The Hot Pot Experience: Xiao Fei Yang (Little Sheep Restaurant)

169 Nandan Lu (at Wending Lu, 6438 1717)

Arriving earlier than the normal dinner hour on a chilly, late-Sunday afternoon, we hoped to beat the reputedly lengthy dinner hour queue at this popular hotpot restaurant chain from Mongolia. Unfortunately, this was not to be the case.

After enduring a little over an hour of (guiltily entertaining) Mr. Bean episodes in the entrance area, we were at last ushered past a small patch of fake green turf (where little stuffed sheep ‘grazed’) to a small wooden table in a corner of the restaurant. Happy faces visible all around and the spicy aroma wafting through the air kept our hopes high that our dogged perseverance would be rewarded. Fortunately, it was.

We went straight for the ‘yi ban la, yi ban bu la’ hot pot (‘half hot/spicy, half not’), only indulging ourselves in a small plate of vegetable spring rolls that, at 1 RMB apiece, were simply too tempting to resist. So tasty were they that we momentarily regretted not ordering more. That is, until our hotpot arrived.

Once the pot bubbled, heated by the gas burner built into the table, we began dunking our chosen morsels of various types of seafood, noodles, mushrooms we had selected. On the vegetable side, the various mushrooms were exquisite once soaked in either broth, while the bamboo shoots proved especially popular and quickly disappeared. The live shrimps, skewered on a wood stick, were plunged to a quick but glorious death in the bubbling broth. They proved an exceptional match with the spicy broth, in particular. The various pieces of frozen seafood were tasty, though hardly magnificent. The ‘manmade seafood’ (fake crab) was hardly a necessary inclusion amongst these and left all but untouched for good reason.

The real treat of the meal was the ‘AAA mutton’. It deserved every ‘A’ in it’s rating. Once boiled in either side of the pot, it became a sensually indulging tender and juicy delight on the tongue. The Chinese are known to throw various animal innards into their hotpots, but we opted to steer clear of these menu items in favour what were, from our Western perspective, the more conventional offerings.

Be warned - the spicy side of the pot is fantastically pungent, but not for the faint of tongue, while the leek and ginger-based milder half suffers no shortage of garlic.

In the end, we were stuffed and satisfied, the initial extended queue for a table all but forgotten. At 190 RMB for four (including a couple large beers and a round of cokes) the cost was certainly nothing to quibble about. But do make a reservation well in advance - or prepare to have your patience tested.

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