I like this place.
Yes, it is on the expensive side, but it's good.
I don't know if it's because of the decor, the little lamb models sitting right near the entrance, or the plating, but there seems to need a bit of propriety when having a meal at this place, and it's good.
At least I know that the food will not only be presented prettily, it will be fresh, and good.
Happy Lamb Hotpot speaks of themselves as a Mongolian style hotpot.
To be honest, the urbanized, less-traveled me doesn't quite know what an authentic Mongolian hotpot is- I don't think I've ever tried one per se- but if it's close to whatever's here, I think it should be good.
The soup here is one of the most heartening ones I've ever had.
It's the kind of soup that's got a lot of herbs and tonic stuff in it, and I think there's collagen inside, but then again there's so much floating about that you don't really know what they are. The only thing I recognized inside the pot were the cordyceps, and the red dates- and gigantic ones they were.
The star dish to order here is of course the beef.
Which of the beef selections we ordered, I don't know (my friend did the ordering) but those that came were huge, wide, and beautifully sliced.
What charmed me most wasn't just how fresh, and cold they were, but how aesthetically they were arranged. There must have been quite a bit of effort somewhere if all these slices were laid one over the other so neatly and so symmetrically.
It was fun to lift up each slice- so big it was- and dunk it into the soup.
And it was fun too to separate this fish meat thing (that's what I think it was) from its bamboo holder and drop them clump by clump by clump into the soup. One of us used the spoon. Another one of us used the chopsticks.
This afternoon I'd decided I wanted a dish of lettuce as well.
Vegetables in soup are my thing- they always have been- I like leaving them in the pot for as long as possible, and the sight of big, green, cheerful-looking leaves soaked with the flavor of collagen-rich soup delights me and makes me smile.
The one thing I really liked about the food here weren't the meats of the hotpot though.
It were the skewers.
No doubt I wondered how a hotpot place like this has skillfully grilled skewers, but it didn't matter because these were perfectly done.
Beautifully marinated, there was no tough chew, and full-flavored the fat of the meats were.
Best part, they were so crispy.
I had a great time sliding them off the skewer, taking small bites as I nibbled through them.
All in all we've been to Happy Lamb Hotpot two times.
And the second time was no different from the first.
We ordered the same soup.
We ordered the same orders of beef.
But this time we chose a smaller portion, we decided on an additional order of hand-rolled meat balls, there was still the lettuce, and then there was a dish of square-shaped soft tofu.
It didn't matter that this time we had no view- literally at one corner of the restaurant behind the cartons of beer, right in front of the VIP room.
We had a marvelous time all the same.