Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot

Funny — they have several Little Sheep restaurants in SoCal but I’ve only ever been to the one in San Francisco. We love their pitchers of Japanese beer (some more than others) and the delicious spicy & mild broths. I always order the veggie platter, seafood platter (scallops, fish balls, mussels, shrimp, fish, etc.), beef and fried tofu. Also udon noodles. So yummy!!! It’s now sort of a tradition to eat this when I come to SF. I just crave this type of food more when I go up north. Hm, wonder why. Anyway, delicious food, good service! Minus 1 star because the bathroom isn’t clean =(.

Unique experience. Delicious food. Quick service once you’re seated. Seems expensive, but everything in San Francisco seems expensive.
We did the spicy and original broth, garlic beef (highly recommend), the house special wide noodle (they’re clear with a gummy worm type texture… Kind of tasteless and chewy), Tara root (delicious– like mashed potato cubes), lamb & beef meatballs (just ok), Bok Choy (absolutely delicious and fresh), Napa cabbage (super delicious!), enoki mushrooms (nice addition– they are the super long skinny mushrooms with a mild flavor), quail eggs (my husband loved them), lotus root (kind of like a water chestnut)
Bottle of California wine $ 24… Not bad!

Came here during Warriors’ game time at 6:30pm on a Sunday, and there were still a few tables open. However, I’ve heard they usually have long lines up the wazoo around dinner time. We were lucky enough to snag a table with a great viewing of the LCD screen and the game (Warriors won, aww yea). By the time we left around 8pm, there were people waiting on the stairs on the way out.
Something happened with the Kobe beef — it was extremely gristly and rather tough. Definitely not worth the $ 13.95 that we paid. Go for the supreme beef or any of the other beef instead.
Everything else was pretty standard to the restaurant — vegetables and fish were quite fresh as were the sauces. We ordered the satay sauce and garlic & sesame oil sauces. Sucks that sauce costs 50 cents each and a cup of tea is 99 cents. I saw another table with a pot of tea at their table, but we didn’t get one. Definitely try to request the pot of tea since you pay for it. We also ordered the bean curd knots, which were very filling; almost like thick noodles. We didn’t even need to order noodles after that!

I had dinner there when I was traveling for business alone. My hotel was just around the corner.
The restaurant is on the second floor and had a long queue on the stairs at dinner time. They have a few seats at the bar, which is a good place for single eaters.
I’m a Chinese and have eaten at Little Sheep in China before. It is a famous chain brand and used to have lots of shops, but it has closed many and has become less popular now in the highly competitive hot pot market in China. Its soup base packages are still popular in grocery stores and supermarkets.
This time I had House Original soup base and ordered New Zealand spring lamb, beef tripe, cuttlefish paste, tong ho, and enoki mushrooms. The lamb and beef tripe are my favorites for hot pot. The cuttlefish paste tastes a little bit too fishy and undercooked even though I’ve extended boiling time. Enoki mushrooms are good. They didn’t cut tong ho into shorter pieces, which makes it harder to chew and swallow.
If possible, try to have hot pot with more people together, like your family or friends. Except because the more the merrier, you get to taste more food in one setting.

What the f? We made a reservation for 6 but one person can’t show and they asked us to go back to the end of waiting list. So we had to wait for another one hour. What policy is that?

Little Sheep had the best service of all the places we are in San Francisco. The people were friendly, prompt, and answered questions well.
The food is also very tasty. My husband and I ordered hot pot with mushroom broth base. You can customize your soup however you wish so we ordered the lamb/​beef combo plate, baby bok choy, napa cabbage, shiitake mushrooms, lotus root, and taro. I loved the taro and lotus root best but all items were tasty.
We also ordered a side of Mongolian kim chee. It is quite similar to the Korean version tho not quite as spicy or fermented. I prefer the Mongolian version while my husband prefers the Korean version. Either way, you will likely enjoy it here.

