Málà Project (Midtown East)
Tucked away in an unassuming side street close to NYC’s corporate office buildings is a charming Chinese restaurant that boasts a beautiful interior aesthetic alongside fiery Sichuanese food.
Málà Project is a Chinese restaurant that focuses on bringing modern fusion elements to traditional Sichuan cuisine. Their menu carries both conventional items, as well as more daring ones for customers to try. While there are two other locations in Manhattan and one in Brooklyn at the time of this writing, this review will focus on the Midtown East location.
Their most popular dish is by far the dry pot dish. The dry pot is similar to a traditional Chinese hot pot, except that it has no soup (麻辣香锅). The ingredients are instead stir-fried together to bring about a tingly dish that does not require large soup pots or dipping sauces. Diners can pick which ingredients they want à la carte style from the beautifully designed menu. In addition, the spice levels can be customized, ranging from non-spicy, somewhat spicy, to very spicy. As a plus, each dry pot comes with a side of either white or purple rice.
I opted to go for the Chinese cabbage, shiitake mushroom, fish cakes, lamb slices, and beef tongue. I chose to get my bowl at the very spicy level, and also ordered purple rice as my side.
The meat is tender and cooked to perfection alongside the various spices. The most notable feature is that the green Sichuan peppercorns taste different from dry ones; these ones bring a more vibrant numbing sensation to your tongue, and the red chilis pack a generous amount of heat. The vegetables complement the meats and bring out fragrant notes with the spices, and the purple rice is perfectly soft and has chopped jujube berries in it, bringing notes of fresh sweetness with each bite. While I would not say that I “suffered” from the spice during the meal, it is certainly up there in terms of heat and numbing levels.
Overall, the dry pot is incredibly delicious and the portion size is enough for two meals if you select 2-3 meats, 2-3 vegetables, and the rice. The service at Málà Project is attentive, and one could say that the vibes of the dining experience overall is excellent. Rated as one of the best current restaurants in NYC, Málà Project is highly recommended in our books as well.
