraps, which they would cut and wrap to order. They gave us two each time and we ordered it 3 times along with other hot pot items. While not pushing ourselves to overeat too much, we felt satisfied and that we ate our moneys' worth. We'd go again.

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Shabu King - gyoza inside

Shabu King

4.2(299 reviews)
0.6 mi
•$$

Great hot pot experience with reasonable prices. The cost is better than ones in San Francisco…read more Choices of seafood meats and vegetables are extremely excellent. The reduction of broth from choices of broth with residual soup is filling. Dessert are very traditional Chinese food. Staff were very attentive. Bang for the buck. Choices of sake beer and drinks are all good. Enjoy your meals.

For over a year I have had this place bookmarked. Menu looks appeasing and they have foods I…read moretypically would like. So why not a 5 starer? I came in on a Saturday afternoon for lunch. My first thought was, it is quiet! there was only 1 other table at noon... regardless, I continued. It took me a few minutes before anyone noticed us since there was no one at the front desk.. When I finally got the attention of someone, auntie seemed a little annoyed and short. But everyone has their bad days, so despite the lack of enthusiasum we continued our journery for lunch. We opted for the "ultimate" menu which was $38.99/person. But I love my Wagyu's so why not.. They have a large open buffet style section which you pick your veggies, seafood, and tofu from in addition to some random side dishes and sushi rolls. The buffet section was okay.. non-premium options and are typically known as the basic cheaper options at other hot pot places. They didnt even have beef meatballs! Soup/broth options seemed limited. While they had a few, I was thrown off to know they upcharge on everything including if you want a split broth. I mean, the pot itself is quite small already.. Are you really using that much more soup? But the broth was fine. It was flavorful and did its job. I got the tonkotsu and miso base. I did like that they let you order 5 orders of meat at a time. We ordered all the premiums of course. But sadly, they were not that great of quality in my opinion. Wagyu's were chewy and stringy.. For $40 a person, I expect the quality to be a little better especially if other areas are lacking. But they did have an extensive menu which was nice. Lastly, they have a ton of signs.... Most of it letting you know of additional charges or upcharges... Not the most inviting. Probably will not be returning which is a bummer.

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Shabu King - Noodles and tofu

Noodles and tofu

Shabu King - My pot. Spicy beef broth.

My pot. Spicy beef broth.

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Happy Lamb Hot Pot

Happy Lamb Hot Pot

3.9(805 reviews)
1.1 mi
•$$
Large group friendly
Casual dining

I've had Happy Lamb Hot Pot years ago in San Mateo, but a recent hangout with a friend led us to…read moretheir location in Dublin. There's plenty of parking outside and free. Good thing is they have Yelp waitlist available so you can join on the app to kickstart the waiting time. Our table was ready by the time we pulled into the parking lot which was convenient. The layout is a little clunky in my opinion. It's all you can eat so besides the meat and other specialty items, the rest is grab it yourself from the counters. The seafood and noodle counter is right near the front door so patrons that are waiting to be seated are just staring at the food, and between them waiting for a table, people grabbing their food, and people leaving it can be a very tight spot to navigate. The inside is spacious and I do appreciate them having a folding "table" attached to the dining time for overflow items. We opted for a split pot and while I enjoyed my pork bone broth, the one my friend opted for was a tad too spicy and required it to be watered down a couple times. Overall, it's not a bad place for all you can eat and the ice cream machine worked!

Service was fast and attentive. I also love the food quality of the meats compared to the union…read morecity location. i personally enjoy the beef tongue and lamb cuts of meat in the more expensive ayce option - the marbling of the meat is evident. overall atmosphere is nice and clean. i also appreciate how it's fairly spacious to walk around compared to other locations I've been to. will definitely come back when i want my hot pot fix.

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Happy Lamb Hot Pot
Happy Lamb Hot Pot
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YGF Malatang & Hotpot - Beef Bone Broth Base (Mild Spicy) / 浓醇牛骨汤

YGF Malatang & Hotpot

4.3(148 reviews)
1.6 mi
•$$

Since Master Gua closed here in San Leandro, my family and I have been bummed, missing our malatang…read morefix. My cousin discovered YGF and I was shocked realizing that it's like a 30-second drive from my office and couldn't believe I hadn't noticed it before. We took the short drive out to Dublin to get lunch here on a Sunday afternoon and while there was almost no one inside when we got in line to fill our bowls, by the time we paid and sat down the line had suddenly blown up and the place was booming. Compared to Master Gua, YGF has fewer vegetable options (no broccoli, for example), but I believe they have even more meats than Master Gua did. So it's a tradeoff, depending on what you're in the mood for. All of the ingredients were super fresh and there's a pretty wide assortment of things to choose from. As with other malatang places, you take your bowl of stuff up to the counter, weigh it, and they tell you the price based on the weight. Then you choose your broth from a few different options. YGF has even more than Master Gua did, but I still went with my old standard, the Sichuan spicy hot pot broth (which is described as being medium spicy here). You can add a bowl of steamed rice on the side for a couple bucks, which I did. The food came out pretty quickly and was fantastic. My husband, brother, and cousin all got one of the bone broths (I think they all went with the beef), which is their go-to. We were all incredibly happy with our meals. The meat was cooked tender and the vegetables weren't overdone. The staff were all super nice and kept coming around to refill water. When it came time to pay, they came to the table with a mobile POS rather than having us go up to the counter to pay. I think this is going to become our new malatang place, given the convenient location, great food, and friendly service.

