Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot

During the weekdays, it’s model is All-​you-​can-​eat. You can pick the dishes you want at most three times. We choose the spicy flavour and it taste good.

All you can eat hot pot is AMAZING. The cold weather mixed with good comfort food is always great. They have finally opened up the back room to help with the large crowds that come to enjoy their food. I highly recommend this place; it is great!

**First Timer**
This was my first hotpot experience. The customer service here was very helpful with getting us familiar with the process and our choices.
The bases were very flavorful and enjoyable. We did the half and half with lamb, beef, shrimp, bok choy, noodles, dumplings, and mushroom.
All around great service, food, and experience.

A recent revisit has me singing a different tune about Little Sheep! The hubby and I had an amazing weekend lunch here.
Lots of lamb options, top quality meats and seafood. We ordered a mushroom medley, mixed veggies and spicy both to get it all going. Everything was just so fresh and there was so much food at our table for two!
I didn’t care for the seafood dumplings but the hubby liked them a lot.
Service was full of effort and we left beyond full.
I’m glad I gave them a second chance. Thumbs way up!

If I would have reviewed Little Sheep after my first visit, I would’ve given them 3 or 4 stars; however, I have since discovered, and quickly fell in love with, their AYCE option…
I honestly went from being dragged (drug?) here by the wife, to doing the dragging (caveman, not queen) myself. Their food is delicious, and the AYCE option is awesome. They say you are limited to 90 minutes, but I have not seen this enforced, nor have I kept track of my own time. I just eat and enjoy, and no one bothers me. They offer a variety of meat options, and I have yet to try one that I did not like.
The service is great, although there can be a long wait depending on the time you visit. The place is clean, and parking is plentiful across the street (usually around $ 2.00). They have been added to our weekly rotation and I do not see them losing their spot any time soon. I highly recommend them to anyone within an hour’s drive. 5 stars all around.

I come here often, but I find Little Sheep to be just so-​so. Waiting around for a seat could be a nightmare because it does get pretty long at times with nowhere to really sit around because the bar is usually occupied. One thing I do love is that while you are waiting you can ask for the paper menu and order before you get seated! It gives you ample time to decide what you want.
Once you have a table, you get full access to the sauce bar. I love that you can get as much or as little as you please instead of having to ask a server everytime. This also gives you a lot of freedom to mix different sauces together. One downfall is that it’s usually inconsistent. Sometimes they have garlic out and sometimes you just have to ask for it yourself and on top of that, the whole bar is usually a mess if it’s crowded.
As for the broth, we usually get the yin & yang which is the spicy and non-​spicy with a divider in the middle. This place is different than most shabu/​hot pot because there is only one set broth, which is an herbal base. You can see all the herbs, chilis, and peppers floating around. They both are distinct and very full of flavor. Mixing them together in your bowl is also not a bad idea. Beware of eating one of the peppers though because it can ruin your taste buds, but it’s almost always inevitable to pick out every single herb and separate it from your mix ins, which gets super tedious. The meat I would say is also not the best quality because I found it to dissolve in the broth even after just cooking it for a short amount of time. Other than that, all the veggies are fresh and they have so many small options that taste great. A full order of the fishballs/​quail eggs/​dumplings is 10 pieces, which is pretty good for the price. Out of everything, the fish ball with roe is a must get!
Monday-​Thursday they do have an AYCE option, but I’ve only really experienced the weekend menu. I’d say it would probably be more worth it to go with the AYCE because even though everything is pretty cheap, you do rack up your bill with so many add ons!

This place comes with three different broth options, non-​spicy, spicy, or a yin yang combination of both, which split between a divider in the pot. Everything is family style, so order as much meat, veggies, noodles, and bread as your party desires. Since it’s Mongolian food, I would recommend trying the lamb, but beef is always yummy too. One unique item would be the squirting fish balls, which are just fish balls filled with roe. If you’re feeling adventurous I would say try it!
Another must would be the fresh noodles and Mongolian pancake (more bread like on the outside, which is crispy but nice and soft on the inside). These are both yummy starches that are great and can be substituted over rice.
Also you get to pick your sauces here. I found the sesame sauce to be so so, but I did like the ponzu with green onions.

I came here for their lunch special on the week days only. It was $ 9.95 for a choice of 4 oz meat with veggies. It was enough to make me full but I’m a little peeved it did not come with a bowl of rice as that seems to be a staple in almost every other hot pot restaurant. However, we did get udon with the veggies.
Service was alright, no complaints there and the restaurant had a pretty good ventilation for a hot pot place. They have a sauce bar to make your own, which is great, as I’m so specific about my dipping sauce.
I have yet to come here for AYCE but I do want to try. The quality of the meat and vegetables were at par with the price to pay, so I can imagine stuffing myself here during dinner time.

