YGF Malatang

Super casual malatang spot in Irvine! Unlike other spots, YGF is not a stand alone restaurant and is part of a cafeteria/food court area so you do have to get yourself a table and clear your dishes once you're done. It works similar to other malatang spots where you grab your food, put it in a bowl, choose a soup, and pay by weight. YGF has a lot of options to choose from including veggies, noodles, and meats. I was surprised to see marinated meats given that the soup it's cooked in usually flavors the whole meal, so I tried a few places. Like I expected, it ended up tasting like the soup, so while the marinated meats were unique, I can't say they made my malatang experience more special. Maybe the effect would be different with a dry pot? While you're supposed to clear your own table and clean it, one man working there insisted on clearing the table for us, which was nice of him.Expert tip: Parking may seem bad here but they have below ground parking.

Food is a lot worse than the Artesia location. I was so surprised at the difference. Less flavorful and way less selection.Service was the worst. They spoke so quickly and rudely and I never care about service with a smile as long as you do your job. If you want to come here thinking it's comparable to the Artesia location it is NOT.

I visited this place after seeing it on TikTok, and the unique concept really caught my attention. The noodles and meat were a bit dry, so next time I would choose a base with a broth. Another heads-up: the spice levels are intense. I ordered mild, thinking it would be manageable, but I still found myself struggling with the heat. While the food quality wasn't exceptional, the price-to-portion ratio was great and unmatched. At $14.99 per pound, I got a good amount of food and even had leftovers to take home.The staff were fantastic. Our cashier was friendly and efficient. The process is straightforward. After selecting your ingredients, you hand your bowl to the staff, pay, and receive a buzzer. They'll ring your buzzer once your bowl is cooked. While waiting, you can customize your own sauce at their sauce bar, which was a nice touch. The food also came out relatively quickly.The seating area has a casual, food-court vibe. Once your number is called, you grab your tray and find a seat. Tables are on the smaller side. The largest I saw was a table for four, so keep that in mind if you're coming with a bigger group. There's also a designated spot to return your tray after finishing your meal.Overall, while the food didn't blow me away, the concept, pricing, and service made it a worthwhile experience. It's a great option for a casual, affordable meal if you're in the area!

YGF Malatang hits different, especially at night. This place is popular among UCI students since it's nearby and at $14.99/lb, it's a pretty good deal. You select your ingredients and then you pay at the counter. You can select your broth or choose the dry mala option, then they will cook it for you. The spot is within a small food court with another Chinese spot. Seating can be a bit harder during peak hours and you have to get your own seat. The sauce is self-serve and I really liked their sesame sauce. If you're craving malatang, this is definitely the place to stop by.

This spot is a good place to eat during lunch or dinner alone, I noticed that there were many individuals doing that. This location is smaller and I felt that it wasn't as clean compared to other locations. There's multiple restaurants in this building and it seemed like it was hot pots as well. Each restaurant has its own section of seating, but I'm sure you can sit in other spots. There's less options to choose from here. The food came out pretty quick and was yummy. ig: @cravingswithcat

GASS I got the beef bone broth base. I love a good soup. the mild spicy is still spicy to me. it's 14.99 per lb. the food came out fast. self service on a lot of things. lots of seating!

Food: 4/5Service: 3/5Ambiance: 3/5This is a casual cafeteria style hotpot restaurant where you pick what items you want in your soup and the broth base you want and they'll boil it for you. It is very casual, fast paced and busy (especially during the dinner rush). If you can't find parking at the ground level. Go down to the basement and they have plenty of parking!There does some to be some cross contamination between meat/veggies and I can't say that this restaurant is the cleanest. But the food is tasty and they have a good selection of food and sauces. We did however wait 25 minutes for our food :////The female employee (I think one of the owners) is pretty rude and didn't ask me for to-go or dine-in and assumed I wanted a to-go order. The to-go order has less broth which I thought was a shame. She had no patience whatsoever. But the male owner/manager was nice and moved around some tables to make room for us.Overall I would recommend but keep in mind the service is not so good...

Decent.This place is set up like a food court which is different than other restaurants. You pick the ingredients that you want, place them into your bowl, and the price of your meal is based on the weight of the food. You, then, choose the broth you like and the kitchen fills up your bowl.I like that we were able to pick more of the ingredients we liked, but wished they also gave us the option to choose how much broth we wanted. That way, it doesn't go to waste because I doubt people are drinking it all considering how much they give you.- Beef Bone Broth Base: 8/10 - good flavor, but be careful with the spice level you chooseWhile we were eating, we kept getting bombarded by these fruit flies which was really annoying. I'm not sure where they came from because their doors were closed most of the time. The place is located in a plaza with a large range of different restaurants. The workers, on the other hand, were very friendly and nice. Parking was pretty easy because there was always someone going in and out.Glad that we got to try it, but don't think we'll be coming back any time soon.

I've been to the Arcadia location of YGF Malatang but saw that they had this here in Irvine as well. First off, the vibe is a bit different being in some sort of like foot court. You grab a bowl/tongs and pick out everything that you want in the bowl. Selection was pretty good and looked pretty fresh. It was like $15 per lb so I like to constantly weigh how much my bowl is. Personally I believe 1.25-1.5 lbs is perfect for me to be content/full. This location you pay for your bowl upfront and get a pager that rings when it's ready.We waited about 5-10 minutes for our pager to ring and had to pickup our food placed on a tray (it definitely gives you food court vibes). Sauce had a section near the register that you could load up on whatever sauces you'd like. Food wise, everything was delicious. A huge thing for me was that the pork blood actually tasted pretty fresh (I can tell when blood is bad). They also had frog legs which was surprisingly pretty good. Soup Broths - I would recommend just getting the regular bone broth but I tried the tomato broth and its also pretty good. Bone broth was still better IMO.After the meal you clean up after yourself and place the tray and food on a tray rack. Overall, food is good but the experience is a tad different than that of other YGF's. If you're okay with the food court vibe this place is reasonably priced and has a good selection of hotpot items.

Broths are good and there are plenty of good ingredients to pick from. I went with the beef bone broth - note that they don't have a non-spicy for this (mild is your only option). Broth is salty enough to not need any dipping sauce in my opinion but a sauce station is available if you need it!Sadly, service is truly atrocious. The person behind the cashier (you can see her in my photos) did not really want to answer any of our questions and had a frown on the entire time. She gave major attitude in every single way. Anyway, after you order, there's really no service anyway since you're basically eating in a food court. A lot of other ppl have mentioned this already but their raw items are mixed in the same cabinet as their vegetables. Not sure why they would do that as they have multiple storage cabinets. Would've made more sense to put all vegetables together and raw meats together to avoid contamination. They also have fly swatters everywhere too which isn't a good sign... They are located in a small food court. Parking is pretty hard here so come before the lunch rush.