Glad I got to try one of the popular weigh to pay hotpot places! It is in a popular Asian…read morerestaurant plaza so parking can be difficult during busy hours. The inside is packed with tables but more geared towards smaller parties. For bigger parties they may need to move the tables together. The inside is very cutely decorated, and you get a large assortment of ingredients for your soup. Pricing is pretty standard its about $15.99/lb. I enjoyed the hotpot, came out super fast (~10 minutes) and they gave large bowls for sharing between my partner and I. I think the soup broth flavor was not as savory as I had hoped but still sweet and good. While everything was very good, this place is in a very competitive area of food spots. I did enjoy the food but I wouldn't say it's the best of the best soup broth. They have about 5-6 different flavorings/cooking styles but i think some places tend to have more. I enjoyed the food and I think I would come back to try other things. I think they do have a large ingredient selection making for a unique hotpot experience.

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YGF Malatang & Hotpot - Tables and seats

Tables and seats

YGF Malatang & Hotpot - Spicy chicken skewers you order via QR code at the table

Spicy chicken skewers you order via QR code at the table

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Happiness Hot Pot

Happiness Hot Pot

4.8(496 reviews)
12.9 mi
Minority-owned & operated
Speaks Mandarin

great value hotpot but no frills…read more negatives: you're told to grab your own bowls, you're given a bunch of chopsticks to use for everything,we were seated at a table with a chair missing, and there was a super loud grating sound during our meal. the bar doesn't seem to have much good stuff so we just opted to eat from the flavorful broth. when being refilled for broth the servers don't even pretend to protect you from splashback. it's nothing bad but just not attentive compared to the typical flashy hotpot places. positive: food and price! the chicken cordycep soup was very very good, and the meats were all fresh and really worth it with bogo. the best one was short rib, the wagyu was ok, and the premium beef was very tough. the cuts were big and pretty thick though. beef tripe was a literal MOUNTAIN but didn't taste super clean - good enough especially for the price. in the photo, we already ate half of it. i didn't like the enoki mushroom because it had a little bit of an rice wine alcohol taste (like to preserve probably).

Happy to see a restaurant that allows dogs indoors !! So rare…read more I enjoyed the options at the sauce/snack bar but it's an additional charge . Includes fruit (watermelon & wintermelon), jelly desserts, and snacks like peanuts, seaweed, and pickled veggies. We opted for a half&half hotpot (the spicy butter & mushroom). They had a buy 1 get 1 free option for meat orders which was nice. Meat seemed fine. However all of us (party of 3) ended up with stomach issues and diarrhea after our meal. Not sure if the spice was just too overpowering or if something was off. This is definitely not my first rodeo of having spicy hotpot and I have never gotten diarrhea afterwards so I'm leaning more towards something being off here. I didn't notice anything but my friends both commented on a weird smell or taste with our spicy broth. Probably won't be back unless I have a doggo with me. Love the decor inside, you're transported back in time to imagery from the 80s , Chinese stars and anime.

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Happiness Hot Pot
Happiness Hot Pot - Delicious hot pot

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Ten Seconds Yunnan Rice Noodle

Ten Seconds Yunnan Rice Noodle

4.4(114 reviews)
1.5 mi
•$$

I was in town because of a family photoshoot and afterwards we wanted to eat! This place was…read morerecommended by our photographer and it did not disappoint! It was early dinner time on a Friday evening and it wasn't overly crowded. All 6 of us got different items and overall it's a matter of preference for what kind of broth and protein you'd like that depicts the meal, the toppings are generally all the same. Consider this place to almost be a "make your own ramen" type of thing, in that you're given a platter of toppings to add to your bowl of steaming hot broth, mix it and let it sit, then voila! It's ready to eat. For a rainy winter evening, it was perfect to have some tasty noodle soup!

Loved this place and was so excited to try it out! I really love the environment inside as well…read moreit's super laid back but also looks pretty well kept for a nice outing with loved ones. The service was really good, they are super on top of cleaning and serving so my food came out in about 15-20 minutes. I got the combo with an appetizer, drink, and noodle soup. The portions were pretty generous. -grapefruit tea: thought it was pretty yummy! I also tried out the super fruit tea and i really liked it but personally found it to be a little too sweet. Not too much to displease though! I mixed some water and it was perfect for me. -tomato beef brisket noodle soup: i was surprised by how tender the meat was and how much they actually give you. If you love tomato soups as much as i do then it's definitely a great option! -takoyaki & lamb skewers: my sister had one dish from her combo order and i has my own but was able to try both! The lamb skewers were a bit smaller than expected but were flavorful with a fragrant aroma. The takoyaki came in about 5 balls and while they didn't include all typical takoyaki toppings it was still pretty good considering it came as a combo! Overall, i really loved coming by this place, my main concern is that it's actually in a pretty busy plaza so parking can be a little difficult during peak business hours. Otherwise it's located in a really great area relatively close to some shopping areas such as the Livermore outlets or even other smaller shopping plazas. Give this place a try if you're in the area and looking for a good eat without breaking the wallet!

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Ten Seconds Yunnan Rice Noodle
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Mala Town - hotpot - Updated October 2026

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