Chilipa Brighton Ave

Great dry mala pot! You can customize what you want to add in your pot and choose the spice level. I recommend mild spicy (小辣) for people who don’t eat that spicy! The portion is big so you can share with the others. Their bento box is okay. Delicious and authentic but since every dishes were premade for you to choose sometimes it’s not very fresh.

To be fair, you get what you pay for, which means their quality matches their low price. The whole place is run by Cantonese people so don’t expect anything authentic. The vegetarian mala tang was somewhat bland with a lot of msg, ingredients are extremely cheap but the quantity and taste were alright for the price.

Extremely under-rated. A lot of haters. But ma la xiang guo is extremely rare in the states, and especially ones where you can select what gets put in the pot from a buffet. This place was one of the highlights from my grad school years in Boston. Can't go wrong with all the veggies, fish, and assorted mushrooms and tofus. So fast and amazing. Wish they had a branch in Chicagoland. You hear me Chilipa? I need you back in my life. 😭 Without you I no ma nor la nemore. How do you make the sauce btw? Please send recipe.

This is our go-to spicy chinese food in the Boston area. We get to choose our own meat and veggies and they stir fry it in a spicy sichuan sauce. We absolutely love going here. The first few visits to this place was a little tricky because some of the cashier folks don't converse fluently in English. But over time, its gotten better. They are a really nice bunch; they even remember our order (we go there about once a week ) and take great care of us when we are there.