Peking Duck House
“The house fried rice, chinese vegetables, cha choy (upon request, not on menu), scallions in mala sauce and the lobster are all delicious.”
“The duck is served with a hoisin sauce, a bowl of green onions and cucumbers, and wraps (not bao).”
“Grand Marnier Prawns and Crispy Sea Bass are really good.”
Peking Duck House
Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$$ Price range $31-60
8 reviews
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I'm a big fan of Peking Duck so of course I had to have some for Chinese New Year. The place is clean inside and decently nice, though it doesn't have a lot of character really. I've been told it's kind of what a nice place in China was like in the 80s. There was weirdly a lot of old white people in here on this night too which I found funny.
Anyway, we got the duck of course and it was decent. It wasn't the best Peking Duck I've ever had, but it also didn't suck. The service was professional too and no complains. The price point was too high though you have to consider where you are in NYC.
If you're in the area and don't want to travel much AND want some Peking Duck, check it out. If you can travel though, there's better duck in other areas.
A very solid 4 stars.
Overall: The duck is good (we've had better duck in our lifetime) but this is a place that I wouldn't hesitate recommending if you're having a hankering for duck. As a plus, the service was stellar; all the waiters were kind and attentive and our water cups were never empty.
The long story: Went on a Thursday night around 7PM and the two of us were seated immediately (place wasn't very crowded). We knew about the Peking Duck House in Chinatown, but went to the Midtown location since Yelpers said it drew less of a crowd.
Food:
Ordered the Peking Duck and Sauted Chinese Vegetable (we asked what this vague, generic vegetable was and at least for that night it was Chinese broccoli)
Peking Duck: the 'chef' comes out and carves the duck in front of you (like the other reviewers say, they leave a lot of meat on the bird when they take it away =( but what can you do). The duck is served with a hoisin sauce, a bowl of green onions and cucumbers, and wraps (not bao). The servers actually make the wraps for you and they offer to make every wrap for you (we saw one table taking advantage of this), but we enjoyed making our own and playing with the proportions. The duck skin was crispy and fatty but the meat on its own wasn't anything special or spectacular – but through the magical power of synergy the resulting wraps with all the fixin's did end up being pretty delicious and the whole thing was more than enough to satiate two people.
Sauteed Chinese broccoli: it was…sautéed Chinese broccoli. Though it came with lots of garlic chunks it was bland and extremely oily. Definitely not worth the 20$ price tag.
Pro:
-AMAZING duck. Best duck i've had anywhere outside of Beijing and rivals Vancouver Canada quality.
-Good service. clean, efficient, i don't except a michelin star experience here so not a problem
Con:
– A touch expensive.. $55 or so for a duck is expensive, but it's worth it for the food quality
We had 12 bottles of wine with a table of 9.. corkage was $10 per bottle, but a few off bottles they didn't charge for.
We got 3 ducks and ended up with a big plate of duck leg and bones..
Pro Tip: REQUEST that they give you the rest of the duck. there are lots of meat on the bone and the legs are delish with the sauce!
Great place. can't wait to come back.
This place is definitely worth paying the visit!
Contrary to the popular belief that bad service is inherent within Chinese restaurants, this place gets a five star in my book if I were rating on services alone. If you are one of those people who think it is awfully wrong that New York Athletic Club lets beautiful young women wait on their customers, you would find this place more than charming! All the waiters look experienced in the restaurant sector, they are all well dressed and speak fluent English – something you might not be able to find in Chinatown (except maybe in their Chinatown location).
Being from Beijing, I can say for sure this place definitely won't stand out against its Chinese competitors – there is too much fat underneath the duck skin, the pancakes and duck slices aren't thin enough, the cucumbers you use are sliced thicker than you normally would encounter in a Beijing shop. HOWEVER, this was by far the authentic duck I've had in the US.
DUCK:
The duck was served how you would expect it to be served in Beijing – the chef comes out and carves it right in front of you and plates them slice by slice. The duck we ordered came out as an entire plate of meat.
