This place is DELICIOUS! I don't understand the bad reviews either. The lady who owns and runs this restaurant is one of the kindest and sweetest business owners I've ever met! Very hospitable and she even preps and cooks all the food on her own! What a boss. The food was so delicious, I ordered number 3 spice level and it was just the right amount for me. I'll definitely be coming back! Especjally for the butternut squash, lotus roots, quail eggs, vegetables (ALL the greens), and my absolute favorite (as a Chinese weirdo).... Pig blood. 10/10! read more

Spicy Charm - Hot Pot Near Me - San Gabriel, California

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Came here for dry pot . They have covid protocol where only one person may enter at a time. They make sure your hands and shoes are sanitized. You pick and choose & let the staff know what ingredients you would like to add then they grab it for you. Taste of the dry pot was on point. Would definitely be coming back again when in the area. read more

Spicy Charm - Hot Pot Near Me - San Gabriel, California

This place has got the numbing spices DOWN. Overall quality of their ingredients are decent. No fishiness from the slices of fish I added. Vegetables didn't taste/smell like they weren't washed (like most other bigger restaurants). However there was difficulty eating the damn tasty thing I got given a small plate rather than a small bowl for picking out my hotpot pieces. This made it kinda tricky to eat/slurp the soup at the end of the meal. 8/10 read more

Spicy Charm - Menu - Hot Pot Near Me - San Gabriel, California

Hate to be a downer, but it's really hard to give this place a good review when the workers don't seem to want business and practically ignore you as a customer. Was at a restaurant nearby and saw that the food some of the customers were eating looked really good. They even had an outdoor grill where a worker was grilling skewers. So we decided to return a week later. Wasn't acknowledged for several minutes as the workers were busy getting a to-go order ready. The owner brushed past us as she served water to the tables dining outside. Finally got some kind of acknowledgement as one of the workers asked another worker "what do those customers want?" before speaking to the table and asking if I needed something. Asked for a menu - none available. I asked them if we could order dry pot, but he said something in quickfire Chinese that I wasn't able to catch. But apparently they didn't have dry pot that evening. He basically dismissed us and turned away. It did seem like some customers were eating dry pot though, but after the dismissal, we just decided to leave. I wouldn't recommend returning unless you have somebody who is fluent in Chinese. Looking at the other reviews, seems like their service is up and down, no prices are listed, ordering and food takes awhile. read more

So lousy service Food taste terrible The price is ridiculously high Never going back read more

Customer service : BAD (really bad) Food taste : Ok ( regular , you can make it at home ) Price: EXPENSIVE ( not worth it ) DO NOT RECOMMENDED !!!!!!!!! I rather be hungry , than overly paying so so food !!!! read more

I wish I could give 0 star for this place！100% guaranteed rip off!!!!!!!!!! You cannot imagine how they chase you to sign the check. Sheesh, let me get our food in the to-go boxes first please? They were also unhappy that all we wanted for drinks were iced water instead of her overpriced drinks. She even asked " Are u guys sure you want the tap water?" in a super weird tone which made us very uncomfortable. Oh my, I am never coming back! Last but not least, I was charged extra $3.50 just for using credit cards, it's ridiculous! And $50 for a dry pot? We literally spend 106 for 2 people here!! 服务特别有问题！ read more

My experience here yesterday was so different compared to my previous ones, in a bad way! Their food was delicious, yes. We ordered the dry pot and spicy soup. I am giving a 2-star rating because of how bad the service was and how the waitress (whom I believe is the owner of the place) was constantly making us feel uncomfortable. The first thing I noticed is they don't have their menu up on the TV above the counter (that's where the menu used to be), I have a reason to believe this was done on purpose as she is a liar. She then told us to help ourselves with the drinks but we only wanted water and she was unhappy about it because now she can't sell her extremely overpriced drinks! While we were working on our food, she constantly made uninteresting conversations with us and my girlfriend stopped responding to her. Fast forward, when we were done with the food, I asked for the check and to-go boxes, she then asked what payment method we would be using, we used credit card and she charged us $3.50 for it! Wow, great! Now, after she swiped our card and I brought the check to our table and she kept telling us to sign the check (at least 5 times in 1 minute) my Gosh!! Can't you see we have to put our food in the to-go boxes first? We didn't have the space on the table to sign it! Oh did I mention we ended up spending $96 for the 2 dishes we ordered??? Rip-off! Lesson learnt and I am NEVER coming back here again! P.S. I think this restaurant had a change of ownership, it used to be good and now is run by a mad lady. PLEASE DON'T COME HERE OR YOU WILL REGRET IT! 你要是来这家店，你真的会后悔的！ read more

