Happy Lamb (forrmerly Little
Sheep Mongolian) Hot Pot is located at 421 Dundas Street West, in
Toronto's Chinatown District, east of Spadina Avenue. Little Sheep
had a bright, modern interior, appeared very clean, was air
conditioned and had pleasant newer music; all of the other patrons
were young people. We went for weekday lunch which is $16.99, it's
$22.99 for dinner; as well there is a one-time purchase for a small
pot of broth for $2 for a single person, or $2.50 for a larger
sharing pot, but topping up of the broth is included and done
regularly so it is not necessary to buy more than one per table per
meal. Diners cook the food in the boiling broth pot in the center of
the table, rather like a grill house setup. Disposable chopsticks are
used, which is why I bring my own. AYCD plum juice and soy milk are
included from self-serve dispensers (as well as cold water, which is
a good idea as it saves wasted unwanted water being served and the
time and effort of the wait staff.) There is also a salad bar and
many different toppings and seasonings. Soy sauce which is found in
the sauce area not at the table, was a bit salty but quite fresh and
savory. Sesame peanut sauce was excellent.
The
included plum juice had an interestingly smokey flavor, and was
refreshing, and the soy milk was quite good, so I needed nothing else
throughout. For starters, pickled cabbage was very good. Cold noodles
were also excellent and Mishy loved them; they had a nice different
flavor. Spring rolls were very good.
Beef
was delicious and savory and we both loved it; it only takes 30
seconds to cook because it is thinly sliced. Fried tofu was excellent
cooked in the hot pot. Mishy indicated the corn cobs cooked in the
hot pot were amazing, broccoli had a wonderful hint of garlic
(probably from the broth.) For the chicken she unfortunately dug out
her mysterious "rubbery" adjective but I loved it. Chinese
radish Mishy did not like; I agree it had a strange flavor that
tasted as though it was about to go bad, but that is the way it
actually tastes. We both agreed the dumplings were amazing (Mishy
said "out of this world") and had a very nice flavor. Udon
and spinach noodles were excellent and they both cook in only a
couple of minutes. Shiitake mushrooms were awesome when cooked in the
hot pot; it really brings out the flavor of the mushrooms. Spinach
was excellent, the cooking time can be controlled so that it doesn't
come out soggy and limp as spinach often is. Pork belly was good,
but not as much so as when it is smoked into bacon and smoked and
cooked on a grill. Taro has an interesting flavor and is a unique
item which I have not seen at other AYCEs. Potato noodles don't
really taste like anything and are slippery and hard to remove from the
pot but I don't hold that against them.
My
only complaint of the entire meal was that the cabbage leaves,
although very tasty and fresh, were served whole, so were much too
large for comfortable eating as no knives are provided… I guess I
could have just torn them up prior to tossing them in the hot pot. I
would normally state that boiling meat is close to blasphemous, but
the hot pot is vindicated by its time-tested broth with full cloves
of garlic, lychee-like fruits, cardamom seed pods and other large
seasoning agents. Everything that came out of it was imbued with a
wonderful flavour and aroma from them. It does take some effort to
separate the actual food from the seasoning items so that there is
minimal wastage, of course. The freshness and quality of all the
ingredients to go into the hot pot was excellent.
For
dessert, red bean and green tea ice creams were the only options,
which I don't mind, and were good. There were also mandarin orange
wedges in the salad bar which could be counted as a dessert option
(they went well with the ice creams.) Mishy had never done a hot pot
before and enjoyed it more than I expected she would. We had a
wonderful lunch and would definitely return, and given the quality
and excellence of the food, plus the included AYCD, it was an
excellent value.
Rating:
9-9.5/10
