My boyfriend and I were traveling for 3 weeks and we craved shabu or hot pot so much. I stumbled upon this online, so I'm like why not. We thought we were the only ones there, but as we were waiting, more customers went up to pay. They came from downstairs because there's a downstairs area that we didn't realize there was. When we arrived, I was so confused which restaurant it was. I think the name of the restaurant didn't match the name online. We figured it out anyways. When we walked in, we were given menus. We were so confused on how things worked there, so I asked the server. She explained it to us, but it was still quite confusing. We were like whatever and wanted to figure things out on our own. I assume that there is two options: all you can eat or by items. We decided to make it easier and do the all you can eat option. The all you can eat option is limited because there are some items that would cost you extra if you order it. I still think to this day that maybe by item would have been cheaper. My boyfriend ordered the Special Spicy broth and I ordered the Herbal Tonic broth. I really enjoyed my broth, but my boyfriend says his had too much peppers in it, but it was still good. I really dislike how they charge you extra if you order sauce. I don't think sauce is really necessarily, but if you must, I suggest you to order the garlic sesame oil sauce. The sauce tasted really good and flavorful. For protein, we ordered the sliced beef and prawns. I'm not sure how the lamb tasted, but I assume they specialize in that. I'm not really into trying different types of proteins, so I just stuck to what I was familiar with. Even though it was all you can eat, the server looked annoyed when we kept ordering more items. It's also strange to me because they only give you plates and no bowls. If you want to drink the soup or put it with your noodles, you would have to use the bowl that was given with your noodles. Also, there is a student discount of 10%. The server says it only works if you pay with cash. We didn't have any, so we said it's okay we will just pay with card. I think she didn't understand that I was okay without the discount, so she tried to tell me to go next door and get some cash. I told her that I didn't want to do the discount anymore and I rather pay with card. I think that this place is worth it if you are craving shabu or hot pot. It isn't bad. I also wish the service was better. It did cost more than I expected though. read more

Little Lamb - Special Spicy and Herbal Tonic Broth - Mongolian Near Me - London, XGL

Different from little lamb dubai Menu is limited Soup base is different although this one is also good Not much variation of the meatball and fishball Mongolian bbq better in dubai Better take all you can eat for £26 better than a la carte read more

Little Lamb - Mongolian Near Me - London, XGL

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This is the only dedicated Hot Pot / Shabu Shabu restaurant in London and is where ALL of you should be dining this winter. Nothing beats a cold wet and dark evening than a cauldron of bubbling spicy soup right in front of your face. Epic. For the uninitiated, Hot Pot is a Mongolian meal where you boil one or two soup broths on your table and then cook thin meat slices, veg, tofu and noodles in bubbling soups. It's a ritual dinner taking a couple of hours and it's crazy popular in Japan where it's called Shabu Shabu and in China, where Little Sheep Hot Pot is the country's most successful chain restaurant (and now owned by Pizza Hut). Little Lamb in Chinatown does a good job of Hot Pot, notably they don't hold back on the spicy level with their super-spicy mala soup. Ouch! The fishballs are sensational, the piles of sliced meat are massive and the flat noodles are very cool. I think they could improve on their sauces and have a few more options, but for now they are a 5-star choice because London has nowhere better for this wonderful meal. I don't expect that to last long - bring on the Hot Pot invasion! Little Lamb is also very small, and very Chinese. So I suggest booking ahead. We were surrounded by the young, shopping-mad fashionable Chinese and for the whole evening we were the only non-Mandarin speakers in the house. We even partook in a Chinese rendition of Happy Birthday To You that landed us a free slice of cake from a neighbouring table. At that point we felt less in London and much more in Beijing. Soho was thousands of miles away! Our 2 hour banquet finished at 20 quid a head for two and we left incredibly happy and significantly closer to being spherical-shaped human beings. ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ If I've not convinced you yet - then I suggest you look at my photos! read more

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What a great discovery! Thanks Tom for the review... Our choice was a set menu of 20 quid per person, which included any broth and 10 food options (5 each). We chose the 3 broths pot, so we could try them all, but next time well go for only 2 of them: spicy and mushrooms . I really enjoyed the prawns, the special fish balls (fish outside, pork inside), the brown mushrooms, the pak choi and all the meat slices... not that much the flat noodles and the dried tofu. I was going to give it 5 stars but we were sitting next to the door and every time someone came in, the door stayed open, so we had to stand up around 20 times during our meal to close it... really annoying. As Tom mentioned, 2 hours meal and make sure you book ahead! Be aware of not coming here if youre going on a date after dinner or to any other social event, because the whole you (hair, clothes, etc) will stink after being sat around that steamy hot pot for 2 hours!!! A must try and, without a doubt, another name for my "unusual places" list.... read more

