TungLok Xihe Peking Duck

Sometimes you just got to have duck.
And with duck in the name, this seemed like a perfect choice.
The duck was succulent, carved by the staff and served with pancakes and a bunch of condiments.
It is a good idea to book so that your duck will be waiting for you and that way you can avoid the long wait that others have experienced.
Price wise this duck will set you back but worth it.

Went for Sunday dinner a couple of weeks ago. Didn’t make reservations but our group of 5 was quickly seated. We ordered peking duck and we’re told it would take 50 minutes, which was OK with us because we weren’t that hungry yet. So we were pleasantly surprised when it arrived within 20 minutes. The duck was tasty with crispy skin that wasn’t too oily. It came with 3 kinds of sauces for different parts of the duck.
I loved the crispy salmon skin with salted egg too.

Weekday dinner and using the groupon promotions.
The portions were rather small, even after we got the medium size which was 1.5x the price of the normal menu items. Food quality is typical of slightly upmarket chinese
There were delays when we decided to order additional dishes. After some confusion it was discovered that there was communication breakdown and our orders were not taken down. Even after that, the last dish, deep fried custard buns, took a very long time before it was served.

First of all I like to say if I could give this establishment a minus 10 (yes –10) I damn well would. .
Arrived at the restaurant and was told that it would be a 45 to 50 mins wait. It’s the weekend and fair enough. Left my contact and was told they would call when the table is ready. Booked the whole roasted duck at this point too.
An hour into shopping, received the call just as my partner and me were taking a slow walk back to the restaurant. Took us 5 mins (A VERY IMPORTANT POINT –READ ON). Upon arrival, no one at front desk. It was only about 845pm. A wait staff noticed us and checked on our booking. Led us to the table. Small, but functional .
No offer of drink order, just led us to the table and left. I do understand that maybe the wait staff is located a different area of the restaurant to look after, thus maybe that’s why she didn’t take our drink order.
Fast forward. A wait staff came to take our order but she was seemly in a rush to just take the order and walk off. It was infact my partner that enquired about the choice of the remaining parts of the duck before she told us we did have a choice. Good thing we have been to other establishments that offered Peking style duck if not we wouldn’t have known to enquire.
Waited 30 mins, no duck. Enquired. Was told it would be another 20 mins. Told the staff we actually did a prior booking of the duck. She walked off and shortly after a floor manager came to us. HE SAID IT WAS BECAUSE WE WERE LATE TO ARRIVE AT THE RESTAURANT, thus they gave the duck to another table. Remember earlier I mentioned we took only 5 mins to get to the restaurant after receiving the call? No apology was ever given throughout the entire episode. Was told they would «jump» my queue and gave me the next duck available. Ok fine, mistakes do happen so I let it pass, besides 20 mins is fine with me.
Here comes the icing on the cake. Noticed one of the wait staff, walked to the kitchen entrance to inform the chief. He didn’t look happy. Then he came out WALKED PASS THE TABLE I WAS SITTING AND GLANCED AT MY PARTNER AND ME. I pretended not to see but from the glass reflection, I could see his head fixed on our direction as he walked. 5 mins later ANOTHER chief came out and he glanced our way. Wow is this supposed to be a threat?
Called the floor manager back and said I wish to have the bill. I would not sit there and take a threat this way.
All he could say was that the duck would take another 10 mins and offer no apology.
Insisted on the bill and he walked off to get it .
Take it from me. Over at paragon shopping mall, they have another establishment, WAY BETTER SERVICE STANDARDS AND THE DUCK IS GOOD.
Don’t take my word for it, give it a go.

Above average Chinese restaurant located on the 7^th floor of the ever confusing Orchard Central shopping mall. You have to visit Orchard Central to understand what I’m talking about. The restaurant is just a floor above HOM YOGA so you can walk in for a quick dinner after your hot yoga session.
Food was good. We ordered a whole peking duck and just like any restaurants in Beijing, the chef brought out the entire duck while he carved it in front of you like a true masterchef. We were presented with 3 portions — first, the crispy skin to eat with the sweet sauce and sugar, then the succulent duck meat to be wrapped with the pancake together with scallion, cucumber and sweet sauce. Very good. The waiter then asked us how do we want to cook the remaining of the duck and we chose to stir fried with ginger and onion. Simple and very flavorful.
Besides the duck, we ordered crispy salmon skin fried with salted egg yolk and another house specialty of fried noodles with crab meat in bamboo leaf. Man, everything taste divine with salted egg yolk even though my heart and arteries hate it. The salmon skin is addictive to say the least while the noodles is good, we could not finish it as the portion is huge (for 2 people).
Three main dishes together with a pot of jasmine tea, we pay $ 145. Lucky that my cousin is a member of the TungLok group of restaurants and have some money credit in his account, so after deducting, we pay less than $ 100 for the meal.