Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot

Little Sheep San Mateo was my first hot pot experience and it was unforgettable. This is the place that made me a life long fan of hot pot. So while the service at this location isn’t great, it still holds a soft spot in my heart and I’ll come back every now and zen.

Enjoyed this family lunch on a cold weather day! Few glitches though… Here are the details :)
What we liked:
— The hot pot style lunch ambiance: It was great for a family get together, and perfect during this cold weather season!
— The restaurant is very spacious. The seating area style is descent even though the restaurant from outside doesn’t look that appealing.
— Good selection of food items for the hot pot.
What needs improvement:
— We got there little after 2pm, and they informed us that we had to rush our order since the kitchen was closing in 20 minutes. Which was fine. Though one thing to be aware of, as a customer, as soon as the kitchen close, the music in the background is stopped too… and you almost feel a non-​spoken invitation to finish as soon as possible. Besides that, the service was very descent.
— The food: enjoyed most of it… The details (a «+» indicates what we liked, and a «-» indicates what we did not like):
* House original base —
* Vegetarian base +
* Supreme lamb shoulder +
* Premium lamb leg —
* Broccoli +
* Napa cabbage +
* Baby bok choy +
* House noddles —
* Steamed rice +
* Sesame paste +
* Mushrooms +
* Drink: fresh coconut +

Worst service ever from waiter Patrick. No water refills. Took 15 minutes to bring out the pot. When we flagged down the waiter for the check, he acknowledged us but never came back for another 10 minutes.

Seems like this is one of the less impacted Little Sheep branches, so if you are craving a hotpot and not looking forward to a wait — head on over! Even during peak dining hours on a weekday, the restaurant was relatively empty and most parties were seated quickly. It helps that the restaurant is huge, so there are plenty of tables available (of all different capacities).
We got the half and half soup base, which is definitely the way to go if you want variety — although how we had the pot placed meant that our side had a much easier time reaching the spicy soup base — so I ended up having mostly that. It isn’t as spicy as I thought it would be, but I definitely fished out a TON of peppers. I can tell that a lot of effort is put into making the soup base because of all the ingredients (including some traditional Chinese herbs) that I could see floating around in the soup.
There are SOOOOO many ingredients that you can choose from, but I think that the assorted veggie platter and the assorted mushroom platter are probably the most economical. As for things NOT to order — I’d recommend staying away from the meatballs. They looked weird from the start, and we couldn’t really tell if they were completely cooked or not even after they’d been cooking in the soup for a while. I did enjoy the fried fish tofu though, I definitely had more than my fair share of those little pillows of heaven. :P
Honestly, I’d much rather do hot pot at home. Ingredients are much less costly (seriously, the markup is crazy), and because I know I can just put unfinished things away, I don’t feel compelled to finish everything on the tray. If you are really craving the taste of the Little Sheep soup, you can buy starter packs of their soup base at most asian grocery markets (I’ve definitely seen them available at H Mart).

I came here for lunch and the service was really poor. Little Sheep has a lunch special $ 9.95 during the weekdays for an order of meat, broth, and vegetables! It’s a really great deal but I had to ask my server for that menu. The meat was smaller than expected but overall the herbal broth made up for it! I ended up ordering more food (noodles and garlic beef) which doubled our bill. Don’t expect too much from the service and you’ll leave happy!

So this is pretty much the 3^rd Little Sheep Location that I’ve tried in the bay area and I am no stranger to the prices. Me and my colleagues decided to come by on one of the first cold days of the Winter Season (lunch).
Upon entering, we noticed that there were a few parties ahead of us and we waited patiently as someone would come to put us down on the wait list. Funny enough, that actually took 10+ minutes. This place is severely understaffed! I noticed after a while that there were only 2 guys taking care of the entire dining area.
We sat down. Marked down what we wanted to order after a few minutes. Waited an additional 10 minutes for them to take our menu. 20 minutes to get our actual hotpot. 20 more minutes for the veges. 10 minutes for the meat. 10 minutes for the sauce. My god, please hire more people.
Despite the super slow service, I can say that the food was comparable to the other locations. Overall «Meh. I’ve experienced better.»

