Mapo Szechuan

Overall, I like this place. The staff was very accompanying and was able to get their attention for service easily. Love the on table tv (for the kid) and in table napkin draw (for all the sweat from downing all that hot pepper). I had the unlimited all you can eat and it was a good deal. The $ 1/​coors light… I’d pass… The beer taste terrible… But oh well… It’s a dollar… Go for the $ 5 Heineken instead.

Excellent various soup base that suit everyone no matter what you prefer. Love it love it love it!!! However, service here is subpar so curb your enthusiasm when this place is crowded. Great place to start 2016.

I come here once every few months and would give it 5 stars if not for the consistently horrendous service. The hot pot soup bases are delicious from the Sechwan spicy to the Tom Yom. The duck one is great if you don’t like spicy. The selection of hot pot veggies and meats and sauces are the best in Flushing. The service is just so awful that you really have to mentally prepare for it in order to have it not ruin your meal. So here are some examples to prepare for:
Once I told my waitress that an item I ordered never came, she accused me of not knowingly already eating it… a manager had to confirmed that I couldn’t have eaten it because that item wasn’t available that day.
Once I asked that waitress (same one as above actually) for a disposable paper takeout menu that my 10 month old daughter can play with because ripping paper keeps her preoccupied. I was told «no and that menus are used to generate business…»
If you’re doing the all you can eat, you have to order over and over the pricier stuff like crab or squid, otherwise the waiter will just not bring it in hopes you forget, fill up on cheaper stuff, or get tired of effort it takes for them to bring it. This behavior is so consistent and prolific, I think waiters must be trained to do it to help with profit margins.
You have to ask for water refills, hot pot soup base refills. Nobody will preemptively provide you with service. What is this a restaurant?

1 month ago, we tried the hot pot, it tasted very flat, not very delicious. Today, we came here again to ordered two dishes, they was so terrible, it’s the worst food I’ve ever tasted. I won’t come here anymore!

I really enjoy the spicy and hot food and price is great. Maybe people don’t like the service but oh well, I don’t speak chinese.
Never eaten dinner only.lunch. i. get options #3, #8, #21, #24

Their hot pot is so good.
I stop going to this place due to a career change, tonight I went back hoping for some good hot pot stuff. it is still so good.
Will go back.

I would have given this place 3 ½ stars if only the service wasn’t so bad. I understand that the restaurant is located in flushing but at least one person should be able to understand a little bit of English. The fact that no one really understood English wasn’t really the main problem… what really annoyed me was the fact that the servers were rude and were laughing at the fact that we were struggling to communicate with them. They were not answering any of our questions and when we asked them for drinks they didn’t bring it to us until we asked again. Bottom line terrible service… Ok food
***soup dumplings were oily***

My friend and I came here for New Year’s Eve dinner (RIP 2014, thank the Jesuses) and since it was the last day of the year, the wait was tremendous. After being awkwardly ushered out into the space between the two doors, my friend and I waited for a good half an hour (maybe?) until our number was called. Given the fact that it was New Year’s Eve, I would say that the wait time wasn’t too terrible — but still, 30 minutes for two people isn’t anything to brag about.
After my friend and I were finally seated, I let him do all the ordering. He ordered sausage fried rice (I think), string beans, «cold bacon,» and some oily dumplings. This was only my second time eating Szechuan food, but I could already tell that some of the things were «classic staples» — mainly the «cold bacon» and the string beans. Like the other time I had Szechuan food, everything was delicious and oily, which was a perfect way to wrap up a shitty year.
Apparently, according to my friend, Mapo Szechuan is a hot pot restaurant that also services Szechuan food. While they do offer ayce hotpot, it would appear that their ayce hotpot is only on certain days. Me, not being Chinese, wouldn’t have known that and I can guarantee 100 000% that if I wasn’t with my Chinese friend, I would have never stepped foot into this restaurant. While I think that trying different ethnic foods is important, it’s also really important to go with someone who can understand the language, especially if the restaurant primarily caters to folks of that ethnic group. Nothing says «shitty dining experience» like a language barrier!
What makes me give this place 3 stars is primarily the professionalism of the staff. The hostess rudely ushered folks out into the cold and didn’t seem to care that she was causing a fire hazard and a huge inconvenience to the patrons by having everyone crowd around the doorway. I understand that the space is small, but there are better ways to practice efficient crowd control. Also, when my friend and I received the bill, I pulled out my wallet while he was calculating how much we should pay. This for some reason, was a signal to our server to move the bill towards me ??? It was extremely rude and unnecessary, much like his constant hovering over us while we figured out how much we were going to pay. Talk about harping staff, ugh.
Overall, the food was okay but the staff is rude and pushy. Probably would not go back by myself.

