Peking Duck

[arice]

hi,

my mom is coming to town. it's her birthday and i want to treat her to a nice meal. she wants peking duck. i know of sang kee. i was hoping for a place with a little more atmosphere but if that's the best place for it, we'll go. can anyone recommend another place or back up sang kee as the best place in town for peking duck? i would like to stay in the city for dinner.

thanks all!

allison

[philadining]

I think I know what you mean, something a little more upscale for a birthday dinner but with good Peking Duck, and... I can't think of anything downtown.

We've been enjoying the Peking Duck at Ken's Seafood and at Xiao Guan Garden in Chinatown, but those places are no fancier than Sang Kee, maybe even less.

Sang Kee made a disappointing showing several months ago when we did a head-to-head Peking Duck tasting, eating three in a row at Sang Kee, XG and Ken's, but we had it again more recently and Sang Kee's was very good, so I think that earlier duck was a fluke. Sang Kee serves two courses, first the crispy skin in thin pancakes, then the duck meat stir-fried with random vegetables. The other two I mentioned do just one course: the crispy skin has much more meat left on it, and they use puffy steamed buns rather than thin pancakes. Both are good, but some might quibble that the latter isn't really the traditional Peking Duck service.

There's really not that much fancy Chinese downtown. There's obviously Susanna Foo, but they don't serve Peking Duck, at least not on the regular menu.

There's the new Joe's Peking Duck down on Chestnut near Front St, but again, not all that fancy. The menu's a little crazy, but the man can cook a duck.

Around the corner at Pagoda, they make good Peking Duck (some of the folks there were formerly at Sang Kee, so it's similar) but again, not especially fancy.

Out in the 'burbs, Margaret Kuo's restaurants are usually fairly spiffy, and they consider Peking Duck a specialty. I remember liking it there, but it's been a long time.

I don't think that helped you...

[rlibkind]

... that earlier duck was a fluke.

←

No, No, No! A duck is a fowl! A fluke is a fish!

[philadining]

Ahhh... that would explain why it seemed odd...

[arice]

phila... thanks so much for the info. perhaps we'll try joe poon's place. we did margaret kuo's years ago. it was quite nice! personally, i'd like to try and sway her to something that would allow me more options but this is what mom wants.

[philadining]

If you go to Joe Poon, just beware - indeed you'll have lots of options, but some of them might be pretty weird...

[percyn]

Susana Foo's gourmet kitchen in Radnor serves a dish called SUSANNA’S CLASSIC CRISPY DUCK, not sure how close to Peking duck it is but we were told the kitchen could make any special requests in called in advance. They have a decent ambience amidst a corporate building setting.

Clicky Clicky.

Edited March 29, 2009 by percyn (log)