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Sometimes London can get very chilly and cool during the summer time, so we decided to get hot lot that night! We ordered the one with 3 broths: spicy, herbal, and mushroom! The broths were very flavorful and delicious! We ended up drinking a lot of the herbal one! We ordered about 6 dishes and along with the broth, the total came out to be £35, which isn't bad for two people. I purposely didn't want to eat too full because we wanted to get bubble tea afterwards and walk around Chinatown and the night life nearby. The food was good! The raw beef and veggies looked fresh. The servers were attentive and friendly, and they came frequently to pour hot water into our pot. They had a pretty good selection of food ranging from noodles to fish to meat to seafood to sauces!! read more

Little Lamb - Mongolian Near Me - London, XGL

Before I started doing hot pot at home, there were very few places in London that does it well. Like most places here I can't compare it to the ones in Flushing... so I won't. But it is pretty damn good. Little lamb is my usually go to place to have hot pot where it's quite good but wish they had a little more variety in the items you can order (for instance, my fave item is taro!) For a bunch of girls, usually a bit cheaper to go for the a la carte menu and be plenty full. What I end up doing sometimes is ordering way too much then completely over eating. It's hard to tell how much you eat when you fish your food out of the pot and eat it straight away! Some of the items on the menu are a bit unclear - such as the names of the different types of tofu or fishballs. Any doubt, you can always ask the staff. read more

I loved the venue. I loved the authenticity. I loved the service. I loved the menu. I loved the meat, veg and fish selections. I loved the amount of food. I loved the price. I just didn't love the hot pot. The broth fell completely flat on my palate and no amount of sauce (we ordered one of every available kind) did the trick. We ended up pouring soy sauce directly into the bubbling pots to get even the slightest bit of flavour. Not kidding. No salt, no spice, no flavour. While I'd assume this was a fluke or a one-off hot pot mistake, we ordered a pot with three different broths and every single one of them was just... disappointing. Even the spicy mala soup that we had read so much about just tasted like watered down, well water. With oil. In reflection, I'm moving this from a generous 3-star to a 2-star review as I was assuming I'd love it so much that I'd want to drink, dip, and bathe myself in the delicious soupy goodness that I'd read so much about. Instead, I ended up kind of sad and hungry, even with piles and piles of delicious meat, fish and veg in front of me. I loved everything about Little Lamb... expect the main attraction. Thus, I won't likely be going back anytime soon as I've definitely had better. read more

I love this place. But not for the food, that should deserve a 3 at most, but for the authentic chinese style it has. I lived one year in Shanghai, and this is the sort of places I found around my university: no posh things, bad decors on the walls, dirty windows. Love it. That's China! It's difficult to say this place is bad for eating, as it is a hot pot, and you basically cant's screw it. The formula is easy, 23 pounds 5 plates and the hot pot. you can choose the 3 flavored in order to tastes different things but beware: spicy IS spicy, unless you have a copper folded tongue you don't want to choose just the spicy ones. Plates cover everything, from meat to fish, meatballs, noodles, tofu, vegetables. You name it, they have it. Something comes still frozen, and it actually has a taste of fridge, but that's ok, it's a chinese! there is a reason why you can choose among 50+ dishes! You understand, it's difficult to seriously review these sort of places, where the atmosphere is so authentic you are really feeling in Beijing, especially when you go out and see that group of people spitting food remains on the table. Love it. Just a suggestion: the waitress (of course she should deserve a complete chapter on her own!) WON'T STOP serving dishes, that means your table will be filled with plates in a few and then she will start to stack up dishes one over the other (YOU SEE!?! That's amazing! You won't find a single restaurant in this part of the world where they are actually doing this kind of things!). Just tell her to stop, she will be very confused at first, but just tell her, politely and slowly, that you'll ask her to bring other dishes as soon as you finished some of the ones you have in front of you. Remember, nice and strong. In conclusion, this is probably the best real chinese place you can have outside of China, just go there with a bunch of friends and enjoy the evening! Beware, it's impossible to end a hot pot without a single stain on your shirt! read more

