MaLuBianBian

Solid AYCE Hot Pot restaurant. Note: They DO provide refills for your soup bases! Service could be better but we did come on a busy night. The interior design/ambiance is pretty cool: makes me feel like I'm in Hong Kong. One thing sort of unique is that it is self-serve for EVERYTHING (veggies, sauces, meats). You go up and pick what you want (most in skewers) then cook it. Be careful when you pull them out because they get stuck to each other and they are bite sizes. Wish they had more actual meat options (just beef and lamb), but overall they have a good variety of hot pot stuff. You also can get ice cream and cotton candy at the end of your meal! I would definitely recommend this to someone wanting to try hot pot but not for frequent hot pot eaters. More places with better options in Houston.

It's an all you can eat hotpot spot; we didn't know but it was an AYCE before going. Plenty of parking in the plaza luckily. You get seated and pick your soup bases and go into their fridge to get all the meat and veggies on sticks to go dunk into the broth. They also have an alright sauce station as well as sliced lamb and fatty beef (hotpot style). Service is kept to refilling your water so it's pretty much do it yourself here. Ambiance is pretty interesting; it's going old school 90's China nostalgia for interior decor, which is definitely a pretty interesting nod to the past. Overall it's a fun experience and the food is pretty decent. Definitely very unhealthy and you will feel pretty tired after eating!

Out of everything I ate in Houston, I thoroughly enjoyed this spot. Total for a meal for 4 was roughly $150, for the half half (spicy and I think pork). Service was not super attentive, but closer to the end we got a bit more attention. Inside is very Interesting and cute.

An updated review since a year ago. They have changed to buffet style, around $31.34 per person with tax, and it includes the broth options (pork broth, spicy broth, or combo). It is such a better deal than before and it is better than any other hot pot places in town. All you can eat style with a variety of options for meat and vegetables, skewers and plated dishes (fatty beef, fatty lamb, noodles, etc.). It also comes with free appetizers (chicken feet, sesame red balls, roasted peanuts, edamames, etc), and the sauce bar. MOST IMPORTANTLY, there is also a cotton candy machine in case you want to make some cotton candy as dessert, and they also have vanilla and chocolate Blue Bell ice cream as part of the buffet (it is in the freezer on the far right, don't miss it). Best hot pot place and best deal in Chinatown!

This is a fun restaurant with unique ambiance and a variety of food options to place into your hotpot. I love how the decor looks like the outdoor street and the colorful tables and walls. Once you are seated, you walk over to the fridge and pick out the meats and veggies you want to add to your pot. Because the pot has two sides, you can decide between spicy or non spicy to cook your food. It's all you can eat, so you can take a leisure pace while also enjoying a wide variety of the offerings. There's also an area with sauces.

Good service, buffet price is reasonable. The business is a bit slow when I was there. If you haven't been, this restaurant is worth to try.

You can recognize this place by the beautiful artwork in the entry and exit. I came here with my best friend to try this place out for my first hot pot. We ordered the 2 pot combo- one half non-spicy the other special spicy. Both soup bases were very flavorful and my favorite was the spicy one! It packed a punch! There's a self serve here with tons of meat and seafood, tofu noodles and fresh veggies! I didn't get to try the seafood but the meat, fresh veggies and noodles were good! You pay for what food you don't finish too so try not to eat with your eyes. Pick out portions by little. There was also fresh fruit here, pretty good. I had my first sesame balls here and I loved them. My friend also loved the edamame. My only issue here is the seating- a good amount is small seating like for little kids and it can be a bit uncomfortable. I plan on visiting again! 9/10

My fave place for hot pot!! Affordable, plenty options and tasty for AYCE. I mean if you don't want to wait so long and receive nasty and worst service at Liu Yi Shou, don't really need a expensive types of meats like Happy Lamb then this place is the best and fun. You can experience eating hotpot by the sticks, plenty choices of toppings, vegetables, service is ok (if they're waitresses, but waiters are not really responsible). I came here most of every week

MaLuBianBian, a cult-favorite with 1000+ locations worldwide, recently opened up on the corner of Diho Square in Chinatown. It's a Sichuan skewer-style hot pot (chuan chuan huo) restaurant, and their name translates to "side of the road." It was founded in 2016 and the decor includes faux neon signs and street scene murals reminiscent of late 20th century Chengdu.I checked out MaLuBianBian with my wife on a Friday evening. Diho Square has plenty of parking in their private lot, and although we made a reservation at 7:30 pm, there were a few tables available. Each table has a space to put one pot of soup with 4 seats, but they can easily put two tables together for larger groups.We wanted to try out the most, so we went with the Two Pot Combo and chose the Special Spicy Dripping Pot broth and the Tomato Soup Pot broth for $12.99. We also ordered two items from the House Special Side Dish Menu including the Special Spicy Beef for $9.99 and the Spicy Clam for $7.99. For drinks, they provided water, but they also had a variety of beers, soft drinks, juice, and tea.We were led to the front where you can choose your dipping sauces, and they had multiple refrigerators with meats, vegetables, noodles, and other items. Each skewer costs $0.38 each, and you're able to fill up a basket with as much as you want for your hot pot. They also had color-coded plates at set prices with specialty items like meats, vegetable bowls, and mushrooms.Overall, I enjoyed MaLuBianBian. It was a fun twist to the typical hot pot we are used to. If I did it over again, I would only order the Tomato Soup Pot broth as it tasted like my childhood. The Special Spicy Beef and Spicy Clam side dishes were super spicy; I would avoid these and just go to the refrigerator to load up on skewers for the hot pot. I wished they gave slotted spoons because we found the items on the skewers would get lost in the bottom of the hot pot. By the end of the meal, your waiter/waitress will count up all of the skewers and calculate how much you owe. I would recommend checking MaLuBianBian out if you've never tried skewer-style hot pot before!

As one of the most famous hot pot chains out of China, I feel strongly that MaLuBianBian's presence alone legitimizes Chinatown as a true enclave of the city. Meaning "side of the road" (马路边边), this Sichuanese (#1) inspired spot brings a slightly unconventional approach to the thriving all you can eat hot pot scene. The eclectic decor is meant to mimic the Chengdu food scene with the glow-up Chinese character signage, colorful furniture, and artistic murals. Even the music has been on point (#2), as well as the ventilation for the mugginess. Visually, the place is quite unique relative to its competition and definitely has the look and feel down, 100%.To get food, it's mainly self-serve. Instead of a buffet spread , it's freezers and a sauce bar. The veggies and meats are all laid out for everyone, so there's not real choosing wisely. Truth be told, the broth selection matters more than the foods that they have laying out. The price now is $29 for the whole experience and I'd recommend ordering the crispy fried pork and brown sugar rice cake from their snacks / appetizers.The service could be better and by better, I mean faster and more polite. They're all Mandarin speaking and a little slow on getting everything including waters and napkins. It's not much to ask for when everyone is serving / cooking everything for themselves.There's plenty of parking in their shared lot. They accept credit card but definitely prefer cash. I would recommend this place to anyone looking for a unique hot pot experience in the heart of Chinatown.__________(#1) If I'm not writing Peking for Beijing, I'm definitely not writing Szechuan. (#2) And sometimes dominated by Jay Chou.