I read about how they don't offer to make a dish with the remaining duck anymore, and I'm not a talented soup maker like my mom, so we asked for the duck legs. The waiter later brought us another plate of carvings – mostly bones and legs. I was very happy.
EGGPLANT:
The eggplant in garlic sauce was not nearly as good as I had anticipated and looked different from what I had seen in pictures…YOLO
TL;DR: Worth the try. Ask for duck legs for extra meat. Stay away from the eggplant dish – too greasy.
Warning: if you're a party of two, don't order more than the duck and two bowls of soup or something small. We definitely had lots of leftovers (not complaining)!
Awesome!!! What is not to love?! Greasy crispy duck meat wrapped in pancake?! I mean, come on!!
The meal was gigantic, we had a party of 11, bought 2 ducks, 7 side dishes and appetizers.
Before the duck comes, you get a soup of your choice, sweet and sour, egg drop, or duck (that's what I had, it was too boney-clearly leftovers duck, didn't like it much). Then you have a spring roll and beef on skewer, these were amazing! Then out of nowhere you get a shrimp dumpling. Haha
Then the show is on, the chef slices the ducks in front of you and his team nicely preps pancakes for your table. I wish they could leave the duck on the table at the end of the meal, I am sure we can scavenge a lot more from the bird… Or at least take it home and make an extra meal out of it.
Then we had all these side dishes, it was good, a little too greasy and oily and fried and heavy for me. I would rather have greasy duck meat than deep fried chicken something.
Dessert is a fruit platter, orange slices and fortune cookies. Sweet! -who doesn't love fortune cookies?!-
Overall, the staff was very professional and on spot, I loved the duck, the side dishes weren't as interesting.
$53 duck… I giggled when the waiter said he would give me extra taco wrappings as a courtesy… Haha that's cute to call it a taco wrapping… Duck comes out… Looks sooo good… I'm reaching for a wrap, Oh my god it was not a joke, this was straight up Mission tortilla wraps from the grocery store… Duck was so good but seriously couldn't enjoy it bc the wrap smelled and tasted just like Mexican tortilla wrap (firmer, thicker) and not like the thin chinese pancake it was supposed to be… The other dishes were not good either… yet so pricey… Two stars for this place bc the duck itself was great and not fatty… But everything else was muy horribles.
I really like this Peking Duck House better than the Chinatown location. It seems to be less busy than its downtown counterpart. Food is just as good. The Peking duck is very good and just a pet peeve, though … they didn't leave the drumsticks with the table, which they usually do. So you might want to ask if you like these extra tidbits as they always prep this dish table-side.
Outstanding dishes included the Orange flavored beef (great texture, probably dredged in rice flour before frying?), spicy chicken with peanuts and a shrimp dish (very large shrimp). We also had Chinese broccoli, house special lo mein,, pork fried rice, dumplings, shrimp toast, cold noodles with sesame sauce, and a lobster/scallops dish (which was just a little too gritty for me). All in all, a good meal in a good setting.
Had our Thanksgiving dinner here as our first choice (steak) was not available. No regrets at all. This place was packed but they managed to place us at what I thought was the best seat in the house – at the front table next to the window. This was more of like a private room as there was another party of about 8. We were 5.
Our Server was very accommodating and thoughtful and took his time to educate us on the menu and selection. It was obvious we wanted duck. He made suggestions that were fitting to our needs and appetite. Although we had other appetizers and side dishes, my review will be on the main dish.
We had their famous Peking duck which was served with a small rice roll and house sauce (hoisin) and scallions. I have to admit, I've had some darn good Peking duck many times but theirs takes the cake.
The duck was brought out whole on a platter by another staff/cook who prepared the duck slicing the meat thinly until nothing was left. The meat was cooked perfectly and was very juicy. It was soft and tender and flavored well. The skin was thin and crispy as it should be and not fatty. This is Peking duck. The duck was paired with a nice white wine enhancing the duck meat even more.
We had the right amount of food thanks to our Server who could easily have scammed us into over ordering. The atmosphere can be a bit loud, but in my opinion, that's a sign of everyone having a good time and enjoying their food. I highly recommend this place.