Beijing 2009 - Quan Ju De Peking Duck Restaurant

July 15, 2009

Beijing 2009 - Quan Ju De Peking Duck Restaurant

The most famous culinary specialty in Beijing is Peking Duck, and the most famous restaurant serving this dish is Quan Ju De Peking Duck Restaurant. They have eight outlets in Beijing, most are usually packed with tourists and locals alike. The one we went to at He Ping Men Avenue is one of the biggest, with 7 floors and 15,000 sq. m. It can serve up to 2,000 guests at any one time.

The Peking Duck at Quan Ju De is quite pricey. It cost around RMB 180.00 per duck, which is around RM 90.00. This is double the price of a roast duck in Malaysia. A roast duck in other restaurants around Beijing is around RMB 50.

It comes with some spring onion, sauce and pancake which you use to wrap the meat. The duck is carved at table side. The taste of the Peking duck is just okay, I think we have much better roast duck in Malaysia.

Besides the Peking Duck, the restaurant also has an extensive menu. We settled on some of the appetizers, as the roast duck itself would be quite sufficient for a few persons. The waitress kept saying that one duck would only feed around 4 to 5 persons, it's more like 8 persons. Perhaps Beijingers are big eaters. For an additional service charge of RMB 30, they will deepfry the duck carcass for you. You must go for it as this is even more delicious then the meat. They have seasoned the carcass with a spiced salt, making it crispy and really tasty.

Jellyfish in Chinese vinegar. This was not so good. The jellyfish was tough and without flavour, and the vinegar not of the best quality.

Cold pork slices. Quite good with the soya-vinegar dipping sauce.

White-cooked chicken. Nothing to write home about.

Spicy beef. Ditto.

Chinese red dates - always a good side dish.

Braised tofu - this was really good, the sauce light and savoury, the tofu perfectly cooked.

Stirfried, or deepfried bamboo shoots and long beans. These were way overcooked.

The technique of the chefs here seem to be more deepfrying then stirfrying. This kills the freshness of most of the ingredients. I would say eating at Quan Ju De is more for the experience then the taste.