South Gate Hotpot 南门涮肉 @ Beijing (2024)

This is one specialty of Beijing that I would go to every time I am back in the capital of China. No, not Peking duck but Beijing lamb hotpot.

South Gate Hotpot was founded in 1994 and specialises in the traditional halal old Beijing lamb hotpot 涮羊肉. Formerly called “Hongyuan Hotpot” 宏源南门涮肉, the original store was located near the South Gate 南门 of the Temple of Heaven 天坛 and hence was often referred to as “South Gate Hotpot” by customers and friends.

Over the years, it has gained popularity and reputation in Beijing and established itself as one of the steward of the old Beijing traditional hotpot. However with fame comes lots of copycats. Their branding suffered because the name cannot be trademarked. So you have to recognise the green and yellow logo of the sheep, and the words “宏源南門涮肉”.

Each table will have one serving of complimentary brined peanuts, pickled radishes and pickled garlic 糖蒜.

Compared with the hot and spicy Sichuan-style hot pot, the traditional copper pot of the old Beijing hotpot uses water as the stock base. The meat becomes the star and so the meat quality has to be exceptional – the meat must not form too much scum when cooked, and the lamb taste must not taste gamey. If it is not fresh or tender or have those characteristics, the hotpot restaurant can be directly declared as a failure.

In order to control the quality of the meat, they own their own pasture to raise these lambs. They took lambs from Inner Mongolia and raised them under strict control in Hebei using feeds and pasture grass from Inner Mongolia. While all these could be just marketing gimmicks, the taste is in the pudding. You need to just taste the meat to know if they are of quality.

First meat that was served after a long wait was the lamb fillet 鲜羊上脑. This cut is from the back of the lamb closest to the neck, hence the distinctive layer of fats on the side like a sirloin.

The second we ordered was the more marbled and tender lamb loin 鲜切元宝肉. Again superbly cut, the lamb loin was worth the 30 min wait.

Special tahini sauce 麻酱调料 is no longer given for free. The sesame sauce is mixed with chive sauce 韭菜酱, fermented tofu 腐乳 and shrimp oil 虾油. However you need to order one as the meat will be tasteless as they are simply blanched in water. It was this 🙂 sauce and cloisonné mini hotpot that got it so popular among the working OL of Beijing.

And if you are like me who enjoy a stronger taste to the condiments, ask for their garlic and sesame dip 蒜茸调料 as well. These two condiments will make sure you have an enjoyable meal.

Besides lamb, these days they also cater to differing tastes by offering beef and seafood. And for variety, we ordered a sliced beef short ribs 肥牛. It was machine sliced and when you cooked them, the scum started forming on the surface of the broth.

I ordered a half portion of daisy crowns 蒿子杆 to cleanse the palate. Daisy crowns have a slight bitterness in its taste, and clears the palate for more food to follow.

To finish the meal, I had the lamb and leek dumplings 羊肉大葱水饺. These are northern style dumplings filled with minced lamb meat and leeks marinated with spices.

As you can see the hotpot is really small and you can only place four dumplings at a time into the hotpot. The dumplings are done when they start floating on the broth.

These were delicious dumplings, every one was packed with flavours. I finished all eight of them even though I was stuffed at this point in the dinner.

This outlet took over four shops to cater to more than 1000 people to dine at the same time. The wait was around an hour at 8pm, and you cannot do any prior reservations. However you can take a queue number and go for a walk around the spacious luxury mall. That should work up an appetite for your meal.

South Gate Hotpot China World Mall 南门涮肉(国贸商城店)
建国门外大街1号国贸商城南区五层SL5009-5011
Tel : +86 (010) 6505 7988

Visited Oct 2024