[Eat Nico] Delicious Chinese Hot Pot That Fills You with Smiles! MALA CANTINE at PJ
Welcome to Tabe Ni Ko Blog! This time, we’re introducing MALA CANTINE, a Chinese-style hotpot restaurant located in PJ, Kuala Lumpur 🍲🍲🍲
Chinese-style hot pots often feature rich, heavy broths, but the soup here is light and clean, with a well-balanced dashi flavor. Even my foodie friends, who came along, couldn’t stop raving about how delicious the broth was 😋😋😋. It was so good that we couldn’t stop smiling, and everyone left completely satisfied 😄😄😄
Mmm, what a wonderful aroma! The soup smells absolutely incredible～!!! I felt enveloped in pure happiness 🤩
Have you ever tried Chinese-style hot pot? The owner of this restaurant, Marcus, hails from Chongqing, China. About two years ago, he opened this spot in PJ, adapting Chongqing’s signature local dish, huoguo (hot pot), to suit the tastes of Chinese-Malaysian palates.
Vegetables, fish, and offal are simmered, while the thinly sliced meat is cooked by swishing it in the broth (shabu-shabu style) before eating.
That day, we enjoyed an incredible variety: six of us sampled eight different types of soup! Isn’t eight types amazing? Usually, you’d expect a large pot with a divider in the middle, offering just two soup options, but here, the ability to enjoy a wide range of soups is a huge draw! Girls love being able to try all sorts of different flavors, right? Anty Sai is a girl too, so she absolutely loves this kind of thing 🤩👍🤩👍🤩👍
We were also overwhelmed by the sheer variety of ingredients. They offer a rich selection of offal and organ meats that you don’t often find at other restaurants. We polished off a mountain of ingredients that barely fit on the table, all shared among the six of us. Ah, it was so delicious! I want to go back and eat it again!! This is definitely going on the list of restaurants I’d take friends visiting from overseas to!!
Since they source and prepare their ingredients fresh every day, everything is incredibly fresh!! For particularly perishable items like fish and offal, they thoughtfully place ice on the plates and then set the ingredients on top. In Malaysia, it’s rare to find a restaurant that pays such close attention to freshness like this. You can eat with complete peace of mind.
There was an incredible amount of food, but the soup was light and not greasy, and the meat was sliced thinly, making it so easy to eat—I just couldn’t stop devouring it!
The soup I ordered this time
Ordered every single soup on the menu 😄😋😊
- SB01 Signature ChongQing Mala Spicy Soup Full Soup: RM15.90, Half Soup: RM9.90
Homemade soup. The Marcus family has been making spicy (mala) hot pot soup in Chongqing for 40 years, and Mala Shitang continues to serve soup based on that same 40-year-old secret family recipe. You can choose from three levels of spiciness, but even the mildest option is considered quite spicy by Malaysians, so it will be extremely hot for Japanese palates. If you’re confident in your ability to handle heat, definitely give it a try!
- SB02 ChongQing Sour Radish Soup Full Soup: RM9.90, Half Soup: RM6.90
Tangy Radish Soup
- SB03 Tomato Soup Full Soup: RM9.90, Half Soup: RM6.90
Organic tomato soup. Since it’s been sautéed first, there’s a slight sheen of oil on the surface, and its rich red color might make it look spicy, but it’s not spicy at all.
- SB04 Matsutake Mushroom Soup Full Soup: RM9.90, Half Soup: RM6.90
A soup packed with various mushrooms (fungi), including matsutake and shiitake
5. SB05 Collagen Soup Full Soup: RM18.90, Half Soup: RM10.90
A collagen-rich herbal soup packed with chicken, golden needle mushrooms (Chinese herbal medicine), and premium fish belly. It was the absolute number one soup among the eight varieties we tried today, even for my friend who joined me. It’s highly recommended because it perfectly suits Japanese palates! 🤩🤩🤩👍👍👍
- SB06 Clear Soup Full Soup: RM9.90, Half Soup: RM6.90
A soup simmered for hours in pork belly and chicken bones
- SB07 Vegetarian Soup Full Soup: RM9.90, Half Soup: RM6.90
A vegetarian mushroom soup made without meat, featuring matsutake mushrooms. It’s also suitable for Malays. This is the non-spicy version.
- SB08 Vegetarian Mala Spicy Soup Full Soup: RM15.90, Half Soup: RM9.90
Vegetarian soup with no meat. Malays can enjoy it too. The spicy version.
By the way, they also offer vegetarian fillings, which are sourced from a dedicated vegetarian restaurant.