The things that I like about this place:
— GOOD SERVING SIZES especially for the meat. If you get 1 order of meat it would be good for 2 people to share.
— Good for first timers. They easily explain what hot pot is and how to order without being rude or making you feel dumb about it.
— Reasonable prices. Myself and 3 friends ate there for $ 97.87 and when we split it each of us paid about $ 24.50. We got 5 plates of meat, 4 bowls of noddles, 1 sauce, 1 egg, and 5 types of veggies. And we were FULL. Pretty good for ballin on a budget (:
The things that I dislike about this place:
— THEY DO NOT TAKE RESERVATIONS if you have a party less than 6 ! I was really surprised that they didn’t but I mean I guess.

Great foods and service!
It was a chilly and rainy day despite of May in California, my boyfriend and I had slight cold so that we went out and got here to warm our body.
We ordered;
Soup: Half and Half (5): the best choice
Vegetable plate (3): Great size and price, but it might be too much. Spinach tastes good with the white soup.
Oyster mushrooms (5): Essencial
Enoki (5): Essencial
Beef (3): it was ok. There were no deep taste of beef.
Pork (2): tasteless
Lamb (4): great taste with the white soup
Beef Tendon (2): it was resolved with heat and it didn’t absorb the taste of the soup.
Tofu (3): It was ok. I didn’t need it, maybe.
Quail Eggs (5): This was the BEST with the white soup.
I am a big fan of mushrooms and eggs generally, so my review might be biased but I definitely recommend you to take Oyster mushrooms, Enoki, and Quail Eggs. Mushrooms were good with both soups, but for the Quail eggs, you should choose the white soup. It’s really good.
And also I highly recommend to take the half&half soup. It was funny but taking turns eating the stuff from the white soup and eating f from the red soup, somehow helped maximize the good taste for both.
This place doesn’t take reservation, so if you’ll come to the busy time, you have to wait for a hour or more. So I highly recommend you to come earlier.

The service was great, the staff went above and beyond to make sure our first experience was excellent. The food was fresh, tasty, and light. You get a lot of food for the price.
The inside of the building could use a bit of work, though maybe some fresh paint?

My bf and I went there on a Saturday night without reservation. Upon arrival, we were given a menu ala carte/​dim sum style to write down the quantity next to the food items we wanted. We waited 25 mins to get a table. Our server, (Danny or Denny), was very helpful, detailed, and pleasant. The customer service was excellent. We ordered the half and half soup, garlic beef, assorted meat platter, tendons, spinach (Chinese spinach), bok choy, bean noodles (vermicelli), oyster mushroom, all of the sauces, 2 bowls of rice, and a young coconut drink (actual coconut).
We were pretty disappointed in the quality of the meat. The assorted meat platter was frozen and when the meat cooked, it turned dark grey/​almost black maybe because it was old or freezer burned. I enjoyed all of the sauces. The broths were pretty bland so the sauces came in handy. The coconut tasted old and slightly bitter. The presentation was amazing especially with the ying-​yang divided hotpot with herbs in there. The herb and spice pieces can be tedious to remove when eating. We had half of the veggies and two-​thirds of the assorted meat platter leftover that we couldn’t finish. We didn’t want to take anything home especially the meat. We spent about $ 70.
The restaurant has a great atmosphere and setting with a view from the 2^nd floor of the lively street. This place is definitely overrated. Beware of MSG when eating here if you’re sensitive to it… Got a little headache. They don’t add MSG but they do use prepackaged broths containing MSG. However, if you feel like you must try this place out, do the garlic beef (because it’s not frozen) and try the first 4 sauces on the menu.

