I avoided this place for several weeks because the decor was so nice I thought it would be really expensive. Turns out it wasn't, how about that!
It's hard to rate a huoguo place as better or worse than others because very little of the cooking is done for you, and everyone gets their ingredients from pretty much the same place. I base my opinion on how good a place it on the sauces.
90% of places, even expensive ones sometimes, get their hot sesame paste (ma la jiang) from a bottle. You can always tell when they do, because it has that wierd red-orange color and tastes unmistakably canned. The fresh kind is ten times more fragrant, like freshly ground peanut butter.
Little Sheep passed this one basic test of mine. The ma la jiang was fresh and wonderful, the service was friendly, the ambiance is great, and I don't think I spent more than 60 RMB feeding two hungry people.
My biggest gripe with Chinese food has always been that they absolutely cook the crap out of the beef and season it so heavily that it really could be any kind of meat at all. There doesn't seem to be any concept of "rare" or "medium." It's either "well done and chewable" or "well done and tough as rubber."
Imagine my surprise. This place serves quality cuts of meat that don't have all the flavor burned out of them. It's even pink in the middle!
The rest of the food is pretty mediocre. The salad bar does have kimchee though, so I guess that's a plus.
The meat is served on skewers carried from table to table by listless teenage boys in hats who seem to really dislike their jobs. I think after they cut you a slice of something they're supposed to say "man man chi" or something like that, but this seems to have degenerated into just "man."
Him: "You want some meat?"
Me: "Ok"
Him: (cuts a slice) "man."
Me: "Uh, thanks."
So that part was a little uncomfortable, but I didn't care because I was enjoying the beef so much. Did I mention the beef was good? The beef was damn good. Even the chicken hearts were good, and I hate chicken hearts.
The onion soup was cold, the foie gras was burnt on the outside and bleeding on the inside, and the spaghetti bolognese tasted like it came from a can. The cardboard can of Kraft parmesian cheese bits on the table was the coup de grace.
I have never complained about food at a restaurant before in my life. I ordered some 500 RMB worth of food, but after the first several dishes I called them over and asked them to please God stop bringing out the food, because I thought the half-cooked foie gras was going to make me throw up.
They were extremely beligerent and insisted I pay for everything I ordered even though it was inedible and only half of it had been brought out. So I did. I should have walked out.
abhijeet
jim
