Mala chili 麻辣川味

"Nut allergy - I was fine with what we ordered and highlighted my allergy on the order. A small restaurant in a big plaza, Mala Chili has about 12 tables inside. Funny enough they have a kiosk to order to-go at the door, though we also saw many people calling in and picking up. The staff speak English and Chinese. Service was extremely fast - dishes came out within 15 minutes of ordering. They've got a cute robot server that will bring out a few dishes. For two people, we got the following and had leftovers: - Spicy Chicken (4.5/5): As other reviews indicate, the portions are great, the chicken is on the levels of Korean Fried Chicken of crispy, and it's got the right about of numbing heat. Great with rice. - Hoof Flower Soup (1.5/5): Portions aren't great for the price and we actually thought it needed more salt. The pieces are more bone than anything. They did say that they're trying to dial this one in after being told it was too salty. - Red Oil Bamboo Shoots (3.5/5): Also good portions and good with rice. A little too oily, but it's in the name! - Beef Rice Noodle Soup Spicy (3/5 - 4/5): I thought we made a mistake ordering rice noodles. They were initially bland. But the meat and vegetables were pretty flavorful! I let it cool down a bit and tried the noodles again after 5-10 minutes and I think they absorbed some of the soup, giving them a good flavor. Maybe the lingering flavor was from another dish but I upped my rating with time. - Purple Rice Yogurt drink (4/5): Honestly just a unique experience that I'd recommend trying. It wasn't really for me but if you like Yakult you'll probably like it. Overall, the value is great for the dishes they did well and I will return to try the mapu tofu, maoxuewang and other specialties."

"YUM! We were sad thinking the Yomie's Rice and Yogurt from the previous occupant was gone, but were SO excited to learn it is still here - get the mango pomelo sago yogurt drink if you even kind of enjoy boba drinks. To add to the excitement, this restaurant has DELICIOUS food too. We got the tangerine chicken, mapo tofu, soup dumplings, chicken potstickers, and the spicy chicken. They seem to have a good mix of Western- and traditional-style foods to suit any crowd. The staff were friendly and let us know when we included a side of rice in our order that it was included for free and they would take off the charge for us. Everything about this place was great from start to finish and we can't wait to go back and try the rest of the menu!"

"Really delicious food full of flavor. It’s a bit rare to find Chinese food that’s flavored so well in Austin. Everything we got was delicious, especially the spicy chicken! Their service was good too. Spicy chicken: 100/10 Cucumber salad: 10/10 Bokchoy: 9.5/10 Stir fry green beans: 8.5/10 Chili oil wontons: 9/10 Soup dumplings: 8/10 (bit doughy) Yaunxing chicken: 5/10 Jelly noodles: 8.5/10 Dan Dan noodles: 7/10 (bit sweet) Yogurt drinks: 10/10"

"Great Chinese! Very flavorful and the Sichuan soup we got was delicious and numbing as it should. Eggplants were on the sweet side. Salt and pepper shrimp were crispy and big. The Peking duck was good but Bamboo's better to me."

"I and my wife were excited to get a new Sichuan in the neighborhood, but experience quickly turned out to disappointment. Parking is easy. There were a lot of spots. We came around 3pm, and got seated quickly. The vibe was ok. The dining room not very well organized with nothing on the table: no dinnerware, no sauces.. Food was ok. Not too bad but nothing special. It tastes the same with any Chinese buffet that I have been, but much more expensive.Don’t feel any Sichuan flavor tho. We ordered 3 dishes: hot and sour soup, stif fried onion beef, special fried rice. The soup was pre made that I didn’t expect. There was few beef in the dish, and a lot of onion. The fried rice is very “special” with spam and bean sprouts which I don’t usually see in Chinese cuisine. Shrimp is small frozen type. Again, as a dine in restaurant, I expected more. Service was not good at all. The server was at my table 4 times: seated us, ordered food, brought food, and brought the bills. He wasn’t attentive at all. No quality checked on the food. The restaurant was almost empty with only 2 tables , but I need to go find dinnerware, sauces, togo bags… MYSELF. As a new opening restaurant, they should care more than it. The feeling they gave me is that they don’t need customers at all. No smile, no welcome, no check."