#200 – 4755 Kingsway, Burnaby  |  604-434-0001

 

The Good:

• Items were well-prepared

• Fairly large menu

• Spacious

 

The Bad:

• The DIY sauce station was getting a bit disheveled

• Food came out curiously slow

 

Sherman Chan

Special to The Post

 

I joined my crew of friends for hot pot at the Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot in Burnaby.

We started off with some Salty Donuts and Sesame Crusted Bread. These were to dip into the hot pot, but we ate them because we were hungry.

The salty donut was a touch dense and doughy, yet crisp on the outside while the sesame bread was light and fluffy.

Following that up, we were presented with one plate each of Lamb and Beef Skewers. I liked the lamb as it was flavourful with the usual accompaniment of cumin with a touch of spice. I wasn't too fond of the beef as it was somewhat chewy with a few inedible pieces.

Moving onto the Hot Pot, we got the soup base consisting of half spicy with peppers and the other half herbal with dates and wolfberries. Loved the ying yang pot.

The herbal soup was actually quite mild while the spicy was not as hot as its appearance.

Two plates of Meatballs hit the table first including cuttlefish, shrimp, lamb and beef. Naturally, the freshly made (ingredients may have been previously frozen though) meatballs were psychologically-pleasing and were texturally on point when cooked (good bounce and meat texture while tender). Next up was a bevy of seafood consisting of mussels, scallops, cuttlefish, sea cucumber innards, basa and shrimp. Nothing was amiss with this selection.

Paying homage to the restaurant's namesake, we got thin slices of Lamb next. Despite the modest amount of fat, the meat was still super tender after a quick dunk into the boiling broth.

The same could be said with the beef. On a side note, as a public service announcement of sorts, please do not leave thinly sliced meats in boiling soup unattended.

That is a surefire way of overcooking it and rendering the wonderful meat into jerky. Put it in and keep an eye on it. Once it changes colour, take it out! Sorry, personal pet peeve.

We were also presented with a variety of mushrooms (oyster and enoki), tofu (fresh and frozen) and leafy greens (tong ho, watercress, spinach and romaine).

Again, nothing to say other than they were fresh. With hot pot, it really is about fresh ingredients and it's not rocket science, so kudos to Little Sheep for that.

We gave the Dumplings a shot too, but they were really salty – possibly a heavy hand with the seasoning? Yet, that was the only item (and the beef skewers) we didn't like.

Essentially, this was a pretty textbook hot pot where nearly everything was decent. Located in the spacious old location of Sammy J Peppers, Little Sheep offers up some good competition for Top Gun Hot Pot at Crystal Mall.

Note: this was an invited dinner where all food was comped.

 

Sherman Chan is the #1 ranked food blogger on the Vancouver portal of Urbanspoon.com. Read more of his reviews at www.shermansfoodadventures.com.