Spicy Charm - 麻辣烫 （spicy soup) - Hot Pot Near Me - San Gabriel, California

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I'm giving it five stars to offset all the negative reviews so far... I fail to see how someone paid "$40 for a little bowl". No way. regardless, know that I actually think this place deserves 3-4 stars. My coworker finally brought me here on a lunch break. We were going to get four orders to go. We got there at about 12:30ish. TLDR: Ma la tang (numbing spicy soup) option is the way to go. It's delicious. However, ingredients aren't so delicious so you kinda have to mix it. Amazing to have on a cold day or if you're sick. They need to hire more workers. It took me 1 hr 40 mins to get my food. Also, bring someone who preferably reads and speaks Chinese. So how this place works is you buy the soup fo $1.50? and then you pay a base price for what meat you want (lamb, beef, pork?) and then you can add more toppings like veggies, noodles, tofu, and fish / meat balls and pay PER POUND. It's a bit hard for me to understand how this place works, everything was written in Chinese and I'm illiterate in that language. My coworker immediately noticed that they were low / out of quite a few ingredients. I think there were only two workers that were there when we went. One cooking in the back, one manning the register. They were out of lotus root, wood ear, spam, tofu.... squid strips? I'm not entirely sure. The list goes on and on. There were two or three tables of people eating already and a party of two ahead of us. I picked out what I wanted... I wasn't to sure what to get so I got fish balls, shrimp balls, beef balls, fried tofu, three types of mushrooms, pig blood, and some cellophane noodles. Was hoping they would have glass noodles like the ones at boiling point but nope. The other choices were something that looked like homemade pasta or ramen noodles. Oh yeah. you can either get it gan chao (dry fried) or ma la tang (numbing spicy soup). I opted for the latter. Mild spicyness Anyways finally, after my coworker waited to restock the ingredients, we gave them our orders. We weren't sure if we should get another order for another coworker and we finally decided to about 10-20 mins later. Even though people came in after us, I'm very thankful that they had the foresight to bump that order up so we could get everything at the same time and get out of there... Despite their efforts, it took about an hour and forty mins (1 hr 40 mins) to get our food. Finally. THE FOOD! They separate the ingredients from the soup. I was so excited to eat that I forgot to take pics... but the soup is basically liquid broth with a millimeter of chilli oil floating on top. Despite my efforts to mix the oil with the soup, the coat of chilli oil would float back on top... Pretty weird. I constantly mixed it the best i could to get a good ratio of soup and chilli oil on my spoon. Man the soup was absolutely amazing. Super spicy, full flavored, not extremely salty but I'd say above average in saltyness. The ingredients were pretty dry and tasteless so you kind of have to drink the soup as you eat the ingredients. For my personal tastes, the only thing I liked was the beef balls and the variety of mushrooms they had... plus the meat. They need to figure their stuff out... they need to hire / train more workers... and maybe get some menus and translate to english. read more

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Small restaurant she cooks for you when you choose what you want. Despite all of the negative reviews I genuinely enjoy this place. The food is great the service is great. Lady is very nice and welcoming as if someone invited me to eat at their home. read more

Best mala xiang guo I've ever had. Seriously deserves 5 stars. I come here every 2 week or so with my friends. Recommend!!!! 10/10!!!! read more

Spicy Charm - a woman holding a bowl of food - Hot Pot Near Me - San Gabriel, California

Food is good, it is kinda of you choose what you want and they will cook for you. Service is good, because there are not many people here as a Saturday noon. I asked for 0.89 pound plus beef, they charge me $16. I guess it is 8$ food + 3$ source+ 3$ beef They have a credit card limit over 25dollars I have been addicted to this place that I come over every weekend now. read more

