Decoy
“I haven't had Peking duck in many years, the last time I had it was actually in Beijing.”
“The oxtail dumplings were next up and those were rich and flavorful and falling-off-the-bone delicious – another meal highlight.”
“The pastrami triangles wins between the two, the pastrami from Katz was great, and the Asian riff on cole slaw was perfect.”
Decoy
Takes Reservations: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Price range.
$$$ Price range $31-60
8 reviews
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As a Chinese grew up in Beijing and have been living in New York for a while, if there's one food that I'm missing so much, that will be Peking duck. Peking duck house was very close in terms of both flavor and presentation; however I have got a better choice today – Decoy.
A prex-fixe menu was provided, with pickles and crispy fish skin chips to start, two small plates, the duck (with scallion and pancakes) and one side/rice dish. It took us a long time to decide on the small dishes and eventually we opted for the raw oysters with yuzu sauce, and wagyu beef. Their oysters were freshly prepared with yuzu sauce being completely absorbed inside. Finally came the duck! At that moment I literally felt myself staying at one of the famous Peking duck places in Beijing – seeing the duck being covered by its own skin cooked to a crispy texture! Impressive!
I could not fit dessert any more after the duck, and did not drink any cocktail/wine during the course. However I was more than satisfied and simply wish I knew this place earlier in my life!
Final word to duck skin lovers – this place will be your paradise!
Long story short- wanted to hate this place because of their stupid policy of running out of food every night and strictly limiting reservations. Plus the overall quaintness and hype of this place make me sick to my stomach.
Add to this a crowded dining room where folks at the bar waiting for tables routinely bump your chair and just when you get a respite the serving staff do it for them (though most, but not all, of the servers were good). And then there's the sorta douchey crowd… and you would typically have a recipe for a one-star review.
(takes a breathe)… second best Peking duck I've ever had, second only to this $100 bird I had in Hong Kong which was one of the top places in all of China anyway…
This is the rare case where the food overcomes any and all negatives. We'll definitely go back ;)…
Came here for a dinner with a few friends. We had a 8:15pm reservation. When we arrived we were told that the party had paid and we should be seated shortly. So we waited in a tiny little narrow section on the right of the door. We waited. And waited. More than 30 mins went by. The hostess was being as polite as possible but at the same time, we were getting a bit hungry and were beginning to look at the drink menu.
Finally a space opened up and we were able to sit down. They suggested we ordered a la cart instead of the pre fixe. So after looking at the menu for a while we went with the Oxtail dumplings, the soup dumplings, vegetable fried rice and the Chinese broccoli and of course the Duck.
The oxtail dumplings were delicious. They were soft and warm and cooked just right. However, the soup dumplings were a fail. They were way too big and difficult to eat. I don't mean to sound like a snob, but I just flew back from Asia and had some amazing authentic soup dumplings so when I tried to pick these dumplings up and they stuck to the paper and the soup poured all over my setting I was a bit upset.
The fried rice was so plain and unexciting, it tasted like something I could have ordered at a takeout joint for $5. The Chinese broccoli was good.
The duck was on point. It tasted very similar to what you can get in Chinatown at Peking duck house but it was more refined. The sauce flavors and the shallot toppings definitely gave it an edge.
Since we were stuck waiting, they offered us complimentary shishito peppers.
Overall, I think this place is overpriced for what you are getting and I was a bit turned off by the wait. What's the point of making a reservation if you have to sit and wait doing nothing for almost 40 mins?
Damn. I was prepared to hate on this place, being from the San Gabriel Valley, and seeing the prices charged for Asian food. But this place was worth it. Came here as a party of four with reservations for Saturday 7:30pm. Got seated in the middle of the communal table; service was great, each plate was delicious. Despite the numerous plates brought out for our party, the table never felt overwhelmingly squished and servers were quick to take away empty plates.
