Updated: 1st Oct 2014; This restaurant is closed.

When we came to Excelsior last year in July to try their CRA award wining dish, lamb hotpot, we were disappointed because we were told that they only serve that dish in winter.

So, in this winter, I make sure that I come to Excelsior to try the Bamboo Lamb Hotpot. I came with Lorna to celebrate her belated birthday. Lorna told me that Excelsior has been around for a long time, more than 20 years. Lorna is an old timer here. She’s been here for more than 30 years.

We arrived just before 12pm on a week day. It was not busy at that time but customers started to trickle in soon. Most were middle aged customers. I guess they are all loyal customers who have been patronizing this restaurant. At the far end where the cashier is, you can see the CRA award being hang on the wall.

There are lunch combos range from $6 to below $10 being served during lunch hour. You can click on the menu to have a larger view.  We already know what we want, so we just ignored the lunch combo menu.

The Lamb Hotpot was written on a board on the wall. I noticed that the price has gone up since last year. When we visited last year, the menu price was $18.80 but now it was $23.88.

We were served soup of the day. It’s pork rib soup with a flower called “Bah Wong Far” as Lorna told me. I have never made soup with that flower before. The soup is pretty good. I will look out for the flower when I do my groceries shopping.

The lamb hot pot has to be eaten with steamed rice. The hotpot was a large serving. It is more than enough for 3 people. We had about one third of the pot left to pack home at the end of the meal. There were shiitake mushrooms, bean curd stick, water chestnut, leek and suey chop in it.

This dish always come with a fermented bean curd sauce. The saltiness of the sauce complements the lamb very well. The lamb has to be skin on otherwise it will be too lean and stringy.

Lorna commented that the lamb hotpot here is more soupy and the flavour is more subtle. It’s good for people who do not like the gamey taste of lamb. She told me that she just had the similar dish the day before at Jubilant Chinese Restaurant and it had a stronger lamb flavour with a thicker sauce. The price at Jublilant is about half of the one in Excelsior. Now, I want to try the one from Jubilant as I love a stronger flavour lamb hotpot.

Lorna also wanted to order her favourite Beef Tripe Rice Noodle Soup here but unfortunately the server told her that they no longer serve this dish anymore due to change of menu according to customers preference.

Excelsior accepts cash only.