I really wanted to have mind-blowing Beijing roast duck while in Beijing and the first stop is 大董烤鸭店。This restaurant is highly recommended by some friends, who said that this was even better than the legendary 全聚德烤鸭。
The restaurant was packed! And EK has kindly queued up for us for nearly an hour!
We were finally seated on the 2nd floor, and the whole decor of the place just shouts "expensive"! Nothing on the menu is less than RMB100...with these kind of prices and the never-ending queue, I am really expecting mega mind blowing-ness! Yeah!
This is their signature beef dish - it was kind of un-memorable. I couldn't remember the taste much. It just looks pretty presented on a rock - not mind blowing at all... :(
We got a whole duck and the chef said they cut 108 pieces out of the whole duck. In Beijing, they carve up the whole duck, so there is no leftover meat for you to stir fry with bean sprouts or noodles as they usually do in Singapore.
The only thing that "blows" my mind is how fatty the duck is! I'm thinking if I could actually swallow the duck skin with the thick layer of fat!? :( I didn't enjoy the duck much as the skin is not crispy enough and it's just too fatty! Makes me nauseous just feeling the fats squishing in my mouth.
They gave us some sesame buns to wrap the slices of duck, which tastes quite good. But I just could not get over the fats! Eeew....
The only dish I like is probably the couscous rice with 梅菜。I feel so much healthier just eating this after all the fats from the duck!
I still don't understand the pull of 大董but I'm certainly not coming back here again. See my post on 全聚德 and you will know why :)
