(ad – pr meal)
Last week I tried Happy Lamb Hot Pot in Arcadian and had a really, really wonderful time.
Like, the most I’ve enjoyed a meal out in a while, actually.
At the heart of the meal is your choice of broths, alongside meats, seafood, noodles, veggies and more to cook in the broths yourself.
A DIY dinner (love stuff like this, although it takes a bit of practice) with timings on the menu to help you make a mega meal. We chose to include a mixture of broths (you can have up to 3) including a pretty fiery one but you can control the spice levels.
There’s also some tasty hot sides you can add for even more variety but what you can mostly see here includes:
🔅Broth trio (the traditional chicken one is utterly delicious; I want to bathe in it)
🔅Sirloin beef
🔅Seafood platter
🔅Lamb fillet and loin
🔅Vegetable & mushroom platters
🔅Fish balls
🔅Fried tofu (my surprise hit)
🔅Grilled lamb skewers (come cooked)
🔅Lamb dumplings (can be ordered cooked or for you to cook)
All in all an interesting and delicious dinner – particularly the broths that are super rich and levelled with flavour. The chicken one in particular (house special – cooked for 6+ hours) is insanely flavourful, and as you cook the meat and seafood it changes and develops even more flavour. There’s spices and ingredients in there I’ve never heard of and I have no idea what their magic secrets are but it’s honestly liquid joy.
You need to keep a fairly constant eye on what you’re doing but it’s a fun way to eat lots of delicious things (especially if you have an expert helping you like I did) and a perfect winter warmer.
Great to see the place busy on a midweek evening, with some people taking their time and others popping in for a quick supper. I had Happy Lamb on my list to visit for a while and it didn’t disappoint.
If you’re after relaxed dining with lots of choice and a fun cooking experience this is for you. Can’t wait to go back and try more combinations – great for vegetarians and for group dining, too.
Many thanks to Angela and Xu for organising, recommending the best things to try and generally being the most lovely dinner companions anyone could wish for.
You can see more from the meal including how we cooked it all here.
Happy Lamb Hot Pot, Arcadian, Birmingham, B5 4ST
Disclosure: I was invited to dine with some of the Happy Lamb gang to see what the food is all about. It was a great meal with lovely people and while I didn’t need to post about it I want to because it’s worth more people knowing about.