My experience during lunch today was very poor. Service was slow. I had spicy hot pot. So I needed water. It took 30 min to get water and had to ask for servers 3 to 4 times to get attention.
I rate this place cleanliness: 4 stars
Food: 4 stars
Service: 1 star.
Ambiance: 4 star
Parking: 3 star

This placed was pretty good. I have heard good things about this place but have never been so when my friend wanted to have his birthday dinner here that worked out perfectly. Note if you are coming here on a Saturday night come early because the place gets packed. The staff was nice enough to move us around because we were sitting in front of the air conditioner and I was freezing. We ended up doing half spicy and half tradition for the broth and ordered a variety of items such as the meat combo, seafood combo, tofu, veggie combo. Overall, the experience was fun and the flavor came mainly from whichever broth you put in. I guess in general I am not a huge fan of hot pot since I had it so much growing up which is why this place is just okay. Plus I thought it was pricey for what you got since it wasn’t AYCE.

After hearing so much about this place — I was so excited to finally try this place! I came with a group of 8 people & had made reservations before just in case!
We arrived and ordered our soup base — I chose the original & ordered the veggies/​meats. The broth was my favorite part — super tasty and I mean. how much can you mess up raw meat & veggies lol
You might be wondering why only 3 stars? Well… most hot pot places are so self explanatory that the only thing that really sets each one apart are the SAUCES. And here, they charge 50 cents PER SAUCE… W T F. I couldn’t believe it… and I thought… okay, they must be really good… So my friends and I ordered the satay, garlic, and sesame sauce… all were just ok. The satay was a bit too fragrant, the garlic was literally just minced garlic and the sesame was WAY too peanut-​y. needless to say, we were all very disappointed and even more so that we had to pay for it…
Don’t think I’ll be back — I’d much rather go to Shabu House with quality hotpot and complimentary sauces.

So happy that there’s a Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot near where I live. I went to one or two locations down in Socal before and really enjoyed how you can get the half original and half spicy broth. I’m not sure how «Mongolian» this style is, but basically the broth comes with some stuff already in it, like red dates, ginger, goji berries… pretty Asian. But I like it.
My boyfriend and I have gotten ordering down to a science; we know just how much is enough food for us. Trust me when I say that it’s TOO easy to go overboard with ordering food here! Beware of that because the check can be quite pricey! We love to order the veggie combo plate, a couple of orders of the sliced Supreme beef, the fish balls with roe inside (careful when you bite into it). We tried the Supreme angus beef before but liked the other one more. It’s nice to order some noodles to add into it too. There are a LOT of different options so take your time and be strategic!
This location is roomy, with a bar right up front in the waiting area (although I don’t usually see people drinking) and lots of tables for hot pot. This place is GREAT for groups. I do wish that there were more TVs that were placed around the room because a bunch of people, including me, came here to watch some Warriors games.

The only place to get hot pot!
It’s all about the soup base and little sheep does it best — the spices and flavors are robust and amazing. I usually get the half and half (spicy/​non) — nice to have variety.
They give you a sheet to check off the items you want — categorized by meats, tofu, veggies, seafood, etc. I felt the basic beef option was good and totally fine — but you can upgrade to premium and fatty slices. The shitake mushrooms and assorted tofu platter was good — the fried tofu not so much (not fresh)? but the silky and spongy tofu were both excellent.
I usually get the assorted veggie combo — price wise it’s the best to get variety — however it includes a bunch of this minty/​herbal green veggie (don’t know what it’s called) that I didn’t particularly like.
The one thing you must get is the shanxi knife cut noodles — best noodles I’ve found in the bay area — the chewy texture is excellent and perfectly paired with the rich hot pot broth.
Parking can be a bit tough but there are plenty of metered spots around if you can find one. Service is eh — just don’t expect to be doted on — you’ll need to flag down a waiter for water, napkins, anything extra — you get the idea. Just a pet peeve — they charge 50c for each dipping sauce you order in the CA branches. They have a whole sauce bar and it’s free in the NJ location.

If you like hot pot, this place is for you!
I’ve come here a number of times and have even visited the Little Sheep in NYC and Beijing. This one doesn’t disappoint.
The line is long on a weekend (like most San Mateo restaurants on a weekend) so I would make a reservation, or go early/​late. I came here on. Saturday evening at around 6pm and waited by the bar area with friends. You can order drinks and some food at the bar area, so it’s not a bad wait either. Plus the Warriors game is on so that was a big plus!
We ordered beef, lamp, pork, spinach, Napa cabbage, beef tendon, fried tofu, tofu sheets, vermicelli noodles, and udon noodles. I recommend the half/​half broth — half spicy and half mild so that you can experience both! The spicy one is a bit too much for me if that’s the only option, but if you order it with the mild one, it’s definitely doable.
I will definitely come back in the winter when it’s cold!