I love that this location has an AYCE option for around $ 25 Monday thru Thursday! It’s much more affordable this way and the mango green tea is also really good, but no free refills :(
Also, this location has a sauce bar with cilantro! This is the best, all Little Sheeps should have this.
The rest of the hot pot is great — broth, beef, corn, veggies, fish balls, noodles, yum.

Finally and checking this place out. It’s nice and clean. There is a waiting area by the bar although, no one is really manning the bar unless table patrons want drinks.
We came for AYCE $ 22.95 Not a bad deal. We had the yin-​yang hot pot. I tried this place up in San Francisco once, and the hot soup was SOOOOO spicy. This one was more on the medium side. They have a sauce bar. I grabbed some garlic sriracha to eat with some meat cause I luhh dat sheitt.
All of the meat is very thinly sliced. You can literally hold it in your chopsticks and dip it two or three times and it’s cooked.
They have a pretty big menu for AYCE, full of different types of meat, veggies, or even dumplings. I skipped the chicken and stuck mainly to beef or pork. Love Enoki mushrooms so got a bunch of that! We got some dumplings and they were teeny and didn’t have much in them.
I mean, overall the meat was good and the veggies were fresh so I don’t have complaints! I think we might have gotten special treatment since my husband speaks mandarin. We got lots of attention with people always refill our soup, water, and taking our orders. Hahah, either that or the service is just great!
I’d come again for the special, but not outside of it. Parking can be tough. Try and park in the structure on Delacey or on Green St/​Fair Oaks. It has free parking for 90 mins.

Third Little Sheep location I have visited. Once again the food was fantastic but there were other things lacking.
Parking is a little tricky but there’s a few parking structures nearby and you can park on the street. I don’t know how much the structures cost but street parking is about $ 1.25 an hour.
Anyways onto the food, as usually Little Sheep is awesome cause the menu has so many items. Tons of meats, seafood, veggies, and noodles you can choose from. I love the variety and that’s really the main reason Little Sheep is my favorite. Also love the Yin/​Yang so you have both spicy and normal soup bases. I cannot stress how much I love all the veggies they offer, but my main go-​to is still the Baby Bamboo Shoots! Those yellow pieces of heaven.
Alright here are my complaints. Service as usual wasn’t THAT great. Nobody came to refill water or our soup base. Occasionally they would swing by and clear empty plates.
A bigger complaint is that the sauce bar was so bare! What the heck is it cause this Little Sheep is in Pasadena?! The Sauce Bar at the other locations had wayyyyyyyyy more items. They didn’t even have diced up garlic here. Fail. I mean if you never went to the other locations you wouldn’t know but I have Little Sheep. I have.
So yeah food good! Other things. could improve on. They take card.

AYCE hot pot! They also do a la carte but AYCE is definitely the way to go: Monday-​Thursday $ 22.95 per person + $ 3 extra for premium items. Came here food dinner with the bf on a rainy Thursday night around 8pm. We waited maybe 20 minutes to get a table.
FOOD:
AYCE means we checked off a ton of stuff on the menu! Meats are good quality, I really enjoyed trying all the dumplings and balls (the house fish ball is sooo fluffy and delicious!) They have housemade fresh noodles, lots of veggies, meats, dumplings, balls, and other stuff. We got the yin-​yang ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ hot pot — half herbal and half spicy, it’s definitely the way to go! Make your own sauce bar at the back. You can order up to 3 rounds of AYCE goodness.
SERVICE:
Give the host your name and they give you a ticket. When your number is called, it’s time to eat! They clear away your empty dishes pretty quickly but you have to flag them down for water refills or more orders.
VENUE/​PARKING:
The place is large so the staff is always bustling around if you need to snag someone. They have happy hour! Pitcher of Stone IPA is $ 8! Such a deal. Park in the public lots around Pasadena for 90 minutes free or a flat rate after 10pm. Depending on when you come, meters might be free as well.
Next to 85 Degrees so you can grab so pastries on your way home!

I think it’s worth a visit for the ayce option available Monday through Thursday. I believe it’s for lunch and dinner as well.
The portion sizes for the regular times are pretty small, so you’ll end up having to order quite a bit to get filled up.
Don’t plan on wearing anything nice here as the broth will leave your clothes smelling something awful.
Ladies, your purse will also smell of rank herbal soup too. So don’t bring your nice purses inside.

