Suwon malatang restaurant: rainy-day dinner for a couple, Rahongbang

What is Rahongbang Malatang in Cheoncheon-dong, Suwon?

Rahongbang Malatang Suwon Cheoncheon Branch (라홍방마라탕) is a malatang specialist in Cheoncheon-dong, Suwon, where you pick the ingredients you want and they cook them as malatang (spicy Chinese-style hot pot soup) or mala xiang guo (stir-fried in mala sauce). After work, I went for malatang and mala xiang guo.

I'd eaten here before, and when you can pick whatever ingredients you like, of course it tastes better! You can adjust the spice level, and the prices are great value, so it's an easy place to enjoy malatang without any pressure.

Location and exterior of Rahongbang Suwon Cheoncheon Branch

Rahongbang is on the first floor of Sehwa Plaza in Cheoncheon-dong. It's close to Starfield Suwon, so it's super handy to drop in when you've come out shopping.

Besides malatang and mala xiang guo, they have plenty of other meal dishes too, like fried rice and guobaorou (crispy sweet-and-sour pork)!

Inside Rahongbang: waiting and seating

This is the inside of Rahongbang. There's usually always a wait at mealtimes, but maybe because it was raining that day, it was pretty relaxed.

It's a decent size with plenty of tables, so it works for solo meals, dates, family dinners and group gatherings, a comfortable place to drop in.

Rahongbang menu and prices

Here's the menu. The sides include cream shrimp and guobaorou in several flavors, and for rice there were egg fried rice and shrimp fried rice.

• Malatang ₩2,000 per 100g
• Mala xiang guo ₩3,300 per 100g

The system is that you put the ingredients you want from the 50 or so options into a basket, pay, and they cook it for you.

You can adjust the spice level from 1 to 5.

What ingredients does Rahongbang have?

Rahongbang has a wide range of ingredients in an open fridge section, so it's really nice to choose to your own taste. Just take a basket and put in as much of what you want as you can eat.

• Fish balls, square fish cakes, frozen tofu
• Bok choy, enoki, shiitake and king oyster mushrooms
• Sausage, three kinds of rice cake, fish cake balls, shrimp balls, ham, fuzhu (dried tofu skin), dumplings, watermelon-shaped fenmozi (konjac-style potato starch noodles)
• Fried tofu pouches, ramen noodles, panda-shaped fenmozi
• Bean sprouts, cilantro, corn noodles, lotus root, sweet pumpkin, thin noodles, napa cabbage
• Wood ear mushrooms, white wood ear mushrooms, squid, tripe, tofu, three kinds of wide flat glass noodles, three kinds of fenmozi and more

There are more than 50 kinds, a really wide variety. Even better, beef and lamb are charged at the same weight rate as vegetables, so the value is amazing! And as you can see, it's kept clean, so I felt at ease using it!

The basic side dish and sauces are right on the opposite side, so just help yourself.

How much did it cost for two?

My husband and I filled our baskets to taste. We put in lots of meat, and the vegetables and toppings added up to quite a lot more than expected, yet malatang and mala xiang guo together came to just under ₩40,000. I was so surprised, haha! The value is really good.

What we ordered and our self-serve bar sauce combo

We ordered malatang, mala xiang guo, a cider (lemon-lime soda) and an iced tea.

We brought the side dish and sauces from the self-serve bar ourselves. The basic side dish is thinly sliced pickled radish. I made my sauce with peanut sauce, some mala paste (I think?) and a little sugar.

My husband ordered a drink, a Chinese lemon black tea iced tea, and it wasn't too sweet and tasted good!

How spicy is level 1 malatang at Rahongbang?

Level 1 (regular) malatang at Rahongbang was less spicy than Shin Ramyun. My malatang came out made with the ingredients I'd picked, and maybe because they were all my favorites, it looked incredibly mouthwatering. I had to eat with my spice-wimp husband, so I chose level 1, regular!

I asked for the cilantro separately after paying, and they chopped it and prepared it on a plate.

The lamb was so tender and nutty the more you chew! Lamb really suits malatang better than beef, I think, and it's so good!

Heaps of chewy, bouncy mushrooms too, haha!

Corn noodles and wide flat glass noodles are a must in malatang! The flat noodles were cooked so they didn't go soggy, and they're wonderfully chewy, and the corn noodles are firm, don't get mushy, and taste nuttier the more you chew, so they went really well.

Is it better to get the cilantro separately?

Malatang with fresh green cilantro! Rather than cilantro boiled in the soup, it's much tastier to fish out the vegetables and meat and eat them with cilantro that's still crisp like this.

Dipped in the nutty peanut sauce, you can really taste the peanut flavor! The fluffy frozen tofu soaks up all the broth and is absolutely delicious.

How is Rahongbang's mala xiang guo different from the malatang?

Mala xiang guo is a dish where the ingredients are stir-fried in mala sauce, and even at the same regular level it was a bit spicier than the malatang. My husband's chosen ingredients came out as mala xiang guo, and it has a different charm from the malatang, so ordering both goes together really well. Great!

I ordered the mala xiang guo at regular level too, but it tasted a bit spicier than the malatang! The lamb had no gamey smell at all, nutty and a great match for the spicy mala sauce,

and the bit of seafood in it was surprisingly good, so I added squid, and it was chewy and totally delicious! Since it's stir-fried in the sauce, the mala flavor feels much stronger, which is totally my style, haha!

They had tripe, so I added it for the first time, and it turns out to be a taste that makes you crave a beer! I also put in fuzhu and flower-shaped fenmozi, and picking through the chewy bits is half the fun. Making it with only my favorite ingredients made it even more delicious!

Rahongbang revisit: overall verdict

I went to Rahongbang in Cheoncheon-dong, Suwon for malatang and mala xiang guo, and it was a success again! You get it made with the ingredients you want, but the owner must also have a good touch: the variety of ingredients, the cooking of the vegetables and the sauce flavor all came together, and I was really satisfied. If you're looking for a good restaurant in Cheoncheon-dong, Suwon, I hope you'll give it a visit!

Rahongbang Suwon Cheoncheon Branch opening hours

• Mon–Sat 11:00–21:00
• Sun 12:00–21:00
• Last order 20:30
• Takeout, delivery, group seating and solo dining available