Close-up of bright red dried chilies piled in a wok, glistening with oil

朝天椒

Dan dan noodles mid-twirl on chopsticks with chili oil and sesame sauce

担担面

Mapo tofu in a clay pot with red chili oil pooling around silken tofu cubes

麻婆豆腐

Sichuan boiling fish in a deep red broth with chili peppers floating on top

水煮鱼

Sichuan peppercorns in a small ceramic bowl, green and red varieties mixed

花椒

Chengdu · Since 2019

Málà

麻辣 · The Numbing Heat

Dried chilies crackle in black iron woks. Sichuan peppercorns numb your lips before the broth even arrives. This is the kind of heat that makes you sweat and come back tomorrow.

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2847 Wentworth Ave · Chicago · (312) 555-0194

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The Menu · Course by Course

The Temperature Rises
as You Scroll

Five courses. Each one hotter than the last. Tap any dish to see what it does to you.

Sliced poached chicken pieces in a pool of dark red chili oil with sesame seeds and green onion garnish

Taste This

🌶 Heat 2/5

Signature

Cold Opener

Mouth-Water Chicken

口水鸡

"Cool silk, then the chili oil wakes you up."

Poached thigh meat slicked in our house red oil — a three-day simmer of star anise, aged doubanjiang, and fifteen dried chili varieties. Cold, slippery, dangerous.

Macro close-up of chili oil coating chicken slices, sesame seeds visible in extreme detail

Macro · 口水鸡

The sensation hits in sequence: first the sesame paste coats your tongue, then the numbing peppercorn creeps in from the edges, then the chili oil lands like a slow-burning match. You reach for another piece before the first one finishes.

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Dan dan noodles in a white bowl with pork crumble, chili oil, and sesame paste, chopsticks mid-twirl

Taste This

🌶 Heat 3/5

Best Seller

Cold Noodles

Dan Dan Noodles

担担面

"Your tongue goes electric, then the garlic catches up."

Hand-pulled wheat noodles in preserved vegetable broth, topped with pork crumble fried with Yibin yacai, a sesame paste that hasn't changed since 1960.

Extreme macro of noodle strands coated in chili oil and sesame paste, peppercorn husks visible

Macro · 担担面

There's a reason people fight over the last one. The noodles are pulled to order — thin, chewy, slick. The sauce is built in the bowl so every strand carries a different ratio of heat to nutty to sour. Cold noodles, warm argument.

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Mapo tofu in clay pot with silken tofu cubes in bright red chili oil broth with ground pork

Taste This

🌶 Heat 4/5

Judge's Test

Hot Dish

Mapo Tofu

麻婆豆腐

"Silk cube, lava underneath. Your face goes warm before you swallow."

Silken tofu, ground pork, fermented black bean, and enough doubanjiang to make a Chengdu grandmother nod. The numbing-heat ratio is non-negotiable.

Close-up macro of silken tofu cube breaking apart in red doubanjiang sauce with visible peppercorns

Macro · 麻婆豆腐

The test of any Sichuan kitchen is this dish. Ours has been unchanged for four years. The tofu is sourced from a single supplier in Bridgeport — it holds its shape through the braise but breaks apart the moment a spoon touches it. The oil should pool red at the edge of the bowl.

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Boiling fish in a deep red broth filled with dried red chilies and Sichuan peppercorns in a large bowl

Taste This

🌶 Heat 5/5

The Fire

Fire Course

Boiling Fish

水煮鱼

"The heat arrives before the bowl does. Then it doesn't stop."

Grass carp fillets velvet-marinated, then submerged in a broth of 40 dried chilies, Sichuan peppercorns, and smoking wok oil poured tableside.

Macro of fish fillet in boiling red chili broth with dried peppers and peppercorn husks in sharp focus

Macro · 水煮鱼

The oil is poured on at the table. You'll hear it before it lands — a sound somewhere between a hiss and a warning. The fish is already cooked. The oil is just making a point. Eat it fast. The heat compounds.

