NO.1 Malatang Kingsford

Delicious soup base. Big ingredients variety. Great value.

Yang Guo Fu Ma La Tang Kingsford is probably the cleanest exemplar of this chain I’ve visited, perhaps because, being in Kingsford, it’s in slightly lower demand than either of their bustling Haymarket or Burwood stores. Despite this, I still found this decor-free white space doing a roaring trade at 9.25pm on a Monday night, with every table occupied. The process at each store is exactly the same: you grab your bowl and some tongs, load it up with your own selection of ingredients, get it weighed, cooked, and then dressed with sauces before settling in for a spicy soup that leaves laksa for dead.Being a malatang veteran, I’ve got a lot better at making my ingredient selections. I don’t add more than one of each thing, and I add twice the amount of greens I think I need, because they shrink considerably. I don’t sweat not knowing what things are. Everything that lines the two bain Maries tastes great when eaten in the spicy malatang, from explosive quail eggs to brown dried scallops. Our resulting soups both come in around the twelve-buck mark for a complete meal in a bowl.Being unlicensed, I take two punts at Asian drink lotto without worrying about what they are either. Today it produces a Japanese drink called Calpis ($3.50) made with milk, yeast and lactic acid bacterium that’s cooling and soothing after forays into the spicy soup, and a Coconut Palm ($3.50) brand coconut juice that has a lightly creamy, tannic, almost tea-like flavour. On their own they both are slightly sweet, but this works out to be a relief after you dig into your malatang.Your biggest problem here will be parking, thanks to the NSW Government’s ongoing destruction of a major arterial: ANZAC Parade. Their seemingly endless, over-budget light rail construction is now slated to ruin trade for these local small businesses until March 2020.

Update May 2021: changed review from 5 to 2 stars. This particular branch seems to have changed its soup base for the malatang or has stopped adding some ingredients making its soup base far inferior to what it used to be. Still tastes ok but very disappointing and not that enjoyable when you know what it used to be like. Go to another branch if you want the number 1" experienceOld review:The best ma la tang chain in Sydney in terms of taste! amazing original soup base which is full of flavour and unbeatable. Has recently renovated and rebranded but still #1.Update: price was previously $24/kg for thr past few years

Don’t expect five-star service but the variety of ingredients is great, they cook your food for you and the soup is delicious! Spicy, salty, sweet, sour.

Pick your own ingredients, and they will cook it in their signature soup.Great for those cold days when you feel hungry, but be careful as it is easy to go overboard and order too much food.Place gets packed so best to go early or late (after 8:30pm) to ensure that you get a seat.

Poor service and excessive wait time!!!! Can't even speak English and poor management skill. I have to wait for 30 min for the meal and when I asked for refund they refused its already cooking". Will never come back again and not recommended . Better go to the Chinese shop next door."

The soup base is very much different to the other No.1 Malatang"

Food was what you expect for Malatang. However the hygiene of the staff members here is really questionable. The lady at the till spent the whole time coughing and spluttering on every thing - sauces, cuttlety, ect… ironically she had a camo print face mask hanging around her chin while she was coughing on everything. No attempt to cover mouth either. Absolutely foul, considering all the food is uncovered. I also heard a lot of sneezing coming from the kitchen, which made me nervous as if the hygiene was so poor in Front of House, in front of customers. I don’t even want to know what was happening behind closed doors

Today I came here at 8:33pm staff said sorry we’re closed. I checked from google maps before that show open till 9:30pm Just wanna make sure what time you close exactly?

You choose what goes in your soup; greens, mushrooms, tofu, Chinese veges, proteins, noodles, a variety of fish and meat balls. Then choose your toppings. Pretty good as you pay for only what you choose. Could do with better cutlery and beverage choices.