Yummy Yummy Yummy. Well apart from the obvious embarrassment that the people here come from a different part of china and we couldn't communicate. I thought the portions were quite large for the prices they charged. The lamb, beef, fresh crab, cuttle fish and noodles were very good though I was less impressed with the tree mushroom. In terms of broth the spicy and herbal are good but the mushroom was less good. On the sauces we all agreed that the sha cha oil/ spice thing was amazing; seasame/ tahini less good and mixed about the sweet garlic (I was expecting a carmelised roasted garlic, it was a whole entired pickled thing!) The boys wanted macdonalds after so I guess they weren't as stuffed as me. We didn't go for the set menu and for £20 each including drinks and tips it was an exceptionally enjoyable evening. PS don't wear nice clothes as you will come out stinking like a bowl of won ton soup. Well heavenly but you might not want to smell like that tomorrow. read more

I love me some hot pot. 5 plates of meat per person? Sweet action. I've been here a few times, most recently to celebrate the Chinese New Year, and it's never disappointed. For those that don't know what hotpot is, a quick description. It's a communal dining experiences (with your party, not random strangers) where you get a bowl of broth on a hot plate and you dip various items (shaved meat, veggies, seafood, noodles, etc) into to cook then pull it out a few seconds later and chow down. It helps to be adept with chopsticks, but not a necessity. For 20 squids, you get your pick of broth (with different heat ratings, my favourite being the spiciest), and 5 dishes. The dishes vary in size from small bundles of mushrooms to a dinner plate of thinly shaved meat. Naturally, I heavily weight my selections to the meat, but I must admit the oyster mushrooms and the foushou (spelling is completely wrong i know) fish balls are pretty damn good too. Also, get the house special sauce and the satay sauce as those make excellent accompaniments to dip your food in. Or be proper Chinese and get a raw egg to dip in instead...don't ask me why that's good, I just know it comes recommended. Overall, its a great place for a group. Wouldn't recommend it for a date if you are competitive like me. Also, definitely a place to book ahead of time. read more

Visiting U.K. from Los Angeles and got the craving for hotpot. Did a quick search and here we are! (Apparently hotpot isn't a big thing here in U.K.) Did I mentioned we also tried Shuang Shuang 2 nights ago and it was such a disappointment? We should of just walked over to Little Lamb instead of giving Shuang Shuang a opportunity to gyp us. It was literally few shops down!!! Ugh! I'll write another review about them on their page. We did the all you can eat combo (£23 per person) excluding sauces and drinks. Which was completely worth it. The items were limited to sections 3-9 but it was a lot of different varieties, from red meats to veggies, they got it all! You'll definitely leave happy. The reason I took away 1 star is because of the broth. It was literally Knorr chicken powder and it is £8. Wtf?!? Service was good. The food came out quickly after we ordered and they weren't very stingy with the portion. Away from home where all the good hotpots are, I guess this will do. It did curbed the craving. read more

I had high expectation for this place but was slightly disappointed. It's not bad, just...bland. Positives: - lots of choices for what goes into your hot pot - tasty plum juice that goes well with the hotpot - fish balls and prawns were delicious. The oyster mushroom is a must-order. - staff are quite accommodating. A friend arrived way earlier than our reservation and another arrived much later, but we didn't get a hard time at all. - reasonable price So why the 3 star ? The broth and meat were very disappointing, and they are the heart and soul of hotpot. We ordered a half spicy half mushroom pot, they were both pretty bland. The lamb wasn't sliced thin enough, which affected the texture. That being said, we did have a good time and everyone ate way more than they should. I would go back just because its convenient to get to. read more

Oh, I'm so disappointed! I love hot pot but this experience was a total disaster :( The spicy broth was basically chili oil and chili seeds, no flavor other than...oil. The selection of stuff isn't great compared to other places I've been (in the US). The worst part? 30 quid JUST FOR ME ALONE. Ugh. So mad. read more

I'm not convinced I should be paying 23 quid for hot pot but I was craving boiled veggies and meat. That sounded anticlimactic didn't it? 23 quid per person gets you your choice of broth (spicy house special, herbal, mushroom, regular spicy) and you can order 1-3 in a pot. They have great selection of tofu (fried bean curd, fried tofu, fried tofu skin, fresh tofu, frozen tofu -not sure why, dry tofu), and meat (lamb, beef, pork, cuttlefish, prawn) as well as your typical veggies. Great selection of sauce (satay, garlic, sesame, spicy). It's quite a small venue, so I'm glad I made a reservation for Saturday as people were were being turned away. You'll smell like hot pot afterwards so careful making post dinner plans. Also a bit cold if you sit by the door, as people will be coming in and out. read more

I went here with a group of 7 people. Highly recommended that you make reservations as there are not a lot of large tables. As we walked in the restaurant I was thinking hmm where are we going to sit as the ground level area just had small tables. We were escorted downstairs and we got our own little area. We all went with the £20/pp option and that gives you the option of 5 items each. 5*7 equals 35 dishes of food to be cooked. It was awesome the amount of food we had. Beef slices, shrimp, tofu, some veg, noodles. Hot pot is only best enjoyed with a group because everyone is trying cook and fish around for their food. It's very social and fun. If you haven't tried before you should definitely check it out read more

