Lala Spicy Lab Downtown 辣辣冒菜

I come here at least once a week and recommend it to my friends. Clean environment, friendly service. They have incredibly delicious ice cream. The prices are reasonable, and the food is fantastic. Plus, the portions are huge—often enough for two meals.If you enjoy spicy food, this place is a must-try.Evenings usually require waiting in line.

- Amber Wang -

I came here thanks to my friend's recommendation, and I loved it! Since then, I went here many times. The unique menu items intrigued me the most--it's kind of like a mix of malatang and hotpot. Each bowl you order already comes with a bunch of toppings drenched in flavorful, rich soup. This is perfect for my indecisive self. The order comes with your choice of carb, like rice or noodle. However, there's not a lot of nonspicy options. You can adjust the level of spiciness and numbing. If you order the ice cream or parfait dessert with the bowl, the dessert is $1 cheaper. The dessert flavours are on rotation, but I tended to love the tea flavoured ones. I reccomend the parfait--it comes with dango, tea jelly, and rice krispie cereal. A perfect combination! You can also make your own free sauce and they had many choices, like cilantro, sesame oil, soy sauce, oyster sauce, chili oil, etc. The portions are huge, so I usually share with one other friend. But you can order smaller portions if eating alone. Overall, super worth it for the price. If it's a bowl (with no added toppings) and a parfait shared between two people, it comes out to 16-18 per person, including tip and tax! The staff were also really nice, and refilled my water way more times I could count. The posters around the restaurant were fun to look at! The place does get crowded, so come in early or call in advance! Highly recommended restaurant :))

- Crystal Y -

Food was excellent! Service was terrible! The girl was very rude about customer has no place to put their jackets, and had to take an extra seat to put their bags and coats. It’s a very small restaurant, but the waitress could’ve simply move the tables a little bit to let out a bit of space for customers belongings. A girl offered to move all customers coats and scarves into their “office” in the kitchen where the food was made. But no customer would want their coats to be getting closer to the greasy kitchen especially for some expensive coats!

- Jianyi Xu -

Absolutely delicious! The ice cream is truly one of a kind — such a big portion and so flavorful! I can never resist coming here whenever I’m in downtown. Grace is super sweet and has the most lovely voice — she’s always so nice and quick to bring us more napkins. Please keep creating more amazing ice cream flavors, Lala

- Kristine Gao -

Stopped by Lala Spicy Lab, a small and intimate spot that’s very popular—so if you’re planning a visit, plan ahead! We waited about an hour, which was fine since I was with friends, but if you’re going solo, I’d recommend hitting it during off-peak hours. Once seated, ordering is done through a QR code on the table. We went all in and tried a lot. The beef tongue maocai was the highlight—one with rice, the other with egg noodles. We went with mild spicy and less numbing, which still packed a serious kick! Bonus points to the staff for accommodating my friend’s peanut allergy, which was handled with care. We also had the sliced beef brisket in tomato broth, a great option for those who prefer something on the milder side. Portions were generous and super filling. We capped the night off with two parfaits—green tea and black tea. The green tea lacked a bit of punch at first but got better once mixed with the toppings underneath. The black tea, though? Absolutely the star—imagine a bubble tea in parfait form. Amazing. Service was friendly and attentive, even with a few hiccups. Overall, Lala Spicy Lab is a fantastic late-night hangout with bold flavours and a welcoming vibe

- Reston Senining -

While beef noodles may seem overdone, what makes LALA’s spicy tenderloin beef noodles ($17.99) special is the golden egg. Imagine a funnel cake made from scrambled egg that sits in broth absorbing flavours while still retaining the fluffy eggy texture. I thoroughly enjoyed it with the juicy tomato broth as it captures the classic Chinese flavours of tomato & egg and tomato & beef so well. I’d order this again. Most customers go for the maocai, a shallow hot pot containing a mix of vegetables and proteins stewed together in a sauce that’s usually mala based. At LALA Spicy Lab, you customize the dish by choosing the: Base: mala soup, dry mixed, or a spicy sesame peanut paste mix. Staple dish / carb: rice or noodles (choice of egg, handcrafted thick, Wuhan style alkaline, sweet potato, or rice). Spiciness level: from extra mild to extra super spicy Already the medium dry mix sliced beef brisket maocai ($19.99) had my mouth stinging. Luckily, when our server came around to ask how we were and I expressed I should have gone with mild, she brought a bowl of broth so I could dilute and wash off some of the chilis. Finally, I could actually enjoy the ingredients used in the dish. The beef brisket was sliced too thinly for my taste, resembling what you find in pho becoming lost in maocai. I’d recommend going with the tenderloin beef option ($21.99) instead as they’re thicker slices. Aside from the beef, the maocai also contained a selection of 15 other ingredients. It’s a treasure hunt digging through the dish to find things like Spam, thumb-sized sweet sausages, fish balls, quail eggs, tofu, or a variety of vegetables (bean sprouts, winter melon, baby corn, etc.). A dozen more ingredients are available for a supplement like fried dough sticks ($3.99), shawarma chicken ($8.99), or the delicious golden fried egg ($3.99). With both dishes, I opted for the handcrafted thick noodles. In the dry mix it was chewy and pulled the chili flakes into its cervices for maximum heat. Meanwhile, in the tomato broth, the noodles had a silkier texture. Either way, noodles work! If things get too spicy, their ice cream parfait ($4.99 with a meal or $6.99 solo) is a great way to calm the scorching heat. At first glance, I was sure the brown sugar parfait would be my favourite as it’s essentially a bubble tea made into ice cream: black tea ice cream, tapioca, black tea jelly, and grass jelly layered in the cup with brown sugar coffee syrup and a few chocolate shavings on top. And LALA doesn’t skimp on the boba, so this is a meal. Yet, it was the citrus garden parfait that had me digging through to get to every layer. The base of green tea ice cream is fairly light so the lemon honey syrup shines through. And while the slice of orange seemed weird in the parfait, it surprisingly works with the black tea jelly not unlike having a lemon tea. You must make it to the end as the green tea loaf cake at the bottom is what steals the show, soaking up the flavours from above including the coconutty shaved ice directly on top.

- Gastro W. -

The icecream was absolutely amazing. We got the brown sugar black tea parfait and everything about it was super delicious! Not too sweet and the jelly was so good. We also got the golden egg sliced beef noodles and I highly recommend the juicy tomato broth, so good. The sauce bar is also pretty good and they had these crunchy crab meat chips. I recommend this place especially for the icecream!

- Dumpster Baby -

The food came out really fast, the portions were bigger than I expected, and the taste was delicious. The “mild spicy” level might still be a bit hot for some people — if you’re not good with spicy food, I recommend ordering “extra mild.” The waitresses, Grace and the other lady, were very attentive and caring throughout. This is going to be my new favorite malatang spot in downtown!

- xanne -