Happy Lamb Hot Pot, Chicago Chinatown

OMG IT SOOOOO GOOD!!!! I've gone here twice with my boyfriend, and so far the food has been the best hot pot I've ever had. So many options for food, very affordable, and ultimately just a very cozy place. Staff is very friendly and checks on you not too often, but don't forget about you either. It's also a very pleasant looking place with comfy seating. The only problem I have (which may not affect you) is some of the induction burners will have a very high-pitched dog-whistle sound. I've only heard this with tables that have more than one burner. My boyfriend cannot hear it, but I can, so it really depends on your hearing.

Incredible place to come with a group of friends to get great food. I've come here numerous times with my friends and it's so fun to cook the food together. They also have a sauce bar and free ice cream at the end!

First time here and honestly it was so worth it!The line wasn't too long and we got here around 7:30pm on a weekday night.For AYCE, the price is worth it. The amount of food we ordered, honestly, we couldn't even finish it and there were party of 6 of us (4 male and 2 female). All the side and meat/seafood came in large portions as you can see in the photo. The broth was delicious. They had a separate self-sauce bar which you can go back multiple times. The menu also had dessert options but we were all so full to order any dessert.Since there are 2-3 rounds to order, make sure not to order too much during 1st round. We needed up not finishing everything and wished we tried everything in smaller portions.Would come back here again when I'm in town!

Happy Lamb is located in the Chinatown in Chicago. We went around lunchtime, and there was no wait. They have two meat options: the classic and the premium. However, asides from meat, they have very limited options. For example, they did not have enoki mushroom, which I think, personally, is a hotpot staple. The sauce bar also had limited options, and there were no soy sauce when we got there initally until we asked for some from a worker nearby. They also had the worst service ever. After the initial checkup, our server never came again and disappeared. She never came l to check up on us for meat afterwards, and we had to chase her down just to her some udon noodles, which came out when we were almost done (about an hour later after we got there), and people got up to stock up on the noodles. I think you should just skip this place and go to another hotpot place or something. Not only do they have limited options, but they also have terrible customer service. Overall, it was a pass for me, and I would have rather gone somewhere else.

The Chinatown location of Happy Lamb has reopened and is cleaner and more modern than before! I went with my mother on a Tuesday night expecting there to be no wait (assuming people didn't know about it yet) but there was still about a 10 minute wait for a table. It was a chilly day outside, the perfect weather for some cozy hot pot.They've changed up the format where you only order the drinks and sliced meats with the server and everything else is self-service in the dining room. I like this because you can choose how much of each item to grab. Sometimes, I just want 1 piece of something to try. There are also some meats and seafood in the buffet. This area did feel a bit disorganized as there were fewer tongs than there were items so people would use the same tongs to grab different items. There is certainly a risk of cross-contamination of allergens because of this. The area was also very congested and had a very chaotic feel to it.The ingredients are high quality for the price point of just under $30 per adult. I especially like their fatty beef slices which are very thinly sliced and has a lovely texture. My only minor complaint would be the soup bases not being as delicious as some other hot pot joints in Chicago where I would literally want to drink it straight up. After eating all the meats, you can also go to the sauce bar area to get fresh cut fruit for dessert!Service throughout the night was great. The waiter came by frequently to check if we needed anything else. At this price point, for this quality of ingredients, with sauce bar and dessert included, I really don't have complaints.Food: 4.25/5Service: 4/5Price: 4.5/5Ambiance: 3.5/5Overall: 4/5

Very long wait even with a waitlist! The location is great, located in the heart of chinatown there is a ton to do in the area. So when we signed up for the waitlist we thought it would be fine since we could kill some time exploring. Our estimated time was originally an hour, then it went up to an hour and a half. Then we were told to go to the front and check in, but once we did we had to wait another 30-45 minutes. By this point we were starving, but it was okay because we were so excited to finally have some hot pot. The self serve veggies idea was great, but we were disappointed by the cabbage quality. Also there were a couple of items missing from the bar that we asked to be refilled that never were ...The broth was okay, but nothing impressive. Same can be said about the sauce bar. However, the meat cuts were very good! We were given free ice cream which was a nice plus. Overall based on the broth flavor, service, and wait time this place was just not it for me.

I tried hot pot for the first time during my last trip to Chicago. We visited on a Saturday afternoon for a late lunch/early dinner and it was really busy. We got on the waitlist via Yelp and had to wait about 30-45 minutes. Had I known sooner, I would have gotten on the waitlist ahead of time on the Yelp app before we arrived to save time.We did bone marrow broth and had a ton of ingredients. My favorites were the fish and wontons. I really liked the veggies too, but wished they would have been chopped into smaller pieces. My cousin and her husband had some ingredients in the pot that I don't eat, so it was a little annoying trying to search for foods that I liked. Freebies: You can eat for free on your birthday if you show ID. Kids under 3 feet eat free as well. Don't forget to grab some free soft serve ice cream on your way out!

If you don't out yourself on the waitlist do not bother trying to eat here during dinner Friday-Sunday. I places my party of 2 on the waitlist for a Friday night around 6pm for a 730 sitting per guidance from the yelp app. However, our waist time kept getting extended and we weren't sat at our table till almost 830.Once we were say though, everything was spectacular! Our water was great however, I'm not sure if we did it wrong or if this is how it operates but the order form indicates there are "rounds" so my friend and I assumed that they would bring our food out in waves but it all showed up at once which was a little overwhelming.We went with a spicy broth and the sour/spicy broth and the waiter tried to warn us that the spicy one was was SPICY and we didn't believe him. Half way through he graciously helped us removed some of the broth and diluted it by mixing in just the original none marrow. The sour spicy wasn't too bad! It was an overall great experience and I definitely would be back!

Walking around Chinatown after we checked into our hotel and stopped by here for lunch. It was recommended by the front desk and we had never had hotpot so figured a good place to try it for the first time.We were four adults and seven kids ranging from 3 - 11 years. So a big group. The restaurant was clean and a little busy but we were seated right away. We didn't have a reservation, just walked in. They had two different options for the menu. A la carte or all you can eat. We opted for the all you can eat not knowing really what we were doing.We got seated and were handed a piece of paper and pencil to pick out options. We had a lot of questions but there was a little bit of as communication issue and couldn't get a clear answer on some so we did our best. Ordered a bunch or meat and veggies and had to choose between our broths. Ordered one of the original and one that was original and spicy.Turns out we ordered a lot more food than we could handle. The meats were thinly sliced, the seafood looked pretty fresh and the veggies and noodles were plenty. The cooking times vary but we got the hang of it. ?There were also a lot of sauces and appetizers available that you could walk up to and get. Which was a nice extra. Again, not sure if this is normal but it was cool to be able to mix up sauces to create your own dipping sauce.The spicy broth was very flavorful and my favorite. The original was also good and we were stuffed. The highlight for the kids was an ice cream machine where they all got soft serve ice cream.Not a bod experience for the first time and I would definitely try it again. Next time will be careful to not order too much so as not to waste and try the different broths.

Went on a Monday evening. Did not have a reservation We ended up with about a 15 minute wait for a table. I guess that tells you how quote unquote bad the economy is that you kind of need a reservation for a neighborhood restaurant on a Monday... All staff was pleasant and friendly. My niece did a great job of cooking the food. Lol. Nice atmosphere. Plenty of raw ingredients to choose from. Wait staff checked on us regularly. Water and broth was refilled on a regular basis. Overall good experience.