Mala Tang In Arl - Shirlington

Be aware of this place, they automatically add the tips on the bill and asked the tips again. It means the customers will pay twice tips. The service is awful. A woman works here treats the customers very poorly.

Best authentic Chinese in the DMV, and I've had this and the 2 others within 5 miles of the White House. Friendly, well-spoken staff, parking validation, reasonable prices.

I liked this restaurant, especially the rice noodles I had. My daughters enjoyed the dry, hot pot, which is stir-fried. My wife had a tofu and green bean dish, which was much too salty for her. As for the service, they were very nice when they were paying attention; however, they said and then just forgot about us for 10 minutes, so I had to get up and find somebody to order a drink and some appetizers while I waited for my family to arrive. Then again, after my family arrived, they checked in once or twice while we were thinking about ordering and then just disappeared for 10 minutes. So I had to get up and find a server. This is not the end of the world, but doing it once isn’t a big deal. But having to get up a second time was just kind of like a WTF moment. There weren’t many people in there, like maybe ten total. So it was odd that they weren’t just paying attention to everybody. There was a gentleman who sat there on his phone. The female server was very nice but not very proactive. There is a sign that says they’re short-staffed, but that didn’t seem to be the problem to me. What else bugs me is my wife got up with two of my kids to get our car.  My other daughter and I were sitting at the table as I finished my glass of wine, and my other daughter was picking at the food. And the busser came up and started clearing all the dishes in front of me, which was unnecessary. It was 9 p.m., in the restaurant didn’t have many patrons anymore. They should ask the busser to wait until we’ve left the table. I politely asked the busser to come back after we left.

Avoid this place if vegetarian, food bland with minimal effort. Looks like frozen veggies were used, not fresh. Stingy on variety of veggies. Overpriced, meat dishes looked somewhat better but not worth it.

Our first time there and we were very impressed. Food was terrific and the staff was very accommodating and professional. Could have used better directions to the parking garage. Thank you!