Despite having been here before many years ago and not as impressed as I'd hoped, I decided to come back to revisit as Quanjude is the benchmark of all Peking Ducks in the world! In hindsight, the original store of the 150 years old Peking Duck restaurant is not bad at all. Compared to the rest of the duck trips I'd undertaken, I would say nothing really did stood out from one another amongst the Roasted Duck competitors, whether it be roasted using the Open Fire Oven as in most shops or the Enclosed Ovens used in another famous competitor. Quanjude's duck however is easily the biggest and fattest/oiliest of them all, but the meat was also relatively moist and had good duck taste, the skin meanwhile was still crispy, though not as much as some of the others.
Duck being carved expertly. There are 3 Options from which you can choose for the Duck to be carved
up, a choice which is not automatically offered in most other Peking Duck
restaurants:
- (1) Cut into Thin Strips, a traditional way
- (2) Skin and Meat to be sliced separately, which is how some like to eat it.
- (3) *Cut into 3 Ways, as per most higher end Beijing Shops do it nowadays. Recommended.
Condiments -
loses out slightly to some other shops..
Duck Skin and the Duck Head -
And adding a 1 piece of meat on the plate seems like the ritual at most places? This is quite crispy and fragrant..
Crepes -
Are the chewy type, not bad. Most shops serve similar quality..
Skin with Meat on top and Plain Meat beneath -
Fattiest Peking Duck I've tried, but still acceptable. Quite moist and had duck meat flavour.
Not bad at all and easily the biggest serving of the once I've tried (this is Half-a-Duck Portion.)
Duck Soup -
Not a single restaurant offered a soup which had that much duck or tofu taste,
this was no exception. Strange indeed ! Bit disappointed..
this was no exception. Strange indeed ! Bit disappointed..
Price: RMB 150
Score: ★★★★☆☆
Address: 北京市前门大街32号
No. 32, Qianmen West Street, Beijing, P.R.China
Ph: 010 6701 1379
Wow, the restaurant looks beautiful! And I totally miss Peking duck...:(!!
ReplyDeleteYes its very grand looking! The lighting inside is really bad though and I don't have access to my normal software to adjust the photos... so its all a bit bluish haha... I got more Peking Duck stuff to be written 1 day :P
ReplyDeleteMy Beijing colleagues are a bit dismissive of Quanjude, and when I visit them, they take me to either Ya Wang (鸭王) or Dadong Roast Duck Restaurant (大董烤鸭店). Have you tried either of these places?
ReplyDeleteDear Mr Noodles,
ReplyDeleteI haven't tried Ya Wang or Li Quan in Beijing (latter chef worked in Quanjude), but have also been to Dadong the original outlet as well. After trying out some of the best of the Beijing Ducks, I will probably say that Quanjude is NOT as bad as what others make of it.
But then again, you'll need to consider my viewpoint. As Yung Kee in HK is considered one of the best Roast Goose restaurants, but their goose is quite fatty and not always crispy depending on how your order it as they have upwards of 3-4 options!
I personally don't think crispiness to a duck is the be it or all it. I won't say Quanjude impressed me, but to be fair, I didn't really think most of the other shop impressed me eitherway. I would personally rate this the same as Daidong - but using different measurements. Please wait for me reviews to come soon as I need to edit the photos first.
Kind regards,
HK Epic