Munchie Adventure: Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot 小肥羊火鍋, Burnaby

Annnnd this little fattie is back! To more AYCE hot pot I mean =P I don't think this is any good for me, but it was to celebrate my brother getting a job (and a better excuse than just wanting to try this place)!!! *clap clap* It wasn't very full when we got there, but there were quite a few people waiting by the middle of our meal, even though it was a Monday!!

Restaurant: Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot 小肥羊火鍋 (visit their website here)
Location: #200-4755 Kingsway, Burnaby
Cuisine: Chinese, Hot Pot, All-you-can-eat
Price range: $19.98 per person for dinner



Date of visit: October 29, 2012
Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff/service: 3/5
Food variety: 3.5/5
Food quality: 4.5/5
Buck worthy? 4/5

Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot has locations worldwide-- I've been to the one in Hong Kong before! Feels great that there's one so close to home (a bit closer than the Richmond location anyways =P). They just opened a week or so ago, and the grand opening was October 26 I believe. Anyways, we were greeted by the hostess, and she told us to wait-- even though it looked pretty empty inside, I guess there's lots of reservations?

While deciding what to order, we noticed that in the meat column, it says limit two per order... so we thought ok, since we can order more than once, why not. Turns out it was two per order per person! haha, goofed up, and ended up ordering three rounds of food instead of the two that are on the first sheet =P I like how they listed how much of everything there is per order-- if only they followed that. A lot of the items did NOT end up to the ordered amount. I got way too much squid, and too few balls, etc.

Here's what came first (and I read of a similar situation happen to someone else, when I read the reviews for it online): FOOD. We didn't have our soup yet!! *sadface* We stared at the lamb and other stuff, wishing our soup would arrive faster. . . Veggies were clean and tender! Yum! Usually they give you crappy old veggies, but these were good! Lamb slices were nice and thin too! =D

Our soup finally arrived, we ordered the Tasty Cod Head Broth ($9.99), there was fish head, goji berries, scallion, and ginger in it. I dunno about ginger and hot pot-- just doesn't work out that way! Should be pears or smth =P But anyways... We fished out the fish heads first, didn't want anyone choking on any bones!

Ah, there's also a self-serve sauce area, but I found the broth was already too salty, so didn't use much sauce. Look at how nice the lamb is-- all that fat =P

I forgot what the beef in the background was called, but it was really good. It's the only beef option that isn't fatty beef or garlic beef (which is the dish I'm holding). It was nicely marbled and so tender!! Garlic beef was VERY GARLIC-Y. Not something I ordered again.

Pig skin was also very chewy and good. Health-wise? I don't know =P Look at how many squid there were! =( Fish was nothing special, your typical sole.

I was so excited to see quail eggs, cuz I've been craving them for a long time *happy girl* And they have fish, squid, beef tendon, lamb and shrimp balls. Lamb and beef were indistinguishable. Shrimp balls were pretty good! Lamb dumplings!! Now these, were good, I really loved the rich lamb taste in them. Skin was chewy, but that really depends on how you cook them, if you cook them just right, they're chewy =D The fish shiu mai were chewy too, and the beef tendon was enjoyed by my parents very much. Imitation crab fell apart once it hit the pot, not a good idea =P Beef omasum was better than tripe.

Overall it was an enjoyable meal, except for when it got busy, then we didn't get much service at all. It was so hard to find someone to refill our pot with more broth, and our teapot was empty for most of the meal =( They need to hire more people, but I guess it's one of the kinks they need to smoothen out with a bit more time. I got home very thirsty though, probably the msg or just because there was so much salt in our broth. Next time, I'm gonna try their original broth, see if the same thing happens. --although next time will probably be a long time from now. Feeling a bit (ok, maybe a lot) guilty for eating AYCE two nights in a row. Goodbye October!