Maolago: Inventive Guizhou Food, Cocktails & Hotpot

Maolago is a Guizhou restaurant from the OHA Group (Oha Eatery, Pass Residence). It resides in the building formerly housing Daga Brewpub—three floors of industrial chic space and a two-tier rooftop terrace.

It’s a two-pronged concept. The first floor is more of a bar that serves bites inspired from Guizhou food while the second floor does hotpot.

First floor

Second floor

Rooftop, which will open come spring

On The Menu

The Food - 1st Floor

Food is inventive, in the same vein with chef Blake Thornley’s creativity at Oha Eatery. That’s because Maolago’s chef Zhou Mingyang studied under Blake at Oha. The menu on the first floor is mainly snack-sized dishes to accompany the cocktails and wine, and a couple of rice dishes with the trademark sour-spicy flavors of Guizhou. These snacks are also available upstairs with your hotpot.

Employees Rice with Fermented Sour Soup

If you want a taste of the hotpot soup bases without committing to a whole pot, one dish you could opt to try at the first floor is the Employees Rice with Fermented Sour Soup (¥38). It's basically the sour soup base with a bit of rice and mince pork. It's delightful. I want to dabao a triple portion of this so I can fend off the winter chill at home.

The rest of the food is tasty and enjoyable. The portions are small but the prices are relatively affordable, dishes starting from ¥36.

Steamed spareribs with rice flour (¥45) - pork, powdered rice, black pepper, marinated in a spiced stock then steamed with powdered rice and Sichuan peppercorns

Potato Cake (¥38) - Potato, fig, minced meat, five spice, purple carrot.

Pork Skin Salad (¥36) with turnip. Skin that has been fried and boiled, marinated with rice wine and fermented chilies. I quite like this one, will order again.

Lobster crackers and crab salad (¥52)

Fried sausages with banana (¥38) Sichuan and guizhou sausage with banana.

Konjak and Green Apple (¥38) Sichuan pepper and crispy pork

Fried rice with fermented chili (¥18)

Meat-stuffed eggplants (¥38)

On The Menu

The Food - 2nd Floor

Hotpot. Self-explanatory: soup bases, meat, seafood and veg to boil in the broth, plus dipping sauce. The sour-spicy rice I mentioned above? You can get that same broth for your pot—the sour-spicy broth with fish (¥98/500g, weight based off the fresh Guizhou river fish). There's also a beef base (¥128/500g), mushroom (¥98) or a dry pot with beef (¥128).

Sour-spicy broth with river fish

Beef dry pot 

Again, you can order other additives—vegetables from ¥8, meat from ¥32, mushrooms from ¥20, etc.

Mountain vegetables imported directly from Guizhou.

Bricks of dried tofu, also from Guizhou.

To Drink

"Drip Wine" & Cocktails

For drinks, they have something new called “drip wine”, cocktails made with clarified fruit, vegetables and herbs infused with liquor. They've bottled a few of their concoctions, too. It tastes like an odd mix of wine and juice and reminds me of some natural wines. They also have bottles of natural wine and cocktails.

Crispy Orange "drip wine" (¥90/glass, ¥265/bottle)

Mao 9 (¥92) - flavored gin, cranberry juice, peach oolong jam, bitters, blueberry

In Summary

Date Night

Food is interesting, vibe is great—that is, if you're looking for that chic moody atmosphere. I'd say first floor is good for date nights for those who have a curious palate for drinks and an open mind when it comes to contemporary Chinese bar snacks. Second floor is if you're really looking to sample Guizhou-style hotpot and bowlfuls of sour-spicy broth.

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Maolago 毛辣果

Address: 100 Fuxing Xi Lu, near Yongfu Lu 复兴西路100号, 近永福路
Tel: [phone]
Hours: 4pm-1am

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