2÷20÷16: Sorry, yes, it would be February when I ate here, so I’m a tad late with this review. Though I usually try to describe each individual dish I eat in my reviews, I just can’t remember most of it now. That said, I do clearly remember thinking this was one of the best hot pots I’ve had yet up in NorCal. I have to be honest – SoCal has the Bay Area /​SF beat pretty clearly for Chinese food, so anytime I find something particularly good, it really sticks in my head. And this was great!
Coincidentally, I actually ate at another location in Canada!:
Yup, 5 stars there too! Unfortunately there were a few fancier items they had in Canada that sadly were missing here like whole cuttlefish!!! I LOVED those things. But here it seemed that the meats were fancier though. So, some give and take.
Anyway, why was this place so memorable? Well, for one, as I mentioned, they had some varieties of meats, and some fancier cuts, that you normally don’t find. Also, they got their famous meatballs, made fresh for you. And everything they did have was at least a bit, if not far better quality than what you’d normally get elsewhere up here.
Here are some of the items I actually remembered:
1. Half and Half (Original & Spicy) Soup Base /​Person $ 3.95: I always get this, at all hot pots. If you’re new to this, the pot has a divider so they put the standard soup on one side and the Szechuan-​like soup on the other side. They also have all one flavor, or a «Vegetarian Mushroom Soup Base.» Of course, their soup is delicious.
2. Satay Sauce $ 0.50 and Sesame Paste $ 0.50: This was memorable because they actually charged for sauce! That’s new. Even their other location didn’t do that. But anyway, not a big deal – just a couple quarters.
3. Beef Meat Ball $ 7.95 and Lamb Meat Ball $ 7.95: This is special. Not too many other places serve freshly made meatballs. And they’re really delicious! Creamy and tender. The taste and texture is unlike any other Chinese meatball I’ve ever had. Try it!
4. Garlic Beef $ 7.95: This was also something I’ve never had at another hot pot place. The meat comes to you looking like ground beef, but when you cook it up it turns out like a Chinese version of Korean bulgogi. Great garlic flavor but not overwhelming. And the beef was very savory and tender. Great stuff.
I noticed they have some other locations close to me around The Bay, and I can’t wait to try all the others!
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#chinesehotpot #hotpot #chinese

I’ve been to another Little Sheep before, but this one functions a little differently than that one.
For starters, they don’t have AYCE! I came for dinner, and they only let us order off the menu. I’ve always eaten AYCE lunch at Little Sheep, so this was a much different experience.
Also, they charge $.50 per type of sauce. At the other Little Sheep I usually go to, they have a sauce bar where you can mix different types of sauces for free. But here, each type is $.50 so to have them all available for mixing, you’d have to cash out a few bucks.
Between my boyfriend and I, we got 2 plates of meat, 2 plates of veggies, and 2 plates of seafood. That totaled $ 49, after tax! We were both satisfied but wow, that cost way more than I had anticipated.
I didn’t know that they charge the pot fee per person, because when you select your soup base, it just says $ 3.95. Just be aware of that when you pick it!
The service was outstanding and the interior was very clean. It’s a great place to get dinner in the city, but just be wary of the pricing.

I tried the spicy soup which for me wasn’t really spicy. I had the NZ lamb and it didn’t really taste like the NZ lamb that I’m used to. I liked the soup with the noodles. Our server was good about keeping the soup refilled. Wait time for us was close to 30min.

All I can say is that this experience was unique and special. We had the beef slices, Lamb dumplings, fish dumplings, and the assorted vegetables. There was so much food between the two of us that there was no way we could finish it. The food was extremely fresh and the service was excellent.
We waited about 30 minutes to get to a table because this place is slammed for a reason. I would highly suggest making reservations, or you can sit at the bar and have some sake while you wait.
It’s such a unique experience to cook your own food and a hot boiling broth and eat it super hot and fresh. I would highly recommend it to any single, couple, or family!

I’ve had this chain before in SoCal and I’m excited to see its made its way up north. the Asian food scene in the city definitely needs some help. I came with 2 others on a Wednesday night and got seated fairly quickly. we ordered the half spicy half non spicy .the portions were bigger than I anticipated so we definitely over ordered. we were stuffed and everything tastes great. it was pretty pricey though. the bill came out to be $ 120ish for the 3 of us ! I don’t think I can be a regular here with these prices but it’s worth a try. ventilation needs some help for sure and service needs to be picked up. food came out fast but it took a while to get our check and they took our cards and forgot about us so we had to remind them about that. never experienced that before haha!

