Little Sheep Mongolian Hotpot: Inaccurate orders and salty but fresh meats!

With so many new restaurants popping up around Coquitlam, it's hard to keep track of which one is opened yet! I drove by Henderson Place and saw a lineup and open sign on Little Sheep, so I excitedly made plans to visit! We came around 5pm, hoping to avoid the crowds, and luckily we did!

Restaurant: Little Sheep Mongolian Hotpot (visit their website here)

Location: 1001-1163 Pinetree Way, Coquitlam
Cuisine: Hot Pot, Chinese
Price range: $21.98 per adult; $15.98 for 8-11 year old child; $10.98 for 4-7 year old child + $9.99 soup base


Date of visit: April 8, 2017
Atmosphere: 2/5
Staff/service: 2/5
Food variety: 4/5
Food quality: 3/5
Buck worthy? 1/5

So for starters, we had two choices for soup bases ($9.99): House Special Original and House Special Spicy (or a half x half of the two), we opted for the original. It was a milky broth that comes with many herbs and loads of garlic.

Sadly they got in the way of food and never got a chance to be fully cooked to get their flavors into the soup =( The broth is kind of like the soul of hot pot to me, and it was intensely salty. I asked for water to dilute the broth after a little bit of boiling (and further condensing the salt).

Their order sheet allows for two rounds, clearly laid out with categories for food. The meats are maximum 2 orders per round (not sure if it's per person) with each plate being 10pcs. Also, there is a section for extra add-on items, such as meat skewers, oysters, extra condiment items, and drinks/desserts. [Note the numbers I had on the order sheet because the items DO NOT come in the amount listed, it's quite sporadic]

There is a sauce station with: Satay (super watery and just oil), chili oil (not very spicy), peanut sauce, and soy sauce. To its left are the appetizer dishes you can find on the order menu but self-serve. Looked kinda sketchy, so we decided to skip those.

I've been to many hot pot AYCE establishments with a much larger selection of sauces and condiments which are included in the price at better quality-- even the Burnaby location of Little Sheep does a better job.

First to arrive was luncheon meat (2 pieces ordered) and garlic beef (5 slices ordered). Clearly there was far more than 2 pieces on the plate. They were average and salty. I couldn't eat more than two pieces so I left the rest on the plate. When they cleared the table I saw them bring that dish back to the kitchen while the rest of the other dishes were placed into a dirty dishes trolley... suspicious.

The garlic beef was fresh and tender, however there was a giant piece plus two small ones... almost as if they missed cutting it.

Veggies came next, we got watercress (1 order), enoki mushroom (1 order), and tong ho (1 order). These looked fresh and clean.

Then it was an assorted dish of items we ordered: crab meat stick (4 pieces ordered, 6 came), cuttlefish (4 pieces ordered, 8 came), fresh aorta (6 pieces ordered, 10+ arrived), beef tendon (4 ordered, 4 came), beef omasum (4 pieces ordered, a huge clump came), beef tripe (4 pieces ordered, frozen clump came), quail eggs (4 ordered, 4 came), cod fillet (4 pieces ordered, 7 came), dried pork rind (4 pieces ordered, 8 came), mutton dumpling (4 pieces ordered, 4 came). They ended up missing our order for mussels, but we were too full and didn't feel like asking for them. The mutton dumplings were highlights for sure, they were tasty and flavorful but very filling. Everything else was fresh. The cod fillets were super salty, and after cooking in the salty broth-- inedible, so we had to leave them.

Look at the beak still in my cuttlefish!

Another plate arrived with tofu puff (4 pieces ordered, 6 came), fresh bean curd stick (4 pieces ordered, 4 came), winter melon slices (2 pieces ordered, 4 came), fish tofu (2 pieces ordered, 2 came), kelp knot (1 order), gluten (4 pieces ordered, 6 came), potato slices (2 pieces ordered, 4 came), pork blood curd (4 pieces ordered, 5 came), and pork liver (4 pieces ordered, 6 came). I liked the tofu puffs and gluten, these could be cooked nice and soft with some bite to them, indicating good quality. HungryPanda was pretty choked about having to eat 4 instead of 2 potato slices at the end since she was so full already. Elephant had to take many for the team and was definitely overfilled. The pork liver was nice and fresh, marinated well and had good bite to them.

Oh did I mention we got our soup at this time after all that food had arrived to taunt us?

I didn't even realize the meatballs dish was inaccurate, but they're hand-made and decent. Good bite and flavors. We ordered 6 of each but only got 4 of each. There was cuttlefish ball, mutton ball, and beef ball.

Yay! Our first order of supposedly 30 pieces of lamb shoulder slices finally arrives! Their meats are super thinly sliced, about 1 mm thick. So they cook very quick and barely feel like eating anything almost! Not fatty and fresh, this was good quality meat.

Next were "5 slices" of loin of beef, clearly way more pieces-- like 20. They were fattier but melted in my mouth and so full of beef flavor. A nice shade of red too.

Then were our fatty beef slices (30 pieces ordered, 20 came), these were fresh and yummy too! No complaints here besides it disappearing too fast!

To be safe we only ordered 5 pieces of their kurobuta pork belly and... at least 30 slices arrived. These were nicely marbled and not too fatty. You could see the beautiful layers of meat and fat, super fresh and tasty!

Needless to say, the portion amounts were totally random and inaccurate, so it was very hard to gauge how much to order. I mean, if it's off by 1 or 2 it's within reason, but double or more of the order? That's a bit much.

On my second round I just wanted a little bit more lamb and beef, so I ordered 1 order of each (should be 10 pieces) but at least 30 slices of lamb and over 10 slices of the beef showed up.

Two orders of watercress looked exactly like the one order. I was pretty annoyed by this time and didn't want to waste time reasoning with them.

HungryPanda and Elephant both ordered plum juice ($2 with free refills) and they said it was good, not a diluted version.

Might give them another chance in six months when they've settled in more and get running more smoothly. The lineups because of the hype is definitely overrated and not worth the wait. Food was very fresh though!