A few friend and I decided to go hot pot so we went to this place. We ordered seafood combination hot pot and some side dishes: Scallion pancakes, Soup dumpling, Mapo tofu and sautéed beef in dried pot. The reasons I give them ONE star because their service is TERRIBLE. When I came back from the sauce bar I saw some black and over fried pieces on our table so I started to ask one of their waiter what is that. He said: just what you ordered… The pancake. I tried their scallion pancake few times so I know what is the pancake looks like. I said it’s kind look different than what I had before. Then he gives me a very rude face and he ask me back «what do you think it is»…
I didn’t too surprise or shocked by his answer and rude face because I came this place couple times their service always sucked. I don’t know why they do job they hate. But… it’s our appetizer I didn’t want him spit or put some THING in to our food lol so I told him … ok never mind let me try …
Their food quality getting bad than I last visited. The Mapo tofu did not taste good a bit cold when they put on to our table. I don’t see fresh seafood in the seafood combination just few frozen clams/​slice of fish n couple blue crabs more like crab shells. other dishes just in general nothing special.
Disappointed again would not come back and spend money to this unfriendly place! next time when I feel like hot pot I’ll go to other hot pot places in flushing.
Good luck

Came here with a big group for a sort of «reunion» type event. We had the AYCE hot pot meal. First off, be careful when ordering food because they have you write it on a paper «check list» type menu. None of us had been here before so we didn’t know the portion sizes. We ended up over ordering. They do have one of those «if you don’t finish the food you order, you will be charged for it on top of the AYCE price» rules, but apparently it’s not always strictly enforced. At my table we didn’t finish everything, but there wasn’t a lot left over so they didn’t enforce the rule. I guess since we were a really big party of almost 20 people, they figured they were making enough money of us already lol.
My second issue with this place is the service. They speak very little, or pretty much no English, and they were pretty slow. There were about 3 different servers on our section of the second floor, and none of them spoke much English. I mean the only thing they really understood from me was the word, «water» lol. Also, don’t even think about ordering something from the regular food menu along with the AYCE menu. For example: When you walk into the restaurant there’s a huge poster of delicious looking pork buns on the wall. I figured I would try one. My friends were ordering for me since they speak Cantonese, and the servers mostly spoke Mandarin. First he says no it’s not part of the same menu. Then when they explained that we knew that, but we wanted to order it separately, he gives this face =_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​= and sucks his teeth … and then says they don’t have any. Then a few seconds later he realizes that we can tell he’s obviously lying, (with a very upset face, by the way) he says, fine let me check with the kitchen. I was pretty pissed. I said forget it, and just smiled because I didn’t want them to spit in my food lol. I mean, why give the customer a hard time when we’re clearly willing to pay for the food? If somethings on the restaurant menu (s), and a customer wants to order it, you say ok and bring it out unless the restaurant ran out of it. Simple as that. Don’t give the customer a hard time because it’s on a separate menu, and you have to walk downstairs and get it.
Overall the food was ok, but nothing spectacular. The thinly sliced beef was really good, the corn was very fresh, most of the seafood was decent, and the spicy broth was good. The lamb, and the chicken were very plain. Also, it’s hot as hell on the second floor. I think they need to invest on improving the AC because the hot pots are very close to you on the table, and there wasn’t a lot of room to move around. So yea, food is ok, and the price is decent. Service sucked, and the language barrier is a big issue. I wouldn’t recommend this place based on my experience.

This place seems to be the same as Udu Café and Baidu Shabu Shabu, just a different listing. Anyway, great Szechuan and Chinese hot-​pot in Flushing. Love the 3 story waterfall inside and the TV’s at every table.

