Sammi
We came into Yintang on a Sunday night after the wait for Zhangliang Malatang was up to an hour. You have to join the waitlist in person — we joined it at 7:20pm and were seated at 7:50. The main server was on top of it, running around between very table.
For hot pot, first you grab a bowl and tons, then you pick your ingredients, and finally, you go to the register to weigh your bowl (pay by the pound) and pick your broth or dry mix. They show you the total first, then you pay after you eat — in case you want to add more food later.
My bowl came out to 25$ and my friend’s to 27$, and we both took home leftovers. Their beef selection wasn’t as varied as other spots we’ve been to, but my favorites were the tripe, tendon, carved squid, and sea urchin balls. The bone broth (mild) was super flavorful and just the right amount of spice.
Parking at the complex can be tight, so we found street parking on Engineer Rd. The restaurant has a decent amount of seating, as well as both hot pot and skewer options. All in all, we would definitely come back!
… morePrincess Swan
We chose to dine without a reservation, a party of two. The wait was manageable, about 10 minutes. Parking is quite difficult here. The restaurant isn’t stroller-friendly, as it has very small tables for two, making it a bit cramped next to other diners. You can serve yourself all the meats and vegetables you’d like to add to your hot pot. Once you’ve added everything, you take your bowl to the cash register and specify your preferred broth. This is one of the best hot pot places I’ve visited, and I highly recommend it.
… moreMari G
+ good variety of ingredients, delicious
– each stock is spicy (except maybe tomato one) we got a beef stock for a child saying it’s no spicy, but it was spicy.
Recommended to visit my soup on photo was 25$ (1.8 pounds). It’s nice they have take away option
… moreOlive T
It’s refreshing to have a rainy day in the middle of the summer here in San Diego and eating hot pot sounded like a perfect lunch idea. So, we decided to try Yintang Spicy Hotpot on Convoy Street. The waitstaff greeted us as we walked in and asked us to grab a seat/table for our group. We then were advised to get a big bowl and tong by the buffet like bar wall and then put in the bowl with all the customized hotpot ingredients (meat, noodles, veggies, seafood, fried dumplings, etc.) we’d like. After that we went up to the register to weigh in the ingredients, at $13.99 per pound (minimum 1 pound). We had to choose what broth and the spice level we wanted for our individual hot pot. In a separate bowl, we also picked 5 skewers of veggies options (minimum is 5 skewers) for them to fry them for us. There was a huge skewers selection in the refrigerator. Skewers don’t get weighted. We paid cash so we got free drinks. Waitstaff brought the finished steaming hotpot bowls to our table along with our water. Since we put in lots of ingredients into our bowls, we couldn’t finish our food and ended up take home the leftovers which were good for the next couple of meals. We ate all the handmade noodles at the restaurant and bought extra uncooked handmade noodles for the next meals at home. There were other types of noodles to choose from but we loved the handmade ones the most. We loved our hotpot bowls with the original broth and the curry broth but were very disappointed with the skewers which were unsavory, chewy and very oily/greasy. We will not get the fried greasy skewers again as they were fried in old cooking oil. We enjoyed our hotpot and when the weather gets cold, we will visit again.
… moreAlano Leo
I come to Yintan Malatang almost every week — it has truly become my go-to comfort food spot in San Diego.
The broth is always delicious, the ingredients are fresh, and the portion is generous every single time.
What really impresses me is that after three years, they still haven’t raised their prices.
In San Diego, this kind of consistency and honesty is so rare.
Such a hardworking, reliable, and genuinely customer-friendly restaurant.
Highly recommend to anyone who loves flavorful, authentic malatang!
Five stars every time!
… moreandy flick
An interesting hot pot because you pick out the ingredients (you place them with tongs into a wet bowl), select the broth, and they cook it up for you. They also give you the option of skewers which were very tasty. And you can select spice level, so you have a lot of control over the meal, which is great. Some of the ingredients were suspect, like the crab sticks which seemed like crab-flavored tofu. That aside, was a positive experience. The place was very dirty. There was a dirty cardboard box on the floor, the bowls for the food weren’t clean, the table wasn’t wiped off. I guess that adds authenticity? Music was kind of loud in the restaurant too. Also I thought it was pricey— two hotpots one round of skewers and water (no waiter service, your on your own for water) was $52. They charge you by the pound, and a minimum 1-lbs is standardized per hotpot customer.
… moreMwuaks Channel
At $13.99 per pound, enjoy and share this hot pot bowl with your partner or friend. The rich, original beef broth pairs beautifully with a peanut sauce-based dip, creating a sumptuous and flavorful meal.
… moreJavier Alfalla
Food was ok the skewers were a little too greasy like they were cooked in oil that wasn’t hot enough. The soup was somewhat flavorless and i did notice some cabbage with mold on the line. Atmosphere is nice but service feels a bit curt even though we arrived close to opening and it wasn’t busy at all yet.
… moreadi mart
Huge portion. Minimum of 1lb. and a minimum of 5 for the skewers. I have no idea why i grabbed a carrot and cabbage skewer when there’s a section with a variety of other veggies; but this turned out to taste really great. The skewers are good. We tried the octopus legs, chicken, and beef skewers.
As for the soup, both of us tried the beef soup, with just a variation in spice level. One is mild, the other one being medium. I wish i could have just said no spice. Although not sure if tgat exist, coz we were not offered. But maybe it can be requested, not sure. The mild broth wasn’t really mild for a toddler to like.
The sesame sauce is ok, i think one just has to be familiar with mixing and putting flavors on the sauces. For us, it wasn’t that necessary coz the broth itself has a lot of flavors already.
… moreSangyoon Kim
I ordered spicy dry hotpot medium spicy for to go. I expected it to look like the photos at the store (more red colored), but I was disappointed when I opened the container at home. Also, the flavor hadn’t seeped into the ingredients, so it didn’t taste that good. For $37, I expected better food, but I was very disappointed.
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