A little hole in the wall but do not let it fool you. It is pretty good. They are known for their dry pot & crawfish rice. I enjoyed both of them. Crawfish rice: delicious!! A lot of crawfish sit over the bed of rice. I recommend adding an egg on top of it. I ordered it very spicy but I couldn't really taste the chili. Overall a good dish. Only thing is that it is a bit oily though. Drypot: this is what they are known for. So you go in, tell them you want a drypot & they give you a bowl to fill up on your own. You basically get to customize everything you want inside your pot and they charge you based on the weight of the contents inside the giant salad bowl. I love love popping fish balls and fish tofu so I have tons of that inside my order. You choose your spice ness level after. Drinks are self serve. Recommendation: check this place out! It's neat how you can customize your own pot. read more

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It was someone that recommend this place for me. And she said they have really good spicy soup that I need to try it out. So I finally got a chance to come by for Togo. It was $8.99 per pound of the topping that you choose l. I didn't know how it came up to be $18 with these. I didn't add any meat not sure if that's extra charge. I have mostly veggie. And also I didn't have enough cash with me, but the girl told me NO CREDIT CARD so I went out to my car to check if I have more cash. I came back and told her I really don't have enough cash, can I minus the item that I have, and she said, It's okay I can charge you on the card. By the way, I speak Chinese with her. She didn't let me know that there's a limit on the credit card usage and there wasn't anything to inform the costumers. And lastly. The taste is ok.. not too impressive that I will come back next time. A little bit pricy too. read more

Spicy Charm - Hot Pot Near Me - San Gabriel, California

A poor service experience! The waitress wearing glasses, the head of the ball, and the acne on her face are absolutely perfect. One store is empty and the two of us want to sit on the right. She kept asking us to sit at the two-person table in the corner, and we repeatedly proposed a table that wanted to be a little more spacious. She has been insisting (three or four times) that if we come, we still have to give the position to the four-person table. I have been eating in this store for almost a year, the first time I met such a terrible waiter! very angry. read more

I ordered to go. This is a self service with various type of veggies, tofu, fish cakes, and noodles. It is sold by weights, $10.99 per lbs, and add more $ to cook? Because my foods was 1.6 lbs? And is about $22 for selection of foods. Very expensive for one person. But, to my surprise the food taste is pretty good! Well, maybe I am really hungry for this type of food, I will come again! For lunch, is kinda expensive for me! read more

Spicy Charm - Mixed Tofu and veggies - Hot Pot Near Me - San Gabriel, California

This place is a rip off, it was our first time here and we thought it was just $9.99 a pound and that wasn't too bad but when I ask for meat they said it's $3 for 0.3 pounds of meat (that was not worth). The food was not bad I enjoyed it until I ask for the check, I was so shocked that is was so expensive!!! They charged 3$ for soup which should be included cause other places includes soup. So for 2 ppl total 33$ for 2 soups, 0.67 pound of food, 1.67 pound of food and 6$ worth of meat. The price was not worth of what ur getting. For service, they were overall nice but I rather go Somewhere else. read more

Great place for dry pot where you can add your own ingredients and they weigh them by pound to charge you. I got the extra spicy pot and it wasn't as spicy as I expected it to be. It also wasn't numbing like most mala dishes. They also don't speak English so come with a native speaker or else you'll be pretty lost. I like to get beef in my pot but they put in so little meat. I recommend adding a lot of spam and meatballs in order to get your protein. This place is also pretty pricey. I got one pot to feed 2 for about 40$ but we still left without being full. All of the veggies and items shrink after you cook them so make sure you add a good amount. They also offer you 5 percent off if you pay with cash. read more