What do normally people do on Christmas day?
Cuddle up in bed, maybe have a big family dinner, watch the basketball game on TV, exercise in the comfort of their homes, use their Christmas gifts, or browse on the internet for hours.
What did my family do?
NONE OF THE ABOVE.
We did what most people other than Jewish people DON’T do which is DINE OUT on Christmas day.
In fact, I think it is a Chinese tradition as well because other than Jewish folks, Asians were out an about like it was 90 degree weather on a summer night.
It was 20 degrees.
So since I had to endure the Alaskan cold front (anything below 70 degrees to me is Alaskan cold front FYI), I decided that I should in deed take full advantage of the situation and go for an ALL-​YOU-​CAN-​EAT hot pot.
I can tell you that the wait time for most restaurants as we ventured back and forth in Flushing to about 6 different restaurants was at least an hour.
FU-​K.
The last venture was actually on the same block just a couple of stores before Mapo Szechuan that was charging $ 17 for Kung Pao Chicken?
Was it the last piece of chicken on earth?
WTF is this shaninigans…
Christmas prices… SMH
We walked into Mapo Szechuan at about 6:30pm.
The lady handed us a wait slip for #22. They was on #13.
I would have to estimate that we probably waited about 40 minutes that wasn’t even that long of a wait since I was web surfing like nobody’s business.
There were plenty of people in my business as I was stuck in corner meant to be occupied by a small child that did something wrong and was being punished with eager heads glancing over my shoulder.
Here is where the review begins.
LOL
If you are still reading Congrats.
=)
Entrance of this restaurant is narrow especially since they put up the cold barrier.
After 6 – 7 people waiting in that narrow space to get in, people were forced outside to wait because of blocking the entrance.
On this day however even though that it was busy, it wasn’t as busy as other places.
The letter A is prominently display for their Restaurant Health Grade.
After the wait we were asked if we were comfortable about sitting in the basement.
I’d imagine something like eating with the mops or next to the janitor’s closet in dim lighting flickering above the table.
Instead, it was a comfortable lighting with tables enough for 6 different parties, our own sauce making station, our own bathroom, large screen TV, waterfall backdrop and 2 personal waiters to take care of the those who were dining in the basement.
I think it was actually a better sitting situation than it was upstairs on the main floor or the second floor as no one was glancing at us nasty for going over the 2 hour eating time OR rushing us to leave.
Service was attentive and quite swift.
I had the Thai Style Tom Yum, Mom had the regular broth as she likes to eat lighter.
BRING ON THE HEAT for Mr. Lavapit.
Thanks.
Everything brought out was fresh and since it was a hot pot obviously you cook as how you like it.
No complaints.
What earned bonus points was when the mix dishes (veggies & meatballs) came onto the table being the vegetarian that Mom is had to order another set because of meat touching veggies.
They did that cordially and with nimble feet.
I definitely appreciated that even if Mom thought it was nothing special.
Thanks guys.
Next time, I’m coming with friends.
ADDITIONAL NOTE: The All You Can Eat hot pot includes unlimited soda and Coors Lite.
The Coors Lite was extremely watered down which I’m not sure if it was the tank, the Co2 or just how it normally is as I don’t drink this beer «lite».
Go with the soda.

It’s pretty legit.
$ 29.99 for all you can eat.
They also have a good amount of sauces you can grab yourself to make your own concoction :). eat it the way you like it. Also, I’ve never seen tvs attached to the dinner table that were for internet. Thats cool.
Everything tasted pretty good, I would say the only downfall is the service is absolutely HORRIBLE.
They forget items, they don’t seem to have much etiquette or seem to want to serve. Which is the definition of the server, no? Hahaha. Don’t expect 5 star service here, just come for the food I guess.

Besides the hot pot, their Szhchuan dishes are also very good. Szhchuan dandan noodle is spicy and delicious, shredded chicken with cold noodle are excellent.
Just one warning, even the meals taste very good, but too many MSG contained inside which made me feel uncomfortable every time after finishing the noodles.

