Inside the Quanjude Restaurant 全聚德 in Qianmen Pedestrian Street 前门大街
I was in Beijing the previous year and although I had a grand time exploring a lot of Beijing’s signature sights, there was one other signature which I had neglected to try, it was their signature food, and as you may probably guess, Beijing is the home of the famous Peking duck, Peking being the old Romanization of Beijing. When it comes to Peking duck, most people visiting Beijing would have only one place in mind, Quanjude Restaurant which is famous for its duck. Tourist prices or not, this was one place I really needed to visit.
Quanjude’s Famous Peking Duck 北京烤鸭
I was intending to visit Quanjude Restaurant last time but my budget didn’t allow for it, however, this time I still have some money left over from last time I decided to bite the bullet and try their legendary duck. I only know of one person who has tried it and she said it was really good, I would have to take her word for it. As I was walking around in Qianmen Pedestrian Street I was surprised to see a branch of Quanjude Restaurant there. It wasn’t as big as the one I saw in Wangfujing, but I hoped that it would be just as good. I have no idea how much the quality varies between branches, and I have no plans on going to Wangfujing just to have dinner.
Everything I Ordered at Quanjude Restaurant 全聚德
As it would happen, that Quanjude wasn’t a full branch, if there was such a thing. This was a fast food type of Quanjude at least that was how I understood it, which hopefully meant that it might be a little cheaper. I walked in and placed my order. I was quickly served a few disposable plastic plates and soon enough came my food. I had an order of their duck and a few pancakes to go with them. I was kind of surprised and disappointed to see that the prices wasn’t any different despite being “fast food” style. Normally, duck is eaten together with the pancake.
Some Broth to Push Down the Duck
First the pancake is laid out in front of you and you put a little of the plum sauce. Then add some duck meat to and some scallion, wrap everything up and you are done! Biting into the duck produces a mix of textures and tastes. The plum sauce is a bit sweet while the duck is a bit salty but the skin is crispy while the meat was very tender. Hot broth that comes with the duck was unceremoniously served in a paper coffee cup. No doubt that the food was nice. But the presentation of the food, considering the prices leaves much to be desired. Yes, I was warned about this but I think it would be better to go to the full blown Quanjude Restaurant rather than this one. If ever I drop by Beijing again, I would avoid coming to this branch.
[xmlgm {http://www.worldwanderings.net/kml/QianmenPedestrianStreet.kmz} zoom=19]