Little Sheep bucks trend

The densely packed steamy hotpot restaurant in Guijie, Beijing's well-known food street, looked particularly enticing on a cold and windy evening. The line of waiting customers was long and the pace of the seated diners was leisurely, typical gatherings of families and friends putting aside the worries of the economic downturn to concentrate on the choice of dips for the lightly boiled meat.

Restaurants like this, belonging to Hong Kong-listed Little Sheep, are valued by investment analysts not so much for their food, which is down-to-earth and inexpensive, but rather for their resistance to the economic downturn that is devastating so many other businesses.