Actually, I will admit the $18 list price for sauteed snow pea leaves is ridiculous, as it really costs about $2 to do the same thing at home, but as its part of the otherwise amazing prix fixe menu, it's an irrelevant complaint.
Love the downstairs cellar-like ambiance. Drinks were unique. And their star dish, the peking duck was truly amazing, with very little bones.
Highly recommend the oxtail dumplings as your appetizer.
First things first – come with a group. 4 or more. The a la carte prices are ridiculous, and with 4 or more, you get a prix fixe that is UNBELIEVABLY cheaper. A la carte is $78 for a duck, and then however much for appetizers, sides, entrees, etc. The prix fixe is $68.50, and comes with (for a party of 7, at least) – 4 appetizers (which WHOA this place breaks from ALL other restaurant appetizer protocol and gives EVERY PERSON a piece, so…order dumplings for 7 people, you get 7 dumplings, etc), 3 entrees (aside from the duck), a side, and a rice. INCLUDED.
Cocktails – all very inventive and pleasant. Some of the ingredients are pretty unique, and I liked everything I tasted. The timelessness was my favorite – sort of like a sweeter, more full sazerac.
Pickles – Cucumbers, squash, asparagus, shishito peppers….and two others I can't remember. Fantastic banchan.
Shrimp and Snow Pea Dumplings – adorable little birds (or are they ghosts?) in a much larger than average dumpling. Think a soup dumpling sized dumpling, but with a thin rice skin. You honestly can't go wrong with any of the shrimp-related dishes here. Plump, juicy, and much better tasting than ghosts usually are.
Shrimp stuffed Shishito Peppers – these are deep fried and are like the jalapeno poppers you once had "one of those" kind of dreams about. Mild heat. Perfectly seasoned. Crisp. Other adjectives.
Pastrami Triangles – Little crispy pockets of pastrami with a light funky mustard sauce. If you need more than two bites, you're being like my sister who would savor her food so long that we'd all get irritated that the next course couldn't come. Don't be like that. CHOMP THIS SH*T.
Foie Gras and Strawberry Tartlet – You're a dumb moron if you don't get this. What's wrong with you? It's a fat cube of PERFECTLY cooked foie gras with fresh strawberries in a turkey-shaped tart. If all turkeys were made from foie gras, you'd hate your Republican uncle less at Thanksgiving.
Duck – Obviously what you came for. And lives up to the hype in every way. The fatty crisp texture of the skin, the perfectly cooked meat. There is nothing I can say here that hasn't been said already. Only two suggestions – take the consomme amuse bouche like a shot; don't be a wiener who sips an amuse bouche. And ignore the other sauces. Go hoisin or go home. Be hoisin'ed by your own canard (this is the best Yelp line I have ever written).
Lamb – I believe this was a prix fixe only special. It's extremely tender, reminiscent of cumin lamb from a yunnanese place, but with a sauce more like a curry. Excellent.
Pork with Rice Cakes – I probably could have had a double portion of this, but people were already stuffed, because I have some skinny f*king friends. The rice cakes could have been crisper, but, c'mon. Highly recommended.
Sea Bass – Perfectly cooked. The table thought this was the best entree, and most of them aren't fish lovers. It's like velvet with veggies around it. The leeks were delightfully crispy.
Scallop and Crab Fried Rice – there was a bit of a supplement to this versus the other fried rices, While the rice could have been a bit more moist or a bit more crispy (gotta pick an extreme for fried rice), there was oodles of crab in here (OODLES), and tiny little plump scallops that were neither bay nor sea, and I have no idea where they came from. Baby scallops? We need to kill more scallops in their infancy, it seems.
Go to this f'king place. With a group. You're welcome, ungrateful Yelpers.
Decoy is a dimly lit bar on the ground floor of Red Farm. Follow the neon signs down a flight of stairs and you are standing in a small room with a bar on the right and a long wooden table with about 20 chairs on the left.
The bar wasn't too crowded, and there were plenty of seats at the table. We were able to order our drinks fairly quickly at the bar and the waitress was also very attentive.