I have tried few shabu spots in my life and this place is not my fav and I shall tell you my reasons.
When giving us a full menu our eyes are bigger than our stomach =D
So, I believe they should have gave small portions of the dishes instead of giving a huge amount of everything. When I was circling what I want assuming they come in small dishes so they won’t waste food by giving a lot. If i wanted more of something I can usually ask for more but that wasn’t the case. They would give a plate full of one or two items. I think that is a lot for two ppl.
It is AYCE make it smaller dishes so food won’t go to waste. I felt my stomach was going to explode because i hate wasting food.
Another thing I was really disappointed by was the udon we ordered. It was FROZEN!
they gave a whole piece of udon noodle ice as a rock. How can anyone serve us something like that. I literally had to dump the whole udon in the broth. It would of been a lot easier if given us none frozen udon and we would of been able to break it in half and cook a little at a time. The udon kept cooking in the broth because we couldn’t fit all the udon into one tiny bowl so it became overcook.
If the portion was right and some of the dish was not frozen I would of gave this place another star. There was actually some dish that was tasteful.
THe broth was delicious and the sauce side bar (make your own creation) is great.
On the other hand I like the décor of the place.
What SJ and I ate:
Broth:
I chose Thai Style Tom Yum Broth (very spicy and great taste) Additional $ 1
SJ chose Sister Su Herb Chicken Pot — this had some chicken pieces in the broth but also another item in it that was not good at all. I asked the waitress what it was but they didn’t know the name of it in english. o wellz. ignore that piece of item because it was pretty disgusting. That broth taste normal to me so i am not sure why it is another additional $ 1 for it.
Meat:
Lamb
Chicken
Lamb — i would not choose this again… the piece of meat was extremely large… they need to make it into a smaller bite size piece and chewy because it was large.
Seafood:
I basically ordered everything on the Seafood list haha =] I love me some seafood.
But i probably wouldn’t get the fish. If it was Salmon i would definitely get it.
Everything else on the back of the menu I chose more items. hahaha like i said my eyes was bigger than my stomach.
This place was good for AYCE but if I wanted to go to a place that would leave me happy. I would go to Fukuoka Shabu Shabu. Now that’s a go to spot.

I have looked long and hard for a place for a large hot pot gathering that meets the following criterias. It must be large enough to fit a group of 15 – 20 people comfortably. It must be AYCE with a set price so that the bill is easier to manage in such a large group. The place must provide individual hot pots instead of the more common shared pot since not everyone is comfortable with sharing from the same pot, especially during the height of the flu and cold season. The place must be good.
After literally looking at every hot pot places in Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan, I narrowed it down to 3 places and settled on this one. The place was able to accommodate a reservation of 18 people (although only 16 showed up) on a busy Saturday night. Anyone making reservations should know that they will only hold your seats 15 minutes past your agreed upon time frame or they will give it away. We made it with time to spare.
The restaurant consists of a bar by the front entrance, a karaōke stage on the main floor, and 3 small floors to the restaurant. The restaurant itself was very clean. The lower level, which our group basically took over, had a lighted waterfall on one of it’s walls.
Although they have mixed drinks by the bar, and served prepared food which have mixed reviews, we came here only for the hot pot so I can’t comment on anything else. The hot pot deal here is $ 29 for all you can eat which includes as much sodas and beers you could handle. Although having the drinks included in the price is neat, making up for the slightly higher cost of an AYCE hot pot compared to some other laces in NYC, we were disappointed by the fact that the sodas that were provided were flat fountain sodas in a pitcher and the aforementioned unlimited beer were limited to an amazing selection of ONLY bud light.
Hot pot wise, this place have some great things going for it. There is a pretty good sauce station on each floor with many sauces and herbs to mix your own dipping sauce. It’s pretty well labeled too, marred by the fact that if you don’t read Chinese like more than half the group, myself included, you’ll be slightly confused at what they are.
This place provided the only conductive hot pot burner that I’ve seen anywhere. This flame-​less very modern kitchen technology assures you that you won’t accidentally burn yourself unless you are clumsy enough to brush against the boiling pot. Although we chose to have individual small hot pots which you have to ask for, you could also get the traditional family style pots if that is more your style.
They have a decent selection of broths to chose from, from the traditional herbal, to Ma La spicy, to even vegetarian friendly seaweed or vegetable broths. My Ma LA Spicy, although looking fiery red and is certainly spicy enough for most people only dabbles in hot food, is not as spicy as the best of the Ma La broths at some other restaurants. There are a few special broths that costs a dollar or 2 extra. Tom Yum is one of them and the person that ordered it in our group highly recommends it.
As for thee food selection for the hot pot, I was impressed The list is more expansive than most AYCE hot pot spots I’ve been to and includes a few items I’ve never seen anywhere else. The food they brought over were fresh and of good quality. Outside of the raw hot pot meat and veggies, they also included cooked Scallion pancakes and soup dumplings in the deal. The scallion pancake were surprisingly good, aromatic, and crispy while the soup dumpling was a bit dry, missing the internal «soup» which is the reason they were thus named.
The service is not exactly attentive but that is typical of a lot of Chinese places. They will come over when called upon but no more than that.
Although it’s AYCE, the place have a 2 hour limit which is typical of AYCE hot pot places everywhere. Most places usually don’t enforce that policy too strictly but this place does. Right before our 2 hours were up, we were given a reminder that it was almost time.
Would I come back her for hot pot again? Would I recommend this place to a friend? Yes to both. I’ll just tell them not to expect too much for the unlimited drinks. 5 stars for the hot pot minus 1 star for the drinks then.
Spice level of the Ma La hot pot from 1 to 5, 5 being the hottest. 3

