Happy Lamb Hot Pot

Happy Lamb Hot Pot’s London branch sits on New Oxford Street, on the Holborn side of the border with Chinatown rather than inside it, and follows the format of its wider chain: broth simmered at the table, with meat and vegetables cooked to order in front of you rather than arriving already prepared from the kitchen.

The signature is the lamb, cooked in a chicken and marrow based broth that has been simmering long before the meat goes in, though beef and seafood options are also on the menu and get similarly good reviews from regulars who come specifically for the seafood plates rather than the lamb.

Allergens are marked clearly across the menu, which is unusually thorough for a hot pot restaurant, and staff are able to talk through ingredients and cross contamination risks for anyone with specific dietary concerns, which is not always guaranteed at this kind of shared pot dining.

It suits groups and celebrations far better than a quiet dinner for two: tables here are built for sharing multiple broths and plates of raw ingredients, and the room gets loud, with music that several diners describe as too loud for the size of the space once it fills up on a weekend evening.

Expect a queue without a booking, particularly at weekends, since this remains one of the more popular hot pot addresses in central London despite sitting just outside the district most people associate it with, and walk ins can face a wait of half an hour or more at peak times.

Being part of a wider chain rather than a single independent restaurant means the format, from the broth options to the ordering process, is fairly standardised, which some diners see as reassuring consistency and others see as slightly generic compared with an independent Chinese restaurant nearby. The New Oxford Street location, close to Holborn and Tottenham Court Road stations, makes it an easy add on to an evening that might also take in Chinatown proper a short walk away, even if the restaurant itself sits just outside that district. Vegetarian broths are available for anyone not eating meat, though the range of accompanying dippable ingredients is naturally smaller than what carnivorous diners get to choose from across the rest of the menu.