It’s lunch time now in Tianjin – at Dong Lai Shun Restaurant, a Legendary Mutton Hotpot Eatery in China.

A “Lao Zhi Hou” (meaning “Old Brand Name”) Restaurant, Dong Lai Shun is a Halal Restaurant & it’s been around for hundreds of years, considering China has got its own Xinjiang Chinese Muslims.

Our tourmate Thai Auntie about to be seated at our Lunch table inside the Restaurant. Dear & I were so excited cos we both love Steamboat meals!!

The huge tall Hotpot, or Steamboat (fired by hot burning charcoal) with steaming boiling hot Soup ready for us to tuck in anytime!

Our Tianjin waitress serving us plates of dishes for our Steamboat.

The waitresses were still getting our dishes on the table for our Steamboat! 

Huge plate of thick fat Rice Noodles, Mushrooms, Black Fungus (or Wood Ears), Mee Hoon, Tofu, Cabbages & Green Vegetables :

The noodles were very long & thick & had to be cooked for quite a long time before it was soft enough to be eaten.

Below are a plate of sliced Muttons, a plate of Meat Balls, a bowl of whole Garlic Gloves, a bowl of diced Onions & Chinese Parsley, & 3 bowls of Sauces – Sesame Sauce (or “Zhimajiang” in Chinese), Dried Chili Oil, & Dark Sauce :

Dear & I were happy to see the sliced Muttons cos we love having Pork & Beef Shabu Shahu for our home made Steamboats! However, these Mutton slices were thinly sliced & not too many for the 4 of us!!

As for the Meat Balls, they were quite nice – probably the best food, besides the Mushrooms & Vegetables, for our Steamboat!

Well, mix the Sesame Sauce (“Zhimajiang”) with the diced Onions, Chinese Parsley, Dried Chili Oil with the Dried Red Chilies, & the Garlic Gloves, & see the result below :

It sure looked rather good ha but NOT really, cos the combined taste was just not great & appetizing at all!! Dear & I have tasted better Sesame Sauce before, especially I who would never forget the really best Sesame Sauce I tasted during my individual mini Steamboat dinner in Xian, Silk Road.

Plates of Thin Dried Noodles & fried Sesame Pancakes (or “Zhima Bao Bing” in Chinese).

The thin noodles turned out to be really nice & tasted like Mee Sua, which reminded me of home & Mom!!

But the ”Zhima Pao Bing” or Sesame Pancakes (which seemed to be made up of thinly layers of “Bing”) were not tasty at all but very hard & stiff & aweful to our likings!

Plate of fresh Prawns & Fish Balls :

I was so delighted to see Fish Balls (cos it’s my favourite!) but to my disappointment, they were rather hard & tasted not too good! As for the Prawns (also my faourite!), they were ok but too few for the 4 of us!

Plate of Sliced Chickens – these were too paper thinly sliced & melted once we dipped them into the Steamboat! Horrible!!

Dear seated with our tourmates Auntie & Uncle.

Our waitress brought us more food – a huge plate of Fried Rice & a small plate of 4 “Gou Bu Li Bao Zi” (Steamed Buns stuffed with Minced Pork) :

We were all more than happy to see these “Gou Bu Li Bao Zi” but they turned out to be a real disappointment cos they were hard & didn’t taste nice at all, unlike the really delicious ones we ate in Beijing!

Actually, “Gou Bu Li Bao Zi” was supposed to originate from Tianjin when the abandoned Chinese Boy, found in a garbage dump & adopted by his Family who later named him “Doggy”. This was in the Wuqing County, during the Qing Dynasty.

At the age of 14, Doggy left home to come to Tianjin & he was apprenticed to a Restaurant specializing in Stuffed Buns. A deligent & honest young man, Doggy eventually opened a shop of his own. His Stuffed Buns tasted better & better, & soon his Buns became very popular among many customers. As time went by, cos he was too busy making his Buns, Doggy’s customers had difficulty getting his attention, so they called him “Gou Bu Li” meaning “Doggy is not interested”. And eventually, Doggy’s Stuffed Buns became known as “Gou Bu Li Bao Zhi” meaning “Stuffed Buns that Doggy is not interested in”! 

The huge big plate of Fried Rice with diced Zucchini, Red Bell Pepper & Eggs – this was pretty ok though slightly tasteless, & the quality of the Rice wasn’t too good either.

Our steamboat was boiling fast though we were eating pretty slowly cos the Steamboat was very deep, & we had to search a long time for our food once we drop them inside the Steamboat. It was also too narrow & we could not scoop our food easily, & sometimes burning them at the sides of the hot Steamboat! Besides, the soup base was too plain & kinda tastless for us.

All of us did not really enjoy this Tianjin Steamboat lunch very much. Though the food & the Steamboat looked really impressive to us at first sights, they turned out to be kinda lousy. And we were really surprised that we were dinning in the famous “Lao Zhi Hou” Dong Lai Shun Restaurant, which was supposed to carry the best Mutton Hotpot!

In fact we were not aware of the famous Dong Lai Shun chain Eatery till after we were back home from Tianjin! What a surpise & disappointment – or may be to the Chinese, such a Steamboat meal would already be very good, but for us foreigners, may be we were just being too picky ha!?! But serious, it was really not good!! Go try it the next time you’re in Tianjin, & you would know what I mean )

Leaving the Restaurant now – see the bottom left table where we just dined.

Hey, what beautiful grand colorful Hotpots (or Steamboats), even with the Chinese characters “Dong Lai Shun” written on them!!

See the Trophy at the bottom right corner – the Restaurant even has it to prove it’s truely famous!! However guess it’s only by name, cos we did not get to taste its so-called renowed yummy delcious Hotpot meal at all!!

Or may be they should serve us using these beautiful Steamboats!! Why they never served us using these, then may be our experience of the Steamboat meal might be a much better one!!

But guess even such a beautiful Steamboat woudn’t change the fact that the food itself was not well prepared & well cooked at all!

Dear standing outside the Dong Lai Shun Restaurant, feeling real disappointed with our Steamboat lunch we just had - we all had the same feelings – so so Sad (