I had the El Lucador, which had a combination of tequila, grapefruit, and lime. It was really refreshing and I really enjoyed drinking it.
It was a very nice place to have a conversation and hang out for a little bit. Towards the end it started to get more crowded and louder, so we high tailed it out of there and went home.
I have heard that Decoy does a Peking Duck special that you have to reserve in advance. I will definitely have to come back for that.
This place is the absolute bomb!!
Make a reservation ahead of time since it's a small space and they have limited ducks every night. We went with a party of 2 for the peking duck prix fixe menu, which comes with a whole peking duck of course in addition to 2 small plates of your choice, either a rice or side dish, and several amuse-bouches.
The dishes come fast and furious soon after you order and we were struggling to both enjoy the awesome fishes and also clear the table for the next set of dishes (a good thing).
They started us off with 4 amuse-bouches, a plate of crispy fish skin in addition to small cups of cauliflower, butternut squash, and mango appetizers. Each of the amuses were prepared a different way and packed with flavor. The kimchi flavored cauliflower was my personal favorite but everything was wonderful.
For our small plates, we chose the grilled wagyu beef slices and oxtail dumplings. As it turns out, both were delectable and perhaps the best 2 dishes of the night. The wagyu beef is packed with flavor and was my personal favorite dish of the night. It is extraordinary both by itself and paired with the kimchi veggies on the side. The oxtail dumplings come fried and essentially filled with flavorful oxtail meat. There is a generous portion of sauce that comes with it.
We chose the scallop and crab fried rice as our side dish and it was probably my least favorite of the night. While there was a ton of scallops and crab in the fried rice dish, it did lack some seasoning. If there was more salt and pepper, I think it would have had a lot of potential.
The main course was of course the peking duck. It comes with 10 pancakes, plenty of garnish and 3 different sauces – the standard hoisin, a cranberry sauce and a peanut sauce. The duck itself was perfectly cooked and the skin – OH MY, THE SKIN – was the best part. Crispy, oily, flavorful, it was everything that I love when eating duck skin. Needless to say, we devoured every last piece of meat on our plate. It was as good as any peking duck I've had in the country and I've had a lot of peking duck in my time. And it wasn't even the best dish I had during the meal, that says a lot.
Overall, the meal is well worth the money and while the peking duck was a good as advertised, it was everything else that really makes Decoy stand above its peers. The peking duck is as good as I've had outside of China, but the other dishes are what make this place special.
With Valentine's Day being on a Sunday this year, a Peking duck dinner at Decoy seemed like the perfect fit. The restaurant space is small and narrow with a rustic cozy feeling. Unfortunately, it was freezing (below 20 degrees Fahrenheit), so the door opening and closing throughout our meal sent shivers down our spines!
We each ordered the Smoke N Spice cocktail which ended up being way too spicy and flavorful for this type of meal. They start you off with tasty assorted pickles & cold veggies + Decoy chips (crispy fish skins?) with a black garlic dip.
The Peking Duck dinner is served with duck consommé shots, 10 pancakes, and 3 sauces. In addition, we were told to choose two small appetizers and one fried rice. We opted for the Katz's Pastrami Triangles (a less tasty version of RedFarm's egg rolls) and the Oxtail Dumplings (great choice). The fried rice was pretty bland and could've had more meat in it.. this dish was basically left untouched.
And of course, we each ordered a glass of the Decoy Red Blend wine (heaven to one's palette) to pair with our Decoy Peking Duck. The platter of Peking Duck was beautifully engrossed with layers of meat, crispy skin, and duck legs. Duck meat, crispy skin, some fresh veggies, and cranberry sauce all wrapped in a thin pancake = pure awesomeness. For dessert, we shared the mango pudding (it was a verbal dessert menu, so I can't remember the exact name). Our meal at Decoy may have exceeded our expectations – we both really enjoyed it!