Bloomington has a new hot pot restaurant on Kirkwood. Malatang, a Chinese inspired hot pot restaurant, opened Sept. 1 at 430 E. Kirkwood Ave.
The restaurant serves partially do-it-yourself hot pots, and customers get to choose from a selection of vegetables and produce to include in their bowls. Traditionally, Malatang is a spicy soup-based dish named after one of the dishes’ main ingredients, mala sauce. The name Malatang in Mandarin translates to hot spicy, but the restaurant offers five different soup broths and dry mixes with a range of spice levels.
While Malatang is similar to ramen, a Japanese noodle soup dish, assistant manager John Qian said ramen has limited options of toppings and noodles to choose from, whereas the restaurant has up to 70 different ingredient options.
The bowls at the restaurant cost $15 dollars per pound, no matter the ingredients. Malatang also delivers food through two different platforms: HungryPanda and Fantuan.
Malatang offers a variety of fix-ins to choose from. According to Qian, some of the ingredients are imported from Asia, such as lobster, beef and fish balls, tofu skins and bamboo. The rest of the ingredients are sourced from local supermarkets, such as Kroger, and farmers markets.
Unlike other hot pot restaurants in the area, the bowl is sent back to the kitchen to be cooked and then served, rather than cooking the bowl at the table.
While Malatang shares a front door and kitchen with Yatagarasu, a ramen restaurant, the businesses are under separate management, as Malatang is located in the downstairs half of the building.
In addition to the new location, Malatang has restaurants in Lafayette and Champaign, Illinois. Qian believes Malatang’s food is popular among college students, which is why they have gravitated toward these areas.
The restaurant is open from noon to 2:30 p.m. and 5-11 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from noon to midnight Friday through Sunday.