It’s Winter. What’s that mean a UYE hotpot party. Came here with a bunch of Unilocalers to partake in hotpot. Our group was 16 people and if you make reservations they’ll gladly set aside a whole section for you. We basically had the run of the basement floor. We went for the 2 hour unlimited hot pot. They have a large condiment station to put together your hot pot dipping sauce. Various sauces from A — Z. Sesame Oil, cilantro, scallions, hoisin, soy sauce, etc. Also a rice cooker to provide a side dish of rice as well.
The unlimited hot pot comes with a full menu of various broths. Spice, tom yung, seaweed, and vegetable. I went with the seaweed and for me that was quite good. You check off from a list of all the hot pot ingredients your table would like. Our favorites from the list was the flavorful and well marinated fish, any of the fried tofu’s, the lamb (lean and tender), and the fish balls. The shrimp were quite large as well. As a side bonus they offer soup dumplings and fried scallion pancakes. A must in choosing the scallion pancakes as they were quite crisply fried on the outside and soft and tender on the inside with lots of scallions. A surprise dish offered here which I would always pick. Service was quite well as they kept the ingredients coming and filled up our pots. The unlimited also comes with choice of beer or fountain drinks.
Tip: Major plus is that they provide you with individual hot pots that aren’t family style so everyone is happy with the broth they choose. Also the heating element is a conduction system so no chance in burning oneself on a flame.

Delicious hot pot:)
I took the option of all you can eat hot pot (lot of seafoods choices, meat and vegetables with spicy and regular broth). Man I love me some hot pot especially in winter.
This place also has a bar. Drink is good at the bar but the quality of the tv is not too good cause of the projector use sometimes.
Place can be busy at times (always busy most of the time). I took a friend of mine who just came from china and said it is pretty good so there goes the authenticity.
Overall good hot pot option:)

$ 29 unlimited hotpot with soft drinks and beers included was a great deal that 4 of us took advantage of on a Saturday night.
Hotpot is hotpot, so food was fresh and good.
Why not 4 stars? Service was slow and we had to keep on asking for refills (sorry, we are BIG eaters). My friend told me it is because we were sitting in the basement, because he didn’t notice the service flaw in his last visit. The beef/​fish cuts weren’t consistent, but I guess it is what buffet is. Soft drinks were flat and came with little ice. We were there from 10 — 11:30PM, maybe that explains the above?

If you want spicy Szechuan food, you’ll definitely get that here. On top of that the service here is pretty dang amazing. Plus the bartenders and waitresses are not bad to look at either.
Only negatives was the fish in our super large pot of red chili-​filled liquird was not fresh. I would take off ½ a star for that but that’s about it, cause you can’t actually find a Szechuan place that serves actual spicy food.