Mala Youhuo

Frommer's Review

Beijing's obsession with Sichuan cuisine seems to have no end, and this restaurant, where locals queue down the street on a Monday night, currently enjoys the most fanatical following. Service is surprisingly friendly for such a busy restaurant, and the mock-village decor is cheesy but fun. The signature dish, shuizhu yu (boiled fish with chile and numbing hot peppers) comes in three different varieties, grass carp (caoyu), catfish (nianyu), and blackfish (heiyu). We still prefer the traditional grass carp, but the slightly firmer and less slippery blackfish makes a nice change. For a walk on the culinary wild side, try mala tianluo, field snails stewed in chile and numbing hot pepper. Skewers are provided to extract the flesh from the sizable mollusks. Leave the innermost black part to the side, unless you want a serious tummy ache. A nice antidote to all the spice is a clear soup with seasonal leafy greens, tutang shicai. A second branch recently opened northeast of Da Zhong Si.

Note: This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without notice. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip.

Back to Top