I can’t remember where the boys were or what they were doing — maybe they were at the movies with the neighbors. After all, it was more than a month ago. Suanne and I found ourselves alone and wondering what to eat for dinner. We drove around for a bit before deciding to go for hot pot. This is only our second hot pot dinner. Our first was at the Posh Sukiyaki Restaurant which we enjoyed a lot.
There are a few Hot Pot restaurants in Richmond but we ended up with one that is located at the restaurant row on Alexandria in Richmond. We blindly selected this place simply from it’s name. Chubby Lamb sounded like a great place.
Being newbies in hot pot, we quickly learned that one MUST make a reservation for hot pot restaurants, especially the popular ones. Actually before we went to Chubby Lamb, we went to another who told us that the next available table is in 2 hours!
Chubby Lamb was better … they told us they can accommodate us walk-in’ers but we have only 1 hour. Take it or leave it, no choice and sorry, they said. Not wanting to go to another place and quite bent on having hot pot that day, we said OK.
Mind you, hot pot places are basically AYCE’s (All-You-Can-Eat) places and so you can imagine how rushed we must have felt to gobble down as much as possible before our 1 hour is up.
BTW, Chubby Lamb charges $17.75 per person.
First, we ordered drinks. They recommended what they call Sour Plum “Soup”. That is the literal translation for this drink … soup. We did not quite like it and such a waste too since they gave us an entire jug of it.
For the hot pot broth, they have lots of choices … about 6 to 8 if I recall correctly. The soup is not free — they charge on top of the $17.75 per head AYCE price. The hot pot broth ranges from $5 to $12.
We opted for the ying-yang … one plain broth and another spicy. It surely does look spicy and were warned clearly enough that they are spicy. To us, it was not too spicy … just alright.
We like their sauces. They gave us four types … sesame, chili, BBQ and the normal soya sauce. It was good experimenting what goes well with what sauce.
The problem is that they do NOT have English order forms. The order forms are in Chinese. They offered to pick for us but … he he he … we said no lest they give us only the cheap stuff. We asked the waitress to read each item for us which we can see she was not too pleased because the place was so busy.
We ended up with quite a lot of food. So much that they had to bring another side table to place the plates.
It was great. Three things I remember about this … (1) the meat was really fresh, (2) the stock was good and (3) the prawns were huge. For the price we paid, it was well worth it.
We ended up taking more than 1 hour. Strange thing is they came and surprised us when they asked if we wanted to order more when our 1 hour is almost up. They sort of insisted we order more and said that there are still more time. I think they allowed us more time because we were conspicuously taking pictures and taking notes of the meal. Being food bloggers have it’s advantages. 🙂
The total bill for the two of us came up to $51.35 ($57 with tips). I recommend Chubby Lamb even though it is a bit more expensive than Posh’s. You better make a reservation before you go, especially at peak dinner times.
Their address is 8391 Alexandra Road and their phone number is 604-303-8843.
Click the link below to see what we had.
Yum…looking at this makes me crave hot pot! The sour plum soup/drink is normally served in hot pot because HP is considered “yeet hay” (hot air in Cantonese) and the sour plum is “lurng hay” (cold air) which helps to bring some balance back into the yin yang of your body. 🙂 haha…looking back at what I just wrote, I hope you understand what I was trying to say!
Chubby Lamb Hotpot (Small Fat sheep Hotpot- from the Chinese translation :)) Is apparently a huge franchise in China. I heard that their “ma-lat”/ spicy soup has like 30 different types of spices so that you don’t get that type of smell from eating lamb. Great post! The food looks delicious!
everything looked so delicious! thanks for putting up a blog like this 😀 keep on blogging!
Hello there,
I’m just wondering what language(s) do you guys speak? I’m also a Malaysian but I speak Cantonese. 😀
Anna, I think you’re mistaking the Chubby Lamb with Little Sheep Hotpot. It’s the Little Sheep Hotpot that a huge franchise in China and it has several branches in Canada. The one in Vancouver is located in Lansdowne Mall, Richmond.
I also can’t read Chinese and I hate it when restaurants do not have English menu. And when they do, sometimes their English menu is outdated and doesn’t have all the new specials in the Chinese menu. I call that reverse discrimination to non-Chinese reading customers.
Hi Jane: Suanne and I speak Cantonese mainly, even though I am Fujian. We understand and speak fairly well Mandarin, Fujian, Hakka, Teochew. Of course Malay and English too. So, yeah … we speak quite a lot of languages but we “think” in English. LOL! Are you living in Vancouver?
Ben
do you know any really good fujian restaurants in Vancouver?
Eric in Victoria
No Eric. I don’t know if any Fujian restaurants in Vancouver at all. The closest perhaps are some of the Taiwanese restaurants — many Taiwanese are Fujian/Hokkiens. Ben
LOL, thanks Joseph! I thought they weren’t the same for a moment because they don’t use the same logo…thanks for the clear up at least I know where the Little Sheep Hotpot is now.
I’m actually living in Surrey. Wow. I used to know how to speak Malay. And I can’t read chinese well either. haha That’s why it’s good to find people I can relate to when the menu is in chinese. 😀
Hi Ben,
I envy you and Suanne for being able to speak on all those languages at that level. Although I am Chinese, I can only speak Cantonese (~10 year old child level) and Hakka (not better than my Cantonese); however I can’t read or write Chinese. I am ashamed of myself…
I;m surprised you guys have never eaten hotpot! (Well, one other time, you said.) I thought all Chinese people eat hotpot! =D
As for the drink “Sour Plum Soup” (suan mei tang), that’s supposed to be drunk to sooth the throat after all the smoke from the open flame and such. I don’t like it myself, but my mother loves it. So we always give our glasses to her. Hehe.
You didn’t mention the condiments: did they not give you guys any? Basically you’re supposed to put whatever blend of sauces you want in a bowl (the sesame, soy sauce, satay sauce), then various things like cilantro, garlic, green onions and chile peppers. Also, sometimes, other people put an egg into that condiments bowl. (A fresh egg.) Then that’s the sauce/condiment you dip your boiled items in.