One night we headed to Monterey Park for fried chicken. Sadly, the Tokyo Fried Chicken Company was closed that evening (as it’s apparently closed every Monday and Tuesday, oops). So we headed to Hot Pot Hot Pot in the same shopping center. Formerly known as Little Fat Sheep, Hot Pot Hot Pot is as the name implies, a Chinese hot pot restaurant that even has a choice of beer. We were tempted by American craft beer but opted for Tsingtao to go with our dinner. I suspect the name change is to differentiate itself from nearby Little Sheep Hot Pot.
My friend hadn’t had hot pot before so I may have over-ordered. I tend to like getting a ton of different tofu and mushroom plates to try along with various greens. Tofu and mushrooms soak up the broth the best. Let it be known now that we definitely DID over-order but the good thing is they let you take your leftovers including raw ingredients unlike some other hot pot places in town.
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“half and half” broths – spicy and mild
We decided to get the half and half which is the house soup and spicy broth. When we did get refills of the broth, we opted to fill the spicy with the regular house soup. It does get spicier as time goes on. A vegetarian broth is also available. If you stuck with that and veg plates, a vegetarian could eat very well here.
We did start with a couple of lamb meat pies. These piping hot meat pies were well-spiced and gave us something to eat while waiting for things to cook. I probably would skip an appetizer next time though.
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a tower of goodies
As I said, I over-ordered but Hot Pot Hot Pot solved our small table problem by wheeling all our goodies over in a trolley. We probably didn’t need two types of noodles but at least I was good and didn’t order rice during the hot pot-ing.
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beef and lamb
We did start with a variety of meats including beef, lamb and fish. Hot Pot Hot Pot gives you four different sauces. I preferred to dip everything in satay sauce but the sesame was a great choice to cool down food cooked in the spicy broth.
We also got corn, pumpkin, water cress, spinach and pea tendrils along with wood ear mushrooms, kelp and my beloved tofu and mushrooms.
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various sauces
Overall, I’d return to this hot pot place because the service was nice, the selection was pretty good and parking was easy. I didn’t feel cramped nor was the food suspect. Sometimes these sorts of places don’t give you quality meats or the freshest of greens but Hot Pot Hot Pot came through.
Hot Pot Hot Pot aka Little Fat Sheep
120 S Atlantic Blvd., Monterey Park, CA 91754 — (626) 282-1089© The Minty 2014
Filed under: food, foodie alert, minty life, restaurant reviews Tagged: beer, chinese food, chinese hot pot, craft beer, hot pot, hot pot hot pot, little fat sheep, monterey park, restaurant review, san gabriel valley, SGV, the minty Image may be NSFW.
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Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