If you’re too lazy to pick your fillings, just order everything below! Here are the standout fillings and snacks from our order that we especially loved.
ME04 An Xin Pork Shoulder Slice 安心猪肩肉片 RM9.9
ME10 H.M Coriander Meatball (Hand-Pounded Coriander Meatballs) – RM13.90
Pork meatballs with cilantro—these are incredibly delicious and highly recommended!!
ME13 New Zealand Lamb Shank Slices RM19.9
ME14 Australian Beef (Ribeye) – RM18.8
ME16 Australian Beef Tongue – RM11.9
ME18 Fresh Beef Omasum (Fresh Tripe) – RM15.90
BA10 H.M Shrimp Paste Hand-Beaten Shrimp Paste RM12.9
SF04 Sliced Premium Dory Fish 特级龙利鱼片 RM11.9
MR01 Oyster Mushroom (鲍鱼菇) RM4.9
MR08 Fujian Bamboo Fungus (福建竹荪) RM9.9
SN05 Mala Salad (Spicy Red Oil Tossed Salad) – RM19.90
It’s a stir-fry packed with all sorts of veggies! The flavor is absolutely spot-on for my taste (I’m sure Japanese folks will love it too)—I could easily polish off a whole plate by myself. The sesame oil hits just right, giving it a lovely nutty aroma and making it super delicious! 😋
SN01 Signature Fried Pork Slice 麻麻炸鸡块 RM15.9
Crispy, golden karaage pork and chicken—perfect for pairing with drinks!
ME19 MLCT Spicy Sirloin Beef Slices 秘制麻辣牛肉片 RM 15.9
After that, order your favorite vegetables and finish off with noodles! The soup is so delicious that the noodles soaked in it are absolutely amazing 👍👍👍
Marcus, the owner of MALA, is younger than me, runs the shop, and is also a well-known YouTuber.
A dish made by Marcus
SN05 Mala Salad (Spicy Red Oil Tossed Vegetables) – RM19.9
SN01 Signature Fried Pork Slice 麻麻炸鸡块 RM15.9
The dishes I’ve made
ME14 Australia Beef (Ribeye) 澳洲牛肋眼肉片 RM18.8
ME19 MLCT Spicy Sirloin Beef Slices 秘制麻辣牛肉片 RM 15.9
The top 3 items I ordered that I found especially delicious 🤩👍
The 3rd place goes to this↓↓↓
BA10 H.M Shrimp Paste Hand-Pounded Shrimp Paste RM12.9
Shrimp meatballs. Scoop a bite-sized portion with a spoon and simmer it in the hot pot before eating! The shrimp meatballs soak up the soup and become so delicious~ 🤩
Number 2 is this↓↓↓
ME18 Fresh Beef Omasum (Beef Tripe) – RM15.9
I took this photo while I was eating, so there’s actually a bit more than what you see here.
This is buffalo stomach. It might look unappealing due to its dark color, but it has a satisfying crunch and is delicious. They buy 2 kg every day, wash it thoroughly, and discard about 1 kg of the inedible parts—so only half is usable. It’s truly a labor-intensive process to prepare it properly.
The No. 1 spot goes to this↓↓↓
MR08 Fujian Bamboo Fungus 福建竹荪 RM9.9
When my husband’s family cooks, I often enjoy Bamboo Fungus, which has a texture reminiscent of fish belly. It was my first time trying it. Most Japanese people have probably never eaten either fish belly or Bamboo Fungus, but it has a delightful texture similar to thinly sliced bamboo shoots. I highly recommend giving it a try!
The finest Longchi (Zhuyeqing) green tea from Chongqing. It’s said that drinking this tea after enjoying a hot pot helps eliminate excess grease. It’s an incredibly fragrant tea. Highly recommended after your meal!
Left: ChongQing Bamboo Green Tea 重庆竹叶青茶 RM10.0
Right: Xi Hu Long Jing Tea 西湖龙井茶 RM12.0
Inside the shop. It’s clean and hygienic, and there are plenty of IH burners so even a small group can enjoy up to four different soups at once! You can try all sorts of flavors 😊
A deeply satisfying culinary journey that left both my stomach and heart full 🍛🍜🍚🍛🍜🍚
Our culinary journey—Tabeniko!—will continue! 🤩🤩🤩
Website: https://malacantine.com/
Restaurant Name: MALA CANTINE 麻辣食堂
Contact: 0378860564 / 0147112043
Address:
📍 22, Jalan SS24/13, Taman Megah, 47301, Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
🚗 Waze: https://waze.com/ul/hw2838pps4