Ridiculous place. Been there yesterday with a friend and clearly, we were not welcomed. Since it's during the Chinese new year, we even called around 8pm, asking if they open on regular hours that day. We were told they will be closed at 11pm. We drove all the way from Rowland Heights and arrived around 9pm. We were the only 2 people in the restaurant and the waitress was clearly not happy to see us. When we were looking at what to order, we heard her complaining on the phone, says someone is coming to pick her up but there are two people at the store so she couldn't leave. We were completely ignored while she's on the phone. After a while, the chefs came out and ask us what to order and explained that they were planning to go home early because it's Chinese new year. I completely understand it, but how come I was told that they are open until 11? Which restaurant tells customers that they are open, and complains when customers arrive? I said "since I believe you guys are not willing to serve us, we shall just leave then" and left the restaurant. Meanwhile, the waitress lady was still on the phone. It's that unbelievable. read more

I came last Friday to order something to go. Due to the Covid 19 pandemic, they only had To Go available, which it was perfectly fine with me. Upon arrival, the only staff by the door (Asian female) was too busy to notice me as she was playing her cell phone. Once I got her attention, she pointed at the menu to order. The menu itself is in Chinese. Although, I am Taiwanese American, I can only understand minimal Mandarin, but I certainly could not read it. There was not any picture menu for me to point to. As I communicated to her in my wanna be broken Mandarin, she shots me away as I was bothering her. She does not attempt to help me, but rather is yelling at me. She tells me in English that they only have menu in Chinese. This staff clearly speak suffice English, but she does not want to help me. Awesome, thanks for clearly understand how to operate a business. I am sure your business is doing just amazing. There are barely any business open in this plaza, but you can't even provide some sort of customer service to save your own business. Bravo to you. Hope you can get through this pandemic with this type of disrespect to your customer. This place has 32 reviews with 3 stars, enough said. I am out! read more

So bad!I am a person who likes to eat all kinds of pasta. I ordered a pan mee with two eggs, two shredded beans, two pieces of beef the size of a fingernail, and a few spinach with a thick layer of oil floating in the soup. Just a few bites. I feel nauseous and stomach pains faintly. By the way This is the most expensive bowl of noodles I have ever eaten, $25 dollars!!never come back again !!terribel read more

I love this place！！The food is very good. And the "spicy" really means spicy！Love it！It is a home-like restaurant for me.

There is a problem with the store network. No cash, etc. Waiting for half an hour, it is recommended to bring cash.

Wow, $50 for a dry pot bowl that sells $20 elsewhere. What a rip-off. Be alert if you have to order here.

Food was terrible and charged us way more than what we had, we didn't check the receipt right after, just realized that it was too expensive for only a few things. Will never go back again read more

How often do you see the owner working in the back kitchen? Well you'll see this pretty often here. He's there to make sure everything at the self serve ingredient bar is fresh. He refills all the containers himself. With that said, fresh ingredients are always a good start. You could choose the level of spiciness with your soup base. Besides Hot Boil, the restaurant also serves Hot Stir which is a dry version of the Hot boil with a more intended spice flavor. Don't miss their Crawfish, it's a new item and also rich in flavor. If there's one thing I have to point out it would be the soup base could be a bit more tastier. Otherwise I think it always makes up a good meal and is the go to comfort food spot. read more

Spicy Charm - Hot Pot Near Me - San Gabriel, California

The dry pot is sooooo goooood I got to choose all the foods I love (a lot fish tofu) I'm really surprised with how low the ratings are. The only problem I had was not being able to speak Chinese but I went with others who did, so avoided read more

I read some of the negative reviews of this place and they're pretty inaccurate. The food at this place is very addicting and delicious, provided that you have an open mind and can appreciate authentic Chinese food that hasn't been filtered for an American audience. I suggest going with a native if you can, because the menu is all in Chinese, and it may be hard to know what to do or order. Basically you get tongs and a bowl to add whatever you want to your hotpot, and they cook it for you. The price and portions all depend on what you add. The soup is what really sets this place apart, and its delicious. read more

The food has no taste. And the stuff here are seems always busy but it is a really really small place. I don't know why you guys are so rush and make me feel very agitated. And then finally I waited 30 mins for my check. No coming back read more

Spicy Charm - No taste at all. I don't know how my friend eat half of it. - Hot Pot Near Me - San Gabriel, California

