YGF Malatang

Food: authentic mala flavor with medium spicy broth. The flavorful broth went well with all the veggies and fresh meat. To order, you have to pick ingredients you self and the staff with weigh them - has to be over 1 pound Staff: kind and friendly I take off a star because it was hit pricy for malatang - 1 pound was around $~18-20. But the food was good and ambience was clean

In the area and decided to stop by and see what the malatang hype is all about. The service wasn't great and the place looks very casual and slightly close to run down. I like the idea of picking whatever you want to eat and pay by weight. The turnaround was quite quick and maybe for that reason, the soup was not steamy. I actually wondered if it was cooked because there were no signs of steam. But it was and the flavor was decent. Nothing impressive but does the job. The dessert was pretty good though. Overall, this place is great for a quick meal.

The food isn't bad, but service and pricing were not the best. This is a pay as you weigh spot so how much food you put into your bowl determines the price; the price per pound is honestly way too high in my opinion for the quality and quantity of food, but maybe that's just me. The bowl I got was almost $50 - definitely more than I expected given the quantity of food!Service was difficult to work with as well - people are rarely walking around so it was hard to finally get our check as they said they would bring it to us, but they never really appeared until we asked again. The place was also not that clean - I don't think they wipe the tables down every single time between parties.Overall, I probably wouldn't come back, but I think this is an okay spot for malatang-esque food.

service was nice but food was very mediocre; meat/seafood options weren't all that appealing, vegetable options seemed fresh, broth was not very flavorfuloverall a decent meal but nothing special

We were excited to try New England's first YGF Malatang, as we've heard good things about the ones in California. There is limited seating available, and it was quite busy ~5:30pm on a Sunday. Thankfully, the servers are efficient, and there's relatively quick table turnover. This restaurant is a build-your-own malatang with a variety of vegetables, meats, and noodles to choose from. They had a large selection of high quality options including enoki mushrooms, beef, lamb, konjac noodles, wide bean noodles, frog legs, multiple types of tofu, beef and fish balls etc. You pay per pound and then choose a soup base (tomato broth, beef bone broth, or dry spicy mix) for the kitchen to prepare your ingredients with. They also have a free self-service sauce bar with scallions, hosin sauce, sesame sauce, orange slices, and more. We tried the beef bone broth and dry spicy mix. Both were fragrant but notably salty. The weight of your items quickly adds up, and everyone I came with spent ~$28 to $50 on their individual bowls. The ingredients are fresh and it's a unique dining experience, but for the price of dining here, we could've gone to an all-you-can-eat hot pot place or have a big Sichuan meal together instead, so I probably won't be returning anytime soon.

This restaurant is one where you pick out all the stuff you want buffet style, they weigh it, and then they'll cook it with broth or a sauce. As a result, nothing is really perfectly cooked, but it's a warm, hearty meal. The selection is pretty decent though; the staples you'd expect, and some interesting things like frog's legs and konjac noodles; the meat was fine, but some of it was frozen. The bone broth wasn't super savory, mostly kinda salty, which is what kept it back from being a higher rating, and only 'okay'. I think you could tell from how many people had leftover broth instead of drinking it all.The line is quite slow moving, and there seemed to be seats available once you got to the end of the line, which was a concern when looking at how crowded it was!

We were excited to visit YGF since we've been to their locations in California before. We went shortly after opening and could tell that the staff was having trouble keeping up with the business (lots of the items were running low). We tried the beef bone broth and the spicy mix flavors. The spicy mix comes with the sauce on the side and you mix it in yourself. The beef bone broth was quite flavorful. Overall we enjoyed both though we were a bit disappointed by the lack of options. It also seemed a bit pricey for the amount of food we got (each bowl was ~$30) since it's charged by the pound. The dining space is quite small so it might be hard to come here with a larger group.

This is a small restaurant by Newbury Street that serves personal hotpot. The concept is fun: you fill up your own bowl with raw ingredients (meat, vegetables, noodles) and then have them cook it in a broth of your choice. I've been here twice and have tried two broths. One is the bone broth and the other is actually not a broth at all but a dry spice mix. I ordered a bowl of rice each time because I like to eat rice with any form of soup. You have to have a minimum of one pound of raw ingredients and you are charged by the pound. I believe it's around 15.99 per pound. The dry mix I ordered by accident the first time I came because I thought it was going to be a broth. I really enjoyed it and the mala spice was delicious. Not everything is evenly cooked which makes sense considering everything is cooked at once but each item has a different cook time. The second time I got the beef broth which comes in two levels of spiciness. I enjoyed that as well and I make sure to fill up on the meats each time to get my moneys worth. There is a good variety of ingredients to add to your bowl and it gets made quickly. The first time I went, there weren't many people. The second time was after the Celtics parade so it was packed. It was so packed that I had to sit at a table with some strangers to fit everyone in the store but the waitress made it work. This place seems to be understaffed unfortunately, because it looked like there was one or two waitresses for the entire restaurant when it was its busiest and they were stressed. I love this type of food and anything with mala spices. The price is fair for what you get so I will recommend.

Hot pot without the hassle! I've been to the one in Bellevue, WA and was so excited for it to open here. You grab all of your ingredients (meats, fish/meat balls, veggies, noodles), choose your broth, and they cook it in the back for you! You can build your sauce while you wait and find a table (which can be challenging given the limited seating). Once it's ready they bring it out to you. Overall fast and easy process, delicious, and at a good price point (~$15/lb of ingredients). I thought they had a good selection of ingredients, American and Chinese drinks, and the sauce station was pretty good.

I love the build your own hotpot concept, and I enjoy being able to add as much as I want. It's really easy to add too much food into your bowl, but as long as you keep some restraint then it comes out to a reasonable price. My bowl was ~$20 and made me very full. The service was pretty quick and is a great restaurant to go to on a cold day.