It wasn’t close to the authentic experience of having hotpot. There was not a large diversity in the menu, so there wasn’t a lot of things we could try. They are strict with the soup base, if you wanted to split it you would have to explicitly talk to them about it because apparently they don’t do it often. Also the prices are very expensive for what we got, I was not full after that as I would be after AYCE that would be the same price. It was around $ 30 for us. There was not a sauce bar and the number of sauces that we could mix together and customize was very limited.
Saying all of that the quality of the food was alright. But quantity was bad. Also the service was not that great either, it was really hard to get the attention of the waiter.

The broth here is the best hot pot broth I’ve ever had. I love all of them — the spicy, original, and pork (pork being my favorite broth). It’s so good that I don’t even need dipping sauce. So good that I find myself drinking the broth by itself rather than eating any of the actual food. So good that I took the left over broth home. So sooo good!
They have a wide range of meat, noodles, and veggies. The waiters were very attentive although we were tucked away in the back of the restaurant.
Will definitily come back because the broth is so amazing.

My buddies and I were craving some good hot pot after a weekend hike at Yosemite. We then found this place and decided to give it a try. We walked in thinking it was AYCE cause the other locations offered it. But apparently this location only offers AYCE only Monday to Thursday. We were pretty bummed out by that.
Nonetheless, we stayed and had a great meal there. They got a nice range of food and sauce. I especially enjoyed their leek sauce.
For all the vegetarians out there, they got vegetarian options (veg soup base, a lot of different vegetables and soy products).
Even though it wasn’t AYCE, we ended up paying around the same price for an AYCE meal per person and we were all stuffed at the end!

I was honestly dreading coming to this place because I had a terrible food experience when I was in Hong Kong and tried this place.
Surprisingly, it was pretty decent. We had made reservations for 10 people at 615 and we were seated pretty quickly. Just from casually looking around it doesn’t seem like the place is huge but there are extra tables in the back for large parties. It’s not an ayce spot and they don’t provide dipping sauces unless you request them. We opted for the half original and half spicy pots. Wow the broths were both extremely flavorful and it flavored everything we threw in there the right way! We went through countless orders of lamb, beef, meatballs, dumplings and veggies. Quality for the everything was decent. I really had no complaints at all.
Overall, this place was good compared to the one I went to in hk. But the wait seems like it would be long if you don’t snag a reservation. The price we paid was just about the same if we had done ayce somewhere else. Give it a try, it’s a great place when you need something warm and soupy!
Total: $ 300

Who doesn’t love hotpot on a cold summer night? I came here with a friend and we were both starving! Seriously, I don’t know why we didn’t do the Tuesday AYCE. I was expecting a longer wait time, but we were seated right away because the restaurant was nearly empty (around 6:15 — 6:30pm on a Wednesday). It took a while for the server to come and take our order, but maybe it’s because he thought we were just too consumed by conversation to even look at the menu. We ordered the cold Jellyfish dish in the hopes that it would come out first as sort of an appetizer, but it came out with the rest of the hotpot items. It was just like any other jellyfish salad, no better or worse.
We ordered the Half and Half broth (original & spicy). I’m a fan of the original broth, because I don’t like spice overpowering the natural goodness of the meat, whereas my friend prefers spicy so that she doesn’t need any dipping sauces. So the half and half broth is perfect for us. We picked Prime Rib, Baby Octopus, Beef Tripe, Bean Curd Stick, Fresh Fungus (wood ear mushrooms), and Baby Bok Choy. Originally, we picked two meats, but the server suggested narrowing it down to one because the prime rib is a pretty big serving. I’m not sure if we’re just a couple of fatties, but that meat was definitely not enough. We ended up adding the New Zealand Spring Lamb.
When all of the food arrived, all conversation stopped. I kind of wish the meat were slightly frozen so it wouldn’t stick to the plate as much, but I guess it’s good to know the meat is fresh. It’s sliced paper thin, so I suggest cooking it with chopsticks so you don’t «lose» it in the broth. My favorite item was the bean curd stick, because it soaked up all the flavor in the broth! Of the meats, I preferred the New Zealand lamb over the prime rib, which surprised me, since I’m usually a bigger fan of beef. But it makes sense given the name of the restaurant.
Service was pretty good — although our waiter thought we wouldn’t eat as much as we did, he came and refilled our tea and broth regularly throughout the meal. As much as I loved the décor and the interior because it felt super clean and modern, that all changed when I went to wash my hands. The bathroom was so gross and dirty that I felt like I needed to take a shower after washing my hands in there. It kind of made me feel a little sick, given that I just ate so much food at a restaurant where the bathroom was that disgusting. Unfortunately, I would have to drop a star for that.