The overwhelming flavor profile here is salt. You get hints of spicy but you really just taste salt. Make sure to have lots of water if you're eating here. The ingredients are pretty fresh though. You get to pick your own veggies and ingredients. There is a huge refrigerated section where you get tongs to get your food into a large bowl. Make sure not to get too much. They'll charge you for a second bowl if your food exceeds 3 pounds. And you have two options. Either the soup stock version or the dry pot version. I think where this place goes wrong is that they don't pre-fry their herbs and spices. There are dozens of cloves or garlic in the dry pot but they're mostly raw. None of the flavor gets through to the food. The environment is clean and organized. Service is attentive if a bit brusque. I've been waiting almost a decade since living in China for a good dry pot place in LA and it looks like I'll still be looking. read more

The overall taste of food has declined, and the service is HORRIBLE!!! They pass by you like no one is standing there. Usually stores make what the customer ordered, but I simply requested no egg on top of my rice and even repeated it the second time just in case the lady heard wrong. I was so pissed when I overheard their conversation from the kitchen, and she could simply say the meal got prepared wrong or like offer a small discount, but what she said in literal words translated was "IF THAT'S NOT WHAT SHE(referring to me) ORDERED, WE DON'T SELL, DON'T GIVE IT TO HER". Like I am supposed to pay for the exact thing I ordered, and not having to buy what you made. If so, at least be polite! This lady boss needs to take a chill pill for sure, and if you still want the business to keep running, gotta do something with the attitude. The chef from before prepared the food way better. Also, they didn't even put prices up for the drinks, and I don't even know if the prices are made up last second or even has been that way. read more

i went there yesterday dinner time, not a lot people. i ordered dry pot with medium spicy compare to other dry pot store this is really spicy, but let me tell you this if you love spicy this is the place you gotta try read more

小龙虾盖饭 Have no idea why this place's yelp reviews are low stars , since first time here it's been over 2 year , the food actually pretty good every time I came read more

I love hot pot there. Ingredients are fresh and environment is clean. They have more variety of food compared to other similar restaurants. Hot pot soup is so tasty. The owner told me it takes 10 hours to cook the soup. Usually go there once a week. If they can more drinks, that would be better! read more

Spicy Charm - DIY hot pot - Hot Pot Near Me - San Gabriel, California

My favorite spicy dry pot place. I've been eating here quite often. The food is really good, the restaurant is clean and the price is good too. I'd definitely recommend people to eat here. read more

The service is sooo terrible. Don't come here. Regret to have food here. Waste time. The food is just ok. If you want to eat spicy food. Go to another restaurant. Worst experience ever. read more

The taste is okay, but I gave it only one star for its DISHONESTY! The cost depends on the weight of the food you take, and when I put my food on the scales, I saw the weight is 1.27, but when I paid, the weight on the receipt shows 1.57. I just paid $3 more, so I don't want to argue with its host in front of lots of people, but I have to say I will never go there any more. Their dishonesty made me feel DISGUSTING !!! read more

This place is awful firstly I ask the waitress/cash register it's my first time and what would you recommend he simply hand me over a basket and told me to fill with what ever is there.. we'll I was clue less on what to put n what not to put... after done with the whole lingering he bring me a bowl with a nasty smell so I eventually tried it and omg it was awful it numbed my entire mouth and ruined my whole appetite... so guys if your not Asian or to be specific chines don't go there it's horrible even there minimum is in chines I guess they don't want other races to go there.... read more

You get to select your vegetables and they will add your choice of meat. Then you can have them cook it either with broth or dry pot style. We had the broth version with level spicy and it was delicious. $25 or more for credit card. read more

The waitress there is rude and ridiculous. After I choose the food and go back to the seat, I realize that the waitress does not ask me for the flavor. Just 1 min, I tell her that I want to have malaxiangguo. She refuses to provide that and instead she says I have to eat malatang and I cannot change. Then I argue with her why she didn't ask me the flavor first. She responds in a very rude way which make me very uncomfortable. She says everyone comes here for malatang, so she does not need to ask first. Listen!!!! Malaxiangguo is not in the secret menu! It's on the poster in front of the door and it's even on the t shirt you wear! I am sooo disappointed and I will tell my friends not to come to here again! NEVER! read more