Happy Lamb Hot Pot — Restaurant in Cambridge

I hadn't been to Happy Lamb in over 3 years (I did love their lunch special) but I was inspired to go since they offered free AYCE on your birthday (or the day before or after, with purchase of another AYCE). It seemed like a low-stakes way to try out the AYCE I've been seeing advertised online. I'm so glad I went. I had a wonderful experience and Happy Lamb is now my go-to for hotpot in the area.

Currently the promotional price for AYCE is $27.99 on weekdays and $31.99 on weekends including Fridays. It looks like their normal price is $35.99 -- not sure when they'll return to that. In any case, unlimited meat and seafood at $27.99 is amazing for this area. And the quality is amazing! We arrived around 6:30pm on a Wednesday and were lucky to get seated -- there were people who arrived soon after that were waiting for a looong time. The restaurant was packed.

I was surprised to see how the restaurant has completely changed to AYCE only -- it was such a good move. They manage to fit a huge variety of seafoods, vegetables, and noodles/tofus in a small amount of space, very efficiently. It's compact and designed smartly to keep the ingredients in their best state (eg having some things in individual plates).

Everything was very fresh and tasty. I especially loved the shrimp paste -- it's airy and light and makes for delicious and fluffy pieces of shrimp goodness. The fish fillet (probably swai) is delicious and the marinated fish fillet had a nice coating that kept it more tender after cooking. Those were definitely my favorites in the seafood section.

The thinly sliced meats (you order these separately) were amazing!! It made me think that thinly sliced meats are a win-win for the customer and the restaurant. The restaurant can give you less meat by cutting it thinner but it will taste better because it will melt in your mouth more. Both the fatty beef and the thinly-sliced pork were amazing -- just 10 seconds in the boiling broth to make it a melt-in-your-mouth bite. The marinated beefs are thicker and tougher with some weird parts -- I would not get this again when there are so many better seafood and meat options.

They had all the different types of tofu skin and tofu -- love the wrinkly tofu skin and the porous tofu. The bok choy was very fresh and clean. The drinks are a bit sweet but you can always dilute them with water. Of course the broths are amazing as always. The spicy is not as oily as I remember and it's so good! I love the garlic in the broths too -- they end up getting nice and tender.

Happy Lamb literally has everything I've ever wanted in a hotpot place (shrimp paste, fish fillet, fatty beef, delicious broth, tofu skin) and it's unlimited! I was very happy. This was a big improvement from the previous version of Happy Lamb (where I never ordered a la carte because I saw the $$ going up). You can definitely eat enough here to be done with hotpot for a few months (or until your next birthday...). I'll definitely be back! I would definitely choose it over Spring Shabu Shabu -- location-wise much more convenient, probably can avoid crazy waits, and unlimited meat...

One star is base on service and their policy only since we never got to sit down to try their food. We decided to try this place out on Sunday evening from friend’s recommendation. There were 4 of us (2 couples), we arrived at the restaurant a couples of minutes apart. We told the people at the front that we would like a table for four with 2 pots, since each of us wanted to choose our own broth. They said that we could not have 2 pots since it was going to get busier and they wont have enough pots to use. We told them that it was fine, we could sit separately (2 tables) so each couple could have their own pot. They told us that they could not let us sit separately since they already knew that we were together..Are you kidding me??? We went out to eat, to support their business, but they would not let us decide if we wanted to sit together or separately!! It was the most ridiculous things i have ever heard. If we walked in seperately, pretended we did not know each other, they would let us sit separately? So we decided to just leave and look for a new place to dine. What a bad experience…. Since it was pouring outside, we stood at the front for a while to discuss where to go. One of the women who denied our request walked outside to talk to us and apologized. She asked if we would be willing to pay an extra $9 for the broth. We did not quite understand at the time why but sure we told her we had no problem paying extra. We then walked back in. She took us to two separate tables, we sat down. After processing my thought for a minute, i realized why did we have to pay the extra $9 since we all had to sit separately anyway at 2 tables, so what the extra money was for?????? We all decided to leave for real this time and agreed that we would never go back there again (in any of their locations). This whole thing was INSANE. We understood the part where we could not get 2 pots for table of four, but not allowing us to choose to sit separately was not right. Your business just lost 4 customers who could turn to be your royal customers. After we left, we went back to our usual spot “Ibasaw” in Malden. Asked for table for 4 with two pots, no...

Favorite restaurant in Central Square.

We came on a Friday evening, and after trying to call in advance and failing to get connected with anyone, we just showed up. It was really busy, and we had to wait about 45 minutes for a table for two. The owner was very friendly and told us that they'd be having AYCE on Mondays and Thursday soon and gave us a menu for that.

We ordered some vegetables, enoki mushrooms, beef, lamb, and quail eggs. Everything was tasty and pretty well portioned for two (read: slightly smaller portions). Everything was good. We got the half and half soup base, and the spicy side was very, very spicy. When we tried to scoop the chili peppers out, we found that it was FILLED with peppers. The soup bases were tasty and layered with different notes - they definitely don't skimp!

The interiors are clean, modern, and comfortable. I wish that they had plastic bags for outerwear and purses though - I ended up smelling like hot pot after I left. I also wish that we could just get up and pick our own sauces instead of having to ask the waitstaff for it.

They accidentally charged us for the wrong dish (beef tongue instead of tendon), and we realized that they had served us the wrong dish as well. When we explained, the just took it off - didn't even charge us for the tendon price!

There's also a cotton candy machine you can use for free while you wait for your table or for dessert. Would...