Reserved a table for 12 Tuesday evening for the AYCE happenings at Little Sheep. Reservation went through seamlessly, despite the horrendous RWC traffic. Other than that, the host was patient and let us wait near the bar area while the rest of our party arrived.
Once everyone arrived we were seated promptly at the big rectangular table. Immediately following that, a paper and pencil were presented to us to order from their special AYCE list. Plates of beef and lamb were distributed, fresh tungho veggies, enoki mushroom, fish filets, octopus, tripe, stomach lining. It was a full on meal. The food was quite good, the portions large. The broth is heavenly as usual, flavored with highly fragrant herbs. The combination of that and the all the meat turned the broth into a full rich meat soup. So good.
On the menu paper thing, it also looks like you can order 3x only. They give you back the same paper you started off with and you fill out the quantity in another column. Also, there’s a 2 hour time limit at the restaurant. We were fine, since the food came out at Olympic speeds.
By the time we finished the line was massive. Keep in mind you cannot make reservations unless you a group of 10+. Reserve early as well (I called Saturday afternoon just in case).

Came here for the first time a couple weeks ago. We were starving and thanks to Unilocal we found exactly what we were craving for!
At 7pm, even though this restaurant is spacious and filled with tables, it was super crowded! The front had a huge crowd of people waiting so we decided to walk around downtown San Mateo since we were quoted a 45min wait. We found a market which had an awesome variety of beers and wine so that wait actually went fast for us. We lugged our alcohol back to the restaurant and was seated within 15 minutes. That went pretty fast too since we decided to wait in the bar area with 2 flat screen TV’s and ordered some drinks.
Once we got sat we were confused on what to do and how to order. You’re given a sheet with the menu of different veggies, meats, seafood, apps, specialty items with boxes next to it so we marked what we wanted. Good thing I had a pen in my purse! When we were done we were like «now what?!». Servers passed right by us and pretty much ignored us so I decided to just put the paper at the edge of the table to see what would happen and VOILA, someone came! If we had known this we would have had it ready to give right when we were sat!
We were impressed on how fast the food came and how delicious everything was. We had the original soup base and it was full of flavor — there were different herbs, garlic and other items found in the soup and the veggies were so fresh. The soup was perfect since it was a cold night! The spicy soup looks so good, but we decided not to have it since we were running in the morning. «Runners trots» — F that, no thank you!
CONS:
–The price can add up, so be careful. You are charged for each item including the sauces!
–The smell will stay on you for a while (not very attractive. .. or is it?! lol)
–Don’t use the women’s restroom (not sure how the guys restroom is). Trust me, you’ll regret it. Good thing I don’t rate restaurants based on their restrooms anymore!
Overall, great first impression! Can’t wait to come back!

I love hot pot but going out for it can get expensive. fast. Each dish adds up and with 4 girls, we ended up paying $ 30/​person not including about 3 – 4 dishes that we ordered on the paper that was omitted/​forgotten. Those dishes that we ordered weren’t charged to our bill and they also added a plate of fish balls by accident that we didn’t order. Besides that, service is good. Broth is salty so we were downing our water and it was always refilled without our requests.
Walking in, you immediately smell the oil and peppers from the broth and you sit in that aroma for your entire hot pot experience (be sure to leave your jackets in the car). The meat and veggies are all nice and fresh and the broth is flavorful (got half spicy/​half regular). I normally like the pork bone flavored broth as I get to eat the pork after I’m done with the broth.
Why the 3 stars? Pricey menu. Didn’t get our order right. Sauces are additional (although we didn’t really need any since the broth had enough flavor).