If you frequent the University of Toronto area, 181 College Street has been home to a host of eateries: Teara Lab and Spicy Mafia being some recent renditions. Once again it has changed, almost merging the two former restaurants into the new LALA Spicy Lab.

While beef noodles may seem overdone, what makes LALA’s spicy tenderloin beef noodles ($17.99) special is the golden egg. Imagine a funnel cake made from scrambled egg that sits in broth absorbing flavours while still retaining the fluffy eggy texture. I thoroughly enjoyed it with the juicy tomato broth as it captures the classic Chinese flavours of tomato & egg and tomato & beef so well. I’d order this again.

Most customers go for the maocai, a shallow hot pot containing a mix of vegetables and proteins stewed together in a sauce that’s usually mala based. At LALA Spicy Lab, you customize the dish by choosing the:

• Base: mala soup, dry mixed, or a spicy sesame peanut paste mix.
• Staple dish / carb: rice or noodles (choice of egg, handcrafted thick, Wuhan style alkaline, sweet potato, or rice).
• Spiciness level: from extra mild to extra super spicy

Already the medium dry mix sliced beef brisket maocai ($19.99) had my mouth stinging. Luckily, when our server came around to ask how we were and I expressed I should have gone with mild, she brought a bowl of broth so I could dilute and wash off some of the chilis. Finally, I could actually enjoy the ingredients used in the dish.

The beef brisket was sliced too thinly for my taste, resembling what you find in pho becoming lost in maocai. I’d recommend going with the tenderloin beef option ($21.99) instead as they’re thicker slices.

Aside from the beef, the maocai also contained a selection of 15 other ingredients. It’s a treasure hunt digging through the dish to find things like Spam, thumb-sized sweet sausages, fish balls, quail eggs, tofu, or a variety of vegetables (bean sprouts, winter melon, baby corn, etc.). A dozen more ingredients are available for a supplement like fried dough sticks ($3.99), shawarma chicken ($8.99), or the delicious golden fried egg ($3.99).

With both dishes, I opted for the handcrafted thick noodles. In the dry mix it was chewy and pulled the chili flakes into its cervices for maximum heat. Meanwhile, in the tomato broth, the noodles had a silkier texture. Either way, noodles work!

If things get too spicy, their ice cream parfait ($4.99 with a meal or $6.99 solo) is a great way to calm the scorching heat. At first glance, I was sure the brown sugar parfait would be my favourite as it’s essentially a bubble tea made into ice cream: black tea ice cream, tapioca, black tea jelly, and grass jelly layered in the cup with brown sugar coffee syrup and a few chocolate shavings on top. And LALA doesn’t skimp on the boba, so this is a meal.

Yet, it was the citrus garden parfait that had me digging through to get to every layer. The base of green tea ice cream is fairly light so the lemon honey syrup shines through. And while the slice of orange seemed weird in the parfait, it surprisingly works with the black tea jelly not unlike having a lemon tea. You must make it to the end as the green tea loaf cake at the bottom is what steals the show, soaking up the flavours from above including the coconutty shaved ice directly on top.

I love when a restaurant causes me to rethink my biases. Whether it’s citrus tea over bubble tea or my ability to handle spice, it’s all about allowing yourself to try new things.