Do you like lamb delicacies? I love them! Lamb delicacies, especially grilled lamb legs, mutton skewers and mutton soups are my favourites. I am sharing my list of favourite places for sheepy delights here and will keep adding to this list whenever I found a new place I like.
1. BBQ City (东北菜馆)
My first taste of grilled lamb with herbs was in Yunnan, China, in 2012 and I had missed the great taste ever since. When I came across BBQ City serving grilled lamb legs in Singapore, I did not hesitate to gather enough people to go for those legs — twice, and planning for a third round at this point of writing.
The grilled lamb leg (烤羊腿) is served over charcoal-fire, on a specially-made rotating grilling structure in the centre of the table in one piece. The aroma of the mutton with herbs and spices is so enticing that we can't stop salivating.
We help ourselves to the meaty leg and slice-cut the meat. It's surprising how easy it is to cut through the tender meat and see the meat juice dripping from the flesh to the fire. The gaminess of the succulent lamb meat is intact and added with flavours of the herbs.
A grilled lamb leg costs around $38/Kg (price in 2022) and each leg can weigh around 2~3 Kg. At least an hour in advance is required to order a grilled lamb leg and minimum 5 pax is recommended.
Being a Northeastern-China-style restaurant, BBQ City also serves a number of specialty dishes from Sichuan and other regions, including meat skewers. I love their mutton skewers (羊肉串, $1.20 per stick) too.
2. Manchurian Lamb HotPot (满族全羊铺)
Perhaps, the most variety of lamb delicacies served in a restaurant will be Manchurian Lamb HotPot in Chinatown. Apart from mutton skewers and mutton in hotpot, they serve grilled whole lamb (烤全羊) too.
Their signature dish is the Lamb Spine Hot Pot (羊蝎锅) in a metal basin. The chunky meat on the spinal bone retained its gaminess and very tender. There are bone marrow in the centre of the cut bones too. And the hot broth is rich and tasty — added with flavours from the corianders.
Not to be missed is the mouth-watering BBQ lamb ribs (宫廷锡纸烤羊排). The juicy tender ribs, with aromatic spices, are astonishingly delicious and is truly how lamb meat should taste like. It's a dish to savour and keep in the mouth as long as you can.
3. Hong Wen Mutton Soup (红炆羊肉汤)
Hong Wen Mutton Soup, located in Beauty World Food Centre, is where I usually satisfied my cravings, when it comes to mutton soup, for many years than I can remember. Apart from the original stall in Beauty World, another stall was setup in Bukit Timah Market & Food Centre. Both stalls are managed by two brothers.
Hong Wen's mutton soup used to taste gamier and more herbal, which I like a lot. However, the mutton's gaminess is greatly removed these days to satisfy larger populace who prefers lesser gamey taste. Nevertheless, I still like the mutton soup here since I can have mixture of lamb tripes and tendons with meat for more textures. The boss will specifically add two cloves of garlic to the soup.
The non-greasy herbal soup is added with wolf berries, ginger and has a unique sweetness and aroma. The soft garlic cloves that had absorbed the soup added more flavours. Despite the less-gamey taste, the mutton is tender and the tripe is crunchy. The sour-spicy dipping sauce, more on the sour side, adds additional flavours to the meat.
Price of mutton soup (meat only) at Beauty World is $8/$10/$15. The price at Bukit Timah Food Centre is $5 with additional ingredients being charged at $2/$3.
Opening Hours: 11 am to 3 pm | Closed on Monday
Opening Hours: 11 am to 3 pm | Closed on Saturday
4. Chin Hock Mutton Soup (进富羊肉汤)
There is another stall in Bukit Timah Food Centre that sells mutton soup too. Chin Hock Mutton Soup sells traditional mutton soup using old lambs in clear soup. Similar to all other Chinese mutton soups, the gaminess of the meat is lesser and the herbal soup is light.
Despite using old lambs, the meat is not tough and still retain its tenderness. Another factor why I like Chin Hock's mutton soup is there are more meat in one serving at comparable prices.
5. Jalan Besar Mutton Soup (惹兰勿刹羊肉汤)
Berseh Food Centre, in Jalan Besar, is my favourite spot for "games" like crocodile meat, turtle soup and shark meat (not the near-extinct types, of course). Jalan Besar Mutton Soup was added to my wild-meat-list recently.
The mutton soup is lightly herbal, non-greasy and aromatic — I can finish all the soup without feeling sinful. The soft mutton is very tender but is less-gamey in taste (it's hard to find mutton soup that has more gamey taste these days). On a side note, the sour-spicy dipping sauce tends to be spicier.
Price of mutton soup (meat only) is $6/$8/$10. Yam rice $0.80.
Address: Berseh Food Centre, Level 2
Opening Hours: 10:30 am to 7:30 pm | Closed on Tuesday
6. Haji M. Abdul Rajak Stall
Haji M. Abdul Rajak Stall is a famous outlet in Singapore that sells sup otak (or brain soup) along with mutton soup (sup kambing) and other lamb's organ soups. Unlike Chinese mutton soups that are mostly herbal, the Muslim-Indian sup kambing from this stall has gamey-rich, thick delicious broth from boiling with lamb bones.
The mutton is definitely gamey and tender. And if you are hungry for more gaminess, add on some lamb's brain to get some extra kicks — if you dare.
Address: Upper Boon Keng Market & Food Centre, #01-03
Opening Hours: 11 am to 11:30 pm | Closed on Tuesday