Sinchon mala restaurant: brisket maocai & cumin fried pork, Mala Yeou

I usually love spicy, fiery food, and after a while I suddenly craved mala, so I headed to Sinchon. There are so many restaurants in Sinchon, but this is the story of my visit to Mala Yeou (마라여우), a spot near Sinchon Station known for numbing, spicy mala dishes and crispy side dishes~

Mala Yeou Sinchon Main Branch: location and hours

Mala Yeou Sinchon Main Branch is at 16 Yeonse-ro 5ga-gil, 2nd floor, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul. It is open daily from 11:30 to 21:30, with a break from 15:30 to 17:00 and last order at 20:50.

Is Mala Yeou a good place to eat alone?

Mala Yeou has a clean, casual feel that suits everything from a solo meal to lunch with a friend. The area around Sinchon Station and Yonsei University has lots of options, from student favorites to office-worker lunches, and I was craving numbing, spicy Chinese food, so I came to this Sinchon mala spot! It's a comfortable place to enjoy mala dishes.

Self-service system and the egg tart review event

At Mala Yeou near Sinchon Station, small plates, cutlery, aprons, pickled radish, and drinks and alcohol are all self-service. If you join the Naver receipt review event, you also get a handmade egg tart, limited to 12 per day, so be sure to take part~

What can you order at Mala Yeou?

They say Mala Yeou started with developing Korea's first 3-second mala mixed noodles, and now offers a range of mala flavors with its own special mala taste, including suanlafen (hot and sour glass noodles), majang mala tang (sesame paste mala soup), mala rice noodles, and fried meat. We chose the beef mala maocai, made with 10 ingredients and mala sauce, and the handmade zira fried pork, made from Korean pork loin fried to order. With the appeal of mala plus crispy fried pork, it became a special weekday lunch that blew all my stress away!

How spicy is the medium beef mala maocai?

The beef mala maocai comes in mild, medium, or spicy, and the medium was deliciously spicy! Beef maocai was the dish I was most looking forward to, and true to mala cooking, its charm is the numbing spice aroma and deep heat.

The maocai has 10 different ingredients, so it was a hearty bowl rich in both flavor and texture. The mala sauce brings out a tingly flavor that spreads through your mouth, and the tofu noodles, bok choy, tender sliced beef brisket, and assorted vegetables all soak up that mala aroma and taste. Deliciously fiery, stress-blasting flavor!!!

Adding peanut sauce to the beef mala maocai

I asked for peanut sauce with the fiery maocai, and it turned into a flavor where heat and nuttiness coexist. It's an unusual combination, but really appealing, and it made my mouth feel so much more colorful!!!

How is the handmade zira fried pork different from ordinary fried pork?

Mala Yeou's handmade zira fried pork is Korean pork loin fried right when you order, then sprinkled with handmade zira, the cumin seasoning you dip lamb skewers in. So you get a different aroma and flavor from ordinary fried pork, and it's a really appealing dish!! It was another impressive one, and it made me look forward to that crispy texture.

The first thing that charmed me on the first bite was the texture of the fried pork!! The batter and meat thickness are ideal, the outside crunches and the meat's texture carries on inside, and the exotic aroma of zira completes a new kind of flavor I'd never tasted before!

Why you should alternate between the maocai and the zira fried pork

When you eat mala, the spicy, numbing taste keeps building, and adding crispy handmade zira fried pork changes the texture, so it's a side you should definitely order. Above all, alternating between the beef maocai and the fried pork lets you enjoy different flavors better than eating them separately, and the contrasting textures and tastes made a harmonious pairing!

Mala Yeou Sinchon Main Branch weekday lunch: overall verdict

Enjoying beef mala maocai and handmade zira fried pork for a weekday lunch let me taste the spicy flavor of mala and the crispy texture of fried pork in turns, so it was a satisfying meal! If you like mala, the familiar numbing tingle is a welcome sight, and adding zira-scented fried pork turns it into something different from an ordinary lunch.

If you search for Sinchon restaurants and only think of malatang, I highly recommend the variety of mala dishes at Mala Yeou Sinchon Main Branch too. Honestly, I was someone who didn't like mala, but Mala Yeou near Sinchon Station opened my eyes to a whole new world of mala!