One of the items on my bucket list for the past few years has been to try Chinese Hotpot. For whatever reason, I've always lived in a city where this is not an option. On a recent vacation in the UK, I made it a point to meet a friend in Chinatown so I could finally mark this off my list. I have no idea how authentic Little Lamb's hotpot is, but it was pretty awesome for a n00b like me. We ordered beef, lamb, the long-stemmed mushrooms, turnips, shrimp balls, leafy greens, and a few other things. We ordered the special house broth and the mushroom broth. We splurged on a trio of sauces. We started out dipping our fixings in piece by piece but were soon dumping them in and scooping them out with a spoon then slurping them out of our bowls. Hotpot is messy but fun. We were definitely splattered in broth and sauces when we left, stuffed to bursting but happy. Little Lamb is on the central strip in Chinatown and easy to find. We didn't have to wait for a table, but the seating was very limited. We went on a weeknight, and if we had arrived a little earlier, we would have had to wait for a while for a table. The restaurant is close to a number of theaters, but it takes a while to eat (because you're cooking your food yourself). We spent about thirty pounds per person, so this isn't a meal for the budget conscious; I actually budgeted this into my expenses beforehand to make sure I had enough to cover the bill when we actually went. I'm definitely glad I ate here. read more

The concept here is a simple one; shared hotpots for two of more people, flavoued broths brought to a rolling boil with tabletop heaters and used to poach a variety of meats, tofus and veggies. First, pick a base broth (or two) from the short list. We went for a steaming seething yin-yang of Sichuan spiced lip numbing pleasure and a soft mushroom broth as counterpoint. Next, select 5 or so options per person from the extensive list and, once your stock is up to speed, get (them) stuck in. The tiny down at heel space is tucked away, if anything can be tucked away on Shaftesbury Avenue, among the Chinese travel agents, health shops, walk in masseuses and general central London tat. If you don't read Chinese it's not immediately obvious what they sell and as we headed into the bowels of the basement I was glad to be led by the Ambassador. He'd spent much of the last decade in Beijing and Shanghai and knew his beans, not to mention his hot pots. You can do very well here on the veggies and tofu, but the real fun is in watching the bright pink tubes of thinly shaved and rolled meats blister and boil within seconds in the scorching liquid. The numbing Sichuan pepper takes away a great deal of the subtlety but you can (just) identify the ingredients. Fish balls and crab sticks might not be from the expensive aisle in the nearby Oriental supermarket but like most things, they taste so good when drowned in molten pepper heat. Fun, challenging and social. And at around £25 a head with sides of meat skewers and a few rounds of Tsing Tao, it's definitely a keeper. read more

BLUF (bottom line up front) -- Delicious hot-pot, not overpriced, acceptable service and atmosphere. Great fixed price deal, about 21 quid pp gives a selection of broth(s), meats, veg, tofu, etc. Tons of food, lots of fun. Spicy, brothy goodness abounds. My recs on what to order: Bok choi, Mongolian bean noodles, mushrooms, and hard tofu. Drawbacks: as others have indicated, the service is a bit ho-hum. read more

This is a quaint little place in Chinatown that is something different from all the other Cantonese restaurants in the area. The food is Mongolian, and the concept is that you have to cook your own food in a hot pot. All your food comes raw, but fret not as the cooking part is actually very easy, as all the meat and veggies are prepared so that they will cook within minutes. You get a big pot in the middle with either normal broth or spicy broth, both of which are full of flavor. However, its small size will probably mean that if you go at a busy time you will have to wait for a table, and bigger groups might be harder to accommodate. The food is good, but realistically you have to go for the £20/person set menu or spend more ordering a la carte to get a filling meal, otherwise you will feel like having some more food afterwards!! read more

Little Lamb is a specialist hot pot restaurant but if you're looking for the Lancashire variety then you'll be disappointed. By hot pot, I mean what the Cantonese call 'daa bin lou', Mandarin speakers call 'huo guo', and what the Japanese know as 'shabu-shabu'. It's also commonly known as 'steamboat' The version here is what passes for as the common or garden Chinese variety. This is despite the misleading claim that it's a Mongolian & Chinese restaurant. No matter what you call it and what style you go for, hot pot makes for a fun and filling meal. Ordering is simple here as you use a tick sheet akin to those found in dim sum restaurants. You can go a la carte but I recommend going for the £20/head set meal (min. 2 persons), where you choose a soup base and five dishes per person. Between the two of us, we saved around a tenner ordering this way. For the soup base, we went 'yin-yang' with a nourishing herbal tonic and a special spicy soup, into which the assorted meat, seafood, vegetables, mushrooms, and noodles are cooked. The faint hearted should beware of the Sichuan-style spicy soup. I'd forgotten how much fun, hot pot is and if you don't mind cooking your own dinner then I strongly recommend Little Lamb. read more