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White glutinous rice mochi balls floating in clear ginger syrup in a ceramic bowl

Taste This

Dessert

Cool Down

Sesame Mochi

芝麻汤圆

"Sweet smoke. The heat fades into something you want to hold."

Glutinous rice spheres stuffed with black sesame paste and lard, floated in a ginger syrup that's been simmering since service started.

Macro close-up of sesame mochi cut in half revealing dark black sesame paste filling

Macro · 芝麻汤圆

After the boiling fish, this is mercy. The mochi skin is thin enough to show the dark paste inside. Bite gently — the sesame is hot at the center and it will run. The ginger broth cools the mouth in a way that cold water never does.

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The Kitchen

Cooked the Chengdu Way.
No shortcuts.

Chef's hands working in a wok with flames rising around a black iron pan in a professional kitchen

The wok · Every night

Our Kitchen

"The doubanjiang is from Pixian. The peppercorns are from Hanyuan. The wok has been seasoned for six years."

Chef Mei Lingling trained under a Chongqing street cook who charged six yuan for a bowl of mapo tofu and had a line out the door by 11am every day. She brought the recipes to Chicago in 2019 and hasn't changed a single ratio since.

The heat levels are not adjustable. The mapo tofu is not mild. This is a restaurant for people who want the real thing — and the real thing has consequences.

Years seasoned

40+

Chili varieties

3-day

Broth simmer

Overhead view of a table with multiple Sichuan dishes including boiling fish and mapo tofu

重庆夜市

Close-up of Sichuan peppercorns in a ceramic bowl showing their distinctive texture

花椒

Night market scene with steam rising from street food stalls in warm golden light

成都街头

Who Comes Here

The Regulars Speak.
Honestly.

The mapo tofu made me call my mother. Not to complain — to tell her someone in Chicago finally got it right. The oil pools exactly the way it should.

Ordered: Mapo Tofu

Wei-Lin Huang

Chengdu expat, 8 years in Chicago · Chengdu → Chicago

We came for our anniversary and ordered the boiling fish. The oil arrived at the table and we both went quiet. That's the highest compliment we know.

Ordered: Boiling Fish

Priya & Tom Nakashima

Adventurous couple, Logan Square · Chicago, IL

We ordered the whole fish and the twice-cooked pork and the cold noodles and fought over everything. Two people cried from the heat. We're going back next Thursday.

Ordered: Group Banquet

Darius Coleman

Office group of 9, Merchandise Mart · Chicago, IL

I've been to every self-described Sichuan restaurant in this city. Málà is the only one that scares me a little. That's a review.

Ordered: Dan Dan Noodles

Fang Ruoxi

Food writer, originally from Chongqing · Chongqing → Chicago

By the time you've scrolled this far, you're not browsing. You're hungry.

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Book Your Seat

Reserve Your Table

2847 Wentworth Ave, Chicago · Tue–Sun, 5pm–10pm

Large round table with multiple Sichuan dishes arranged for a group banquet, steam rising from hot pots

Groups of 10 or More

Order the Banquet.
Feed Everyone.

The Málà Banquet is a prix fixe journey through twelve dishes — from cold sesame noodles to the whole steamed fish, with twice-cooked pork and a claypot of mapo tofu that serves the whole table. The wok never stops. Neither does the Tsingtao.

12-course set menu, family style

Whole steamed fish + boiling fish

Dedicated server for the evening

Private room available for 16+

View Banquet Menu Email Us

Prix Fixe

$68/ person

Minimum 10 guests · Drinks separate

Cold starters3 dishes

Hot mains6 dishes

Whole fish1 fish

Dessert2 sweets

Reserve at least 48 hours in advance for banquet bookings.

Málà

The Temperature Risesas You Scroll

Mouth-Water Chicken

Dan Dan Noodles

Mapo Tofu

Boiling Fish

Sesame Mochi

Cooked the Chengdu Way.No shortcuts.

The Regulars Speak.Honestly.

Reserve Your Table

Order the Banquet.Feed Everyone.

The Temperature Rises
as You Scroll

Cooked the Chengdu Way.
No shortcuts.

The Regulars Speak.
Honestly.

Order the Banquet.
Feed Everyone.