KungFu MalaTang

Definitely hit the spot! As with typical MalaTang places, ingredients are self serve and you pay by the pound. There's also a little scale in the corner where you can check your weight before paying, which I thought was nice. I got the spicy broth and my friend got the dry mix, which was like a peanut sauce. The male staff that was there recommended it to us, and he was very friendly! Both were delicious and we left feeling satisfied :) There is also complimentary soft serve at the end! Atmosphere was okay - it was empty when we went and it felt stale with the dim lighting. But food was good and I would come back!

For a quick Sunday dinner I decided to try KungFu MalaTang. Upon entry, I was informed of the ordering procedure. Take a bowl and stuff it with ... stuff from Chest freezers with hot-pot style thinly sliced meats, refrigerated shelves w/vegetables, fish balls, etc. The bowl would be weighed and charged at a rate of $14.99/lb.I ended up getting around 1.1lb of stuff. Then I had two options - to have it served as either noodle soup (malatang) or as a saucy mixture with a bowl of rice on the side. I decided to try the latter since I was already familiar with the soup format. My bowl of raw ingredients was then taken into the kitchen, transformed into stuff cooked in a sauce mix, and presented. I wasn't a fan of the sauce mix, which was a peanut sauce that was barely spicy, even though I ordered it medium spicy. Might as well have called it mild. Why even bother calling yourself "mala / 麻辣" if this is going to be neither ma / 麻 nor la / 辣.Otherwise, price and the convenience of counter service are the only reasons to come here.

I bring my service dog here, the restaurant is empty but they force me to seat in a small table in the corner just because I have a dog... this is totally discrimination against service dogs... the waiter was rude and refuses to contact the manager... I can't imagine how they operate this restaurantUpdate: their manager contacted me to apologies their attitude to my dog so I'm changing this to 3 star. I understand they are worried about some customers might allergic to dogs, but that's not an excuse to refuse it. They really need to come up with a solution to balance this, many other restaurants do this well and I think they should too

I visited this restaurant before randomly, and it left a lasting impression on me so I came back only two days after. I missed the malatang I had in South Korea, and this restaurant is set up just like it! You can choose your own veggies, meat, noodles, etc as much as you'd like, and they weigh it by the pound. You can also choose the spice level; we got the medium, which wasn't that spicy.We got a total of 3.4 pounds, which came out to about $47. The broth was very good and warm, although I was expecting more of a mala taste (it was a bit too faint). The service was fast, and the Korean server was incredibly kind and receptive to our needs. Overall, great service & good food.

I love this spot! It's basically a build your own bowl of soup. They have items buffet style that you put what you want into a bowl and then you give it to them to weigh and choose the spice level. They are super nice here. Everytime I've gone, they were always really welcoming and the service was great!! It's a cute corner restaurant, great for casual dining. I'm 100% coming back again.

I had not had Malatang for years! I think the last time I had it was in Shanghai 10 years ago. I was on the way to have ramen but saw this place while waiting at the red light. Out of curiosity, I came here instead. I enjoyed the broth and the freedom to pick my own ingredients but it was a pretty pricy place to eat. I did love the k pop playlist they had going. All k pop legend songs. Thumbs up! Fast service. They put water on the table before you even sat. Though it was weird they picked a table for you while you were at the cashier.

I did takeout for the mala soup and got a big thing of tasty soup and hefty bowl of the ingredients I ordered. The soup is tasty ! I ordered it to be mildly spicy and it's good and tasty. If you want it to be numbing, you have to order it spicier. Also the soup did not come with a thick layer of oil on top, which I personally like bc it feels less greasy to me, but I know some other people like that oil layer. The soup is still plenty flavorful without it though. They also gave me a free rice! It might be because I ordered a lot. Overall I'm very happy, it's like hotpot but I didn't have to leave my house. Also I didn't order any greens so that's why my food is all brown, but what I did order (meats mushrooms tofu) was all very yummy.Edit: also the rice is VERY GOOD. I usually don't care about rice bc rice is just rice but this rice is soft and bouncy and sticky and idk just not your typical takeout rice.

KungFu Malatang is on the corner of Brighton and Harvard Ave right across from Meet Fresh. As you walk in you're greeted and shown how you pick your food. You basically get a big bowl and tongs and are told to pick and choose what you'd like in, since there are no signs the people there tell you what is what for things that might be less obvious like the different types of fish balls. It's about $15/lb of food so you get what you pay for. I got a variety of items from glass noodles, meats, and veggies. Then you have the option of choosing your bowl to be cooked with soup or dry (just sauce) and then pick your spice level. I chose tiny, which is 1 pepper with soup and thought it was the perfect amount for me. I really enjoyed the variety of items and loved the super chewy noodles. I wished they had a pitcher of water at our table or were better about refilling out glasses because I definitely needed more water from all the spiciness of the dish. There were a few other tables dining in as well, but they also had quite a few takeout orders that got picked up as well. Overall, this would be a great place to go to warm up in the winter with a nice hotpot soup.

I love eating here when I'm craving malatang! Briefly, this is a place where you pay by weight of ingredients that you want to put into the soup, and then you pay for that and indicate a spicy level and then they take it back cook everything for you and then bring it out! I do want to just disclaim that with that one of these bowls it can get pretty expensive, around $30-$40 depending on what you put in it. However they give you a lot of soup especially with it, so when I come here I usually split one bowl with my friend and it is definitely enough for the both of us, and very cost efficient too!The soup is also very tasty, it tastes like it has a peanut/sesame-base with spice on top!Also protip: you should get the fresh handmade noodles because they are the best here! Also since it's weight based, getting things like potatoes may not be worth it, but getting vegetables is pretty worth it if you like them!

Stopped by for dinner per a friend's recommendation - and I'm so glad I did! There are a lot of great restaurants in the area, so I've passed by Mala Kungfu loads of times, but I've just never found the chance to give it a try. I'm sure other reviews cover this in detail, but the tl;dr of this place is that you assemble a bowl of ingredients and they cook it into a hot-pot-esque soup - you're charged by the weight of your bowl.My bowl was so delicious - the broth was tasty and not too salty, and all of the veggies/fish balls/etc. were just so nicely cooked. The beef (which cost $4 extra) was amazing - tender, juicy, and flavourful, complementing the noodles and lighter ingredients in the soup so well. I particularly loved the many different type of fish balls - cuttlefish, ones with filling, fish cakes - a lot of variety to choose from :)I'm not actually sure exactly the per unit cost (by weight) - but my bowl came out to be around $25 after tax/tip, which is definitely more than I would have expected, both for this type of cuisine and for this neighbourhood around Allston. That being said, my meal was amazing regardless and I will definitely be back soon!