Service sucks and food was mediocre. Went in at 8:30 and they told us they close at 10pm so we're like alright. Then she proceeds to tell us if we get the buffet that they close at 10pm pretty much "rushing us." So we decide to do La Carte so she gives us the menu to check off and walks away with the pen........so we're stuck with putting what we want on our iphone as she's like long gone and no where in sight. Another server comes and even finds it ridiculous she didn't leave us the pen cause he couldn't check off what we wanted. Overall, meat was mediocre and service was just sad. Very disappointing compared to LA! read more

Such amazing food, a hidden little gem! However, be warned, you definitely won't be spending less than £25 per person for this restaurant...! Its a great place but super expensive! read more

For £20, it's not a bad place to go for a standard hot pot dinner with friends. That said, don't expected anything extraordinary!

Nice hotpot restaurant! Very large portions, fresh food, good taste. Visited with two friends and they both enjoyed the meal a lot. There is one downside though, I don't like how every small portion of sauce is charged. Should make it free!! (Or at least larger portions of sauce!) read more

i was so happy when I found this place at London. but that feeling stopped after I walk in their door. waitress made me wait 15min for the table, even thought there were seats available downstairs. SMALL FOOD PORTION , I am a tiny person, but I had to order 2 beef plates and 2 rice and 3 veggie sides just for myself. there is no service, server take your order , drop the food off and stand there and staring into the white space. however, it was funny watching another follow diner argue with her to take the service charge off.. that made my day. read more

In my opinion, there is nothing better than having hotpot with a bunch of friends on a cold winter day. I booked Little Lamb because this was the first restaurant that poped up on Yelp and has decent reviews. To tell the truth, I really didn't have much of an expectation, because the restaurants in Chinatown are generally not authentic. However, I was really craving hotpot and decided to give it a try. I was pleasantly surprised. Hotpot is like Fondu except instead of dipping bread into melted cheese, you cook thinly sliced meat and vegetable into boiling broth. There is really not that much skill required to prepare the meat and vegetable except cutting them up; but what separate good hotpot from bad hotpot is all the broth. Many restaurants in China have their own secret recipe and they would boil ox bones for hours with different spices to make the broth. That is not the case here, because their broth was not very flavorful. The Sichuan style hotpot usually have a special pot that is divided into 2 or 3 sections, so in each of the sections you can put in different broths. We chose to have 3 flavors, the spicy, the mushroom and nourishing broth. The spicy broth was not at all spicy, though it looked quite red. It was rather disappointing, because I was looking forward to that hot, spicy and numbing sensation that I was used to in China. Again that was my own fault, because I am yet to have authentic spicy broth outside of China. At Little Lamb, for 23 pounds, you can have up to 5 dishes of meat and vegetables from the menu. It doesn't sound much, but it turned out to be a lot, especially if you go with a big group. We had 6 people in our group, which meant we could have 30 dishes! As the Chinese in the group, I ordered for everybody and managed to introduce my friends to some ingredients that they have never tried before, like shrimp balls, lotus roots, and tofu skin. We pushed ourselves to order two rounds, but still just managed to finish 24 dishes! The restaurant was nice enough to just charged us for 5 people. Overall, it was a nice meal and we had a lot of fun. read more

Little Lamb has possibly the most polite and loveliest wait staff in all of Chinatown, granted the bar isn't set very high by its contemporaries but it was still a very refreshing surprise to not be rushed and yelled at. But what about the food? Hot pot broth is decent. We ordered the special spicy, mushroom, and tomato broths with lamb, beef, pork, prawns, pak choi, mushrooms, Mongolian flat noodles (which were a revelation when combined with the spicy broth), and bean sprouts. It was a ridiculously large amount of food for 2 and we were both in food comas by the end. Well worth the visit as it's good value. If I were to judge it solely on the food, I would say it's closer to 3 stars than 4 but for the whole experience, definitely 4 stars. read more

I'd heard good things about this place but ended up leaving a little disappointed. The portions were generous but the meat and the broth were a big let down for me. You can probably find a better chinese meal at the same price. read more