Happy Lunar New Year to everyone!
By association, Lunar New Year makes me think of reunion dinner the night before which makes me think of hotpot dinner which leads us to Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot.
I had a friends-​union dinner here most recently over the weekend. Little Sheep is somewhat higher-​end hotpot dining I guess which makes it friendly to folks new to the hotpot experience. I refrain from using words like «white-​friendly» but note that it is also very popular with Asian crowds which suggests Little Sheep is doing something right. It’s a combination of fresh ingredients, a clean and comfortable space, and efficient service that get your food orders to the table quickly. The half and half soup combo seem to be the most popular option but the spicy broth isn’t really that much spicier than the regular one. Now order whatever ingredients tickle your fancy although the combo plates seem to be an easy way to go. Also recommend getting the sesame pancake on the side.
It’s been packed whenever I’ve been here so call ahead for a reservation if you can — provided you are a party of six or more that is. Otherwise just show up, put your name in, and expect a wait. We spent our 1 hour wait at (Saturday 7:30pm) having cocktails across the street. The crowds did start to peter out around 9pm or so which might be a good time to just walk into Little sheep and start cooking away till close.

Ambiance: Large, bright, clean, and spacious. From the street all you’ll see is a door and you have to go up the staircase or the elevator to get to the actual restaurant. How busy they are seems to be hit-​or-​miss. One time I came before they opened and the line was so long with a wait time of almost 2 hours. However, this time, we walked right inside and were seated. One negative is they don’t have vents above the tables so the smoke blows into your face, was steaming up my friend’s glasses, and was in the way as we conversed.
Service: The waitstaff was so friendly and prompt! The gentleman answered our questions and they continually refill your broth and monitor the temperature.
Food: The spicy broth wasn’t spicy. I wish it had more flavor. We ordered some of the sauces (sesame and satay) and they didn’t add anything either. The combo meat and veggie options are great! A really good deal for a variety of food. We just ordered those with the broth and it was more than enough for 2 people. If I come back with a group, I’d do that again and add on some noodles and maybe some seafood or meat balls. Also, you can substitute a meat for another one. We both don’t like lamb so we subbed with beef.

Note: Final order is at 10:15pm. Must be out by 11:00pm.
Came in a couple nights ago, and this place hit the spot on a rainy day. Service was good considering we came in 30 minutes before closing. Being first timers, we ordered a lot more than expected. For 2 people, try to avoid the assorted platters, as they are huge. We ordered the assorted veggies and if you look at the picture, its almost a basket full of veggies! Would have been fine except we also ordered enoki mushrooms, pork (one order of meat was perfect for us), fried tofu, woodear (fungus), noodles, and tripe. Whew! Broth was flavorful and super tasty… everything was delicious really. The sauces are $ 0.50 a piece, but they are in large sauce bowls, big enough to share — so order a couple to try. The garlic and sesame oil was gooood! I can’t wait to go back with more people to try more stuff!

Ummm why the overall rating for Little Sheep’s SF location is so low is beyond me. I left here with my belly full and my cravings satiated! This is for sure my new favorite hot pot place.
There’s literally no difference between the Little Sheep here and the one in Beijing, China (besides the fact that they charge you 50 cents for each sauce and even cilantro and scallions, but whatevs — that’s my only complaint, and obviously we can’t expect Chinese prices in the USA).
It smells like China. It sounds like China. It even looks like China. The service is also on point — all the staff I’ve dealt with have been very pleasant, friendly and accommodating.
My boyfriend and I went to town ordering things off the menu, and the total bill came out to $ 44. Not bad for two people!
Here’s my tips for the Little Sheep noobs: Go with the spicy broth if you like some heat (so much more flavor!!), sesame paste + cilantro + scallions + chili sauce for dipping (yes all 4!), and the fishballs with fish roe (careful while eating it – it gets super hot but the flavor explosion in your mouth is worth the burn!!!).

My husband and I are back for round two! The first visit was wonderful even though we showed up for the last 45 minutes before closing. Now we’re back for their lunch menu and trying the half and half soup base.
The customer service here is great, they walk us thru the menu and gave us their recommendations which I have no doubt will taste great.
Come for a different dinner experience!