I love Little Sheep, but I do think it’s only worth it if you catch the AYCE option (weekdays except Friday). A la carte can get quite expensive. The interior is nice and spacious, and the service is fine. We found that we had to really wave down the staff after our first round — not sure if they were busy or if they avoid taking your order the second and third times around. We found the plates weren’t really being cleared at all, which can be annoying. However, ask and ye shall receive — once we pointed out our issue it was handled promptly. Just annoying to have to keep flagging down the staff.
Ordering is through the usual paper checklist. They have different slots for the first three rounds, so you can use the same sheet. I’ve never tried to order beyond three rounds, which is all they have room for on the paper. Are you limited to three rounds? Or do you get a new sheet instead for true unlimited consumption? A true mystery for those with bigger stomachs than me to tackle. Soup base is flavorful but you only get two — spicy or not spicy (and I guess a third which is both in a ying-​yang bowl). They have a modest sauce bar with the essentials.
Overall, the selection is pretty good. You’ve got the usual meats and a good selection of veggies, tofus, and fungi, as well as various noodles. Meat was thinly sliced and good. Additionally there’s a premium section that’s an extra fee for fancier foods like premium meats. I thought it was weird that winter melon was extra? I like how they will give you less/​smaller portions of a wider selection of foods, instead of just giving you a larger quantity of a smaller selection.
Overall, the AYCE option is one of my favorite hot pot options because it’s just such a good deal. Absolutely recommend!

As of right now, they are offering all you can eat for $ 22.95 per person, Mon-​Thurs for lunch and dinner. This deal is a steal. If you come eat here and order things a la carte, things will get expensive fast. They even charge for soup per person… which I think is just ridiculous.
Now onto the food. What can I say? There is nothing better than hot pot on a cold day/​night. The beef and the lamb are must orders. Their frozen tofu and fried tofu are also must orders. The fish is also very good. They have a wide variety of veggies, but I must admit I’m boring and that my favorite veggie for hot pot is just spinach.
This location has a sauce bar (yes!!!). Albeit, sort of a small sauce bar, but still… a sauce bar nonetheless. I love that they serve alcohol too.
Their service did leave a bit to be desired. Throughout the night, I wasn’t sure if they forgot about us, or if the reason for the slow service was because they were busy. But once I got my food, I didn’t really care (haha).
Tip: be prepared to wait. We came late on a Thursday night… maybe around 8pm, and there was still a bit of a wait. The lady said 30 minutes, but it was more like a 20 minute wait. But I was surprised there was a wait on a weekday late night, so I can’t imagine what it’s like during peak hours.

Just checked this place out today and the quality of the ingredients was on point! We were all commenting on how good the hot pot was here. Not sure if I would go back without the Mon-​Thu AYCE deal as it was close to $ 40 per person for a la carte items plus some beers. One of the highlights of this place is their sauce bar! Wish more hot pot places did it as it is so practical.
Service wasn’t terrible but not as good as the food. We had to ask twice for more broth because it seemed like they forgot when we asked the first time. Had to also ask to have our water glasses refilled as well. They did thank us for coming (which is not as common with typical Asian restaurants) so that was nice!
Can’t wait to come back and try their ACYE hot pot deal!

First time here! It’s in a great location, Old Town Pasadena. You can walk around before eating to work up an appetite, or after eating to walk off your food coma! There are plenty of places to walk around– shops, bakeries, drinks.
The place is pretty hip! There is a sauce bar (different from the other branch Ive been to) and the workers are really nice. There was a bunch of people that came in for dinner rush hour but he handled everyone really well :) food is good! Sauce is good. No complaints really!

I love shabu-​shabu. Sucks that there are very few of its kind of restaurants in the 818. Found reviews for this place and decided to give it a try with the hubby
Pro’s: fancy modern restaurant. Great location and plenty of public parking structures nearby. They offer different types of soup base and spice levels. The meats are very fresh. They sauce bar is genius! Their passion black tea is Amazing!
Con’s: can get pretty pricey if you don’t catch the AYCE Monday-​Thursday. Staff is friendly, but wish they’d check in on you more often without being flagged down.

Delicious AYCE Mon-​Thurs $ 22.95. Come early because they get quite busy. There’s a good sauce bar, and the items are fresh. They also have cheap lunch special with big portions. We came for the AYCE, and they give you big portions each time so you may want to tell them to give you less of each item so you can try more items on the menu.
There are many fish balls to choose from as well as a variety of veggies. The menu is quite extensive so there’s something for everyone. They have basically everything you would want for hot pot. The meats are good overall. But the beef was too tough for the second round we got, but it was nice the first plate. Highly recommend the pieces of chicken and black pork. Fish filet were fresh too. Overall, good quality tasty food at a reasonable price.

Beautiful location. I think the service here is great in a non-​pest but very helpful if needed sort of way.
We got the very spicy and medium spicy in our hot pot. It’s actually not too spicy just in the sense that it is a bit alarming if the chili hits your throat. A little unpleasant but they provide enough water that it is ok.
Additions:
The lamb/​beef Combo will take good care of you.
The thick noodles are very good, would highly recommend them.
Cuddlefish balls are alright but wouldn’t get again. Nothing against cuddling! They just didn’t taste that good. Texture was on Fleek.
Overall this place is chill, watch the Bruins and chill out.