Sinyongsan hot pot, weekend lunch & brown sugar ciba: Mamalala Hotpot

When the cold wind starts blowing, you crave something warm and spicy, right? haha This time I'm introducing Mamalala Hotpot (마마라라 훠궈), a place in Sinyongsan where you can enjoy a generous hot pot at a great price. You can walk there from both Yongsan Station and Sinyongsan Station, and I was really happy with everything: location, taste, atmosphere and the set. Here's my honest visit to this modern Chinese dining spot!

Mamalala Hotpot location and opening hours

Mamalala Hotpot is at 37 Hangang-daero, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, on the 2nd floor. It's open Mon–Sun 11:00–22:00 with last order at 20:50. On weekdays there's a break time from 15:00 to 17:00, but on weekends it runs with no break time.

How to get there from Sinyongsan Station and Yongsan Station

Mamalala Hotpot is about 600 meters from Sinyongsan Station Exit 2. We came via Yongsan Station, and the weather was nice enough that walking from the station was fine! The building has loads of restaurants on the 1st and 2nd floors, so I almost got lost, but once I climbed the stairs I spotted it right away :)

Since there's no break time on weekends, you can go whenever suits you, including quieter off-peak hours.

What's the atmosphere inside Mamalala Hotpot like?

The interior is striking with its red tones, and it had exactly that feel you get walking into a Chinese restaurant. There's a self-service bar and lots of roomy tables, so it seems fine even for a fairly big group!

The real highlight of Mamalala Hotpot is the wide open windows with a view of the Yongsan street and green trees, haha. The mood is airy and upscale! *.*

Each table also has hot pot tips, menu explanations and a tablet for ordering, which made browsing and ordering easy at this Sinyongsan favorite.

Mamalala Hotpot Lunch Value Set for 2-3 people: how much food is it?

The Lunch Value Set for 2-3 people really is almost three servings. We ordered it for a weekend lunch, and without realizing it would already be plenty, we added extra ingredients too. We were so stuffed that we practically held our bellies all the way out ^^...

There are also lots of other meal items and dishes, so there are plenty of Chinese menu options to enjoy lightly, not just hot pot.

The meat selection was really varied too! Like a proper local hot pot place, it has not only regular beef and pork but also duck intestine, congealed blood, catfish meat and tripe. For people like me who prefer unusual stuff over plain meat, Mamalala was pure heaven..^_^

And with a range of fried items that work as dessert too, the lineup was so rich that my eyes went a little wild(?)😇

Mamalala Hotpot self-service sauce bar: price and selection

The self-service sauce bar at Mamalala Hotpot costs ₩2,500 extra per person, but it's already included in the lunch menu, so we could enjoy it without worrying.

The sauce bar was kept nice and clean, and it has everything you could need. There are even easy recipes for mixing a tasty sauce, which was great.

I made mine to my taste, with lots of nutty sesame sauce (majang sauce) and a very peanutty feel~ I forgot to grab fruit like oranges and yellow peaches for after the meal, and I still regret it lol

What we ordered: Lunch Value Set plus assorted tofu and brown sugar dessert

• Lunch Value Set (2-3 people) ₩53,000 – Mama spicy broth / cream broth
• Assorted tofu ₩8,900
• Coke Zero ₩3,000
• Hongtang cibā (brown sugar glutinous rice cake dessert) 6 pcs ₩5,500

A really big hot pot with the half-and-half broth came out, along with the standard and extra ingredients piled high on a cart haha

The meat is 100 g each of the standard beef brisket and pork belly, 200 g in total, but with so many other ingredients it wasn't disappointing at all. Between the standard assorted vegetables, assorted mushrooms and bean sprouts, plus the assorted tofu we added, there were so many kinds of veggies and protein!

I was especially looking forward to the cream broth, my first time trying it, and the longer it boiled the richer and nuttier it got. Really good!

The fried rice and guobaorou in the set

The fried rice in the set was gorgeous golden in color, with each grain coated in oil and a texture that felt alive in the mouth haha The shrimp on top were plump and big too, right?

The guobaorou (Chinese sweet-and-sour fried pork) in the set seems to be slightly mini compared with the single order, but it was plenty to eat alongside hot pot haha

With its chewy glutinous-rice coating and sticky, sweet sauce, it reminded me of the Korean-style tangsuyuk (sweet and sour pork) we're used to. Personally I don't like guobaorou that's dry and so vinegary it's sour enough to make you cough, but Mamalala's was very close to familiar tangsuyuk and piping hot, so it was a really tasty side at this Yongsan favorite >.<

Cream broth, Mama spicy broth and the meat

While we ate the sides and waited, the broth heated up and came to a rolling boil, so we dropped in the ingredients and dug in right away✌️

You could see even by eye how tender the meat was. If you order à la carte, some cuts are less greasy, so it's good to order to your taste :)

I tried the first bite plain, and the rich creaminess of the cream broth felt like something between carbonara and bone broth. Really appealing, right?

Then I mixed up my own special sauce and dunked the meat in, and the punchy flavor went up several notches. So good.. hehe

Two women happy enough with a cheers of cola,,, we comforted ourselves that this is healthier than daytime drinking.

As we ate, there were so many other ingredients and the tofu was incredibly filling lol, so there was still meat left at the end..🤭

We ate the guobaorou in between too, and boiled meat and fried food are totally different, aren't they? We also asked for pickled radish, and they brought it over, so we reset our palates and wrapped up a proper Sinyongsan Station lunch feast.

What does Mamalala Hotpot's dessert hongtang cibā taste like?

..just kidding! The final highlight was still to come. It's a dessert with a unique, rather unfamiliar name: hongtang cibā (6 pcs, ₩5,500).

Hongtang cibā is fried glutinous rice cake dunked in sweet brown sugar sauce, topped with ice cream and plenty of crushed peanuts, a Chinese dessert with no bad notes.

Unless you really dislike brown sugar, any Korean will love it: sweet, chewy, warm and cold all at once, a perfectly irresistible dessert..! However full you are, do try this local-feeling dessert you can only have at Mamalala Hotpot.

Sinyongsan lunch hot pot: overall verdict on Mamalala Hotpot

Mamalala Hotpot was a great Sinyongsan lunch spot for a quiet weekend afternoon with no break time. The amount and quality for the price are huge, the staff were kind, and I loved the clean interior and pleasant atmosphere.

✔️I recommend it if you're looking for:

• A lunch restaurant near Sinyongsan Station where you can eat generously
• A pleasant, clean Yongsan restaurant that's also good for a date
• A good-value lunch set spot in Yongridan-gil (the Yongsan trendy restaurant area)