Peking Duck House

[weinoo]

Reliability in the restaurant biz. There’s something to be said about a restaurant that you can rely upon. Especially if that something you rely upon is a particular dish that you want to be good each and every time you order it. When I was working "the line" at a hot downtown restaurant back in the mid-90s, that was something that was drilled into my head by the chef/owner over and over. Make the dish the same way every time. That's what the customer comes back for - the same damn dish again and again.

In NYC’s Chinatown, there is just such a place. Strangely, or perhaps not so much, it’s eponymously named after its most famous dish, Peking Duck. Now, you have to understand; I eat in Chinatown – a lot. Most of it’s C and below level stuff, though I do have some faves (can you say Great NY Noodletown?). We live in Chinatown and I often get annoyed by Chinatown and its profusion of crappy restaurants using the cheapest raw materials they can find. But I love Peking Duck House.

Believe me when I say that Peking Duck isn’t one of those dishes that you can just “throw together” or “whip up” at home. It involves inflation of the duck's skin, scalding with boiling water, hanging, dripping, roasting, pancake making – basically, it's just too damn much work. This ain’t no 30-minute meal, if you get my drift.

So enter Peking Duck House. It has been in business for over 25 years at 28 Mott St. in NYC (there’s also a midtown location, to which I have not been), and I recently reacquainted myself with the place, after a long hiatus, when a friend wanted to go out for…guess what?

So off we went, 3 or 4 of us from my building. And all I can say is this place totally rocks - at least for the Peking Duck. I’m not responsible for the rest of your order. Remember, the whole of Chinatown is fairly mediocre; the whys of that are a subject for another post (lousy cooks, shitty ingredients – you be the judge).

The way the menu at Peking Duck House is set up, they try to trick you into ordering a lot more food, for a lot more money, than you really need. The “special house dinner,” or the “Peking Duck dinner” are just money grabbers, so do as I do. Order a whole Peking duck, a couple of apps – say pickled cabbage and mock dock made from tofu skin, a safe vegetable dish (forget about stuff like snow pea leaves – not gonna happen) and another stir fry and you’ll easily have enough food for 4 people. And it’ll end up a lot cheaper than the dinners they put together for you.

What emerges from the kitchen around 15 or 20 minutes later is a thing of beauty. All glistening, drippy, and mahogany. Of course they show it to you, and then a guy with really good cleaver skills expertly cuts the meat and skin off the bone, till all that’s left is the carcass. A few times I’ve ask for the carcass to go, and get some strange and annoyed looks, but that’s duck soup…and here’s our duck, all cut up and ready to go…

Then it’s all up to you, brushing your pancake with hoisin sauce, getting the right percentage of meat vs. skin, adding the scallion flourish, the rolling up of the package and taking that first bite of one of the still great dishes in Chinatown.

[Broken English]

Peking duck is, in my mind, the perfect dish. Unimprovable by man or Ferran. I'll have to check this place out next month.

[larrylee]

My wife introduce me to PDH many years ago and we've always enjoyed it. I'm glad to hear it is still doing well and feel like making a return trip. I also agree that ordering anything else besides the eponymous dish is not worthwhile.

[onrushpam]

OMG! Mouth watering!

I used to go with work colleagues to Beijing Gardens in Farmington, CT...

There were usually 4 of us. We'd get one duck, a cold sesame noodle app and a veg (usually baby bok choy). It was perfect for 4. One time, 2 others joined us and we knew our usual order wouldn't be enough for 6. So, we ordered double. UGH! We all ate so much we made ourselves sick. I haven't been there in years, but just Googled and they are still in business. Wish I could find a place for good Peking Duck down here in the Deep South!

[LPShanet]

First off, let me say that I love Peking duck. And I like Peking Duck House quite a lot. That said, I've always felt like there must be better Peking duck out there somewhere. Maybe in NYC, maybe not, but someone definitely must be taking it to the next level. There's absolutely nothing wrong with Peking Duck House's version at all. Very competent and tasty. But would love to hear if anyone out there is aware of a better one in these parts. I just know a genius somewhere could make the skin more perfectly crispy, the duck flesh even richer and more flavorful. The small improvements that take it from really good to spectacular. I'm not talking about changing the dish...more about optimizing it. Thoughts?

[patrickamory]

LPShanet: Mr. Chow's peking duck is superb. I'd say it's a step above PDH (which is fine in its own right) - probably the best I've had in Manhattan.

[weinoo]

LPShanet: Mr. Chow's peking duck is superb. I'd say it's a step above PDH (which is fine in its own right) - probably the best I've had in Manhattan.

Do you know what they get for it? Kinda hard to navigate their web site.

[Catherine Iino]

Used to love a place called "Duck Chang's" in Virginia, outside Washington. It's still there; I don't know whether it's any good nowadays. It sounds similar to Peking Duck House in that everything not Peking Duck-related looked godawful. But we would always get the Peking Duck, then a stir-fried duck and bean sprouts, then a really good duck soup. Does Peking Duck House do either of those dishes well?

[weinoo]

We have had one stir-fried dish that was actually pretty decent; not at all gloppy like these sometimes play out. It was shredded pork with sliced dried tofu and shredded hot peppers - it was actually quite spicy and not too dumbed down. Haven't tried any of the soups; the dumplings, which a friend insists on ordering every time we go, are horrendous.

[KennethT]

I usually like to go to Hsin Wong, around the corner from PDH. It's a typical Cantonese roast meat place/hole, but I like that they use fluffy buns rather than the pancakes, and after they slice the prime parts for the buns, they take the rest of the duck and turn it into a stir fry. Plus, it's really cheap - a whole duck (including the stir-fry second course) runs about $30 if memory serves.

[patrickamory]

LPShanet: Mr. Chow's peking duck is superb. I'd say it's a step above PDH (which is fine in its own right) - probably the best I've had in Manhattan.

Do you know what they get for it? Kinda hard to navigate their web site.

Not sure of the exact amount, but it's definitely expensive. I've never actually been handed a menu there - the meal is negotiated verbally with the waiter, and I usually put myself in his hands and say, "please make sure we get the Peking duck."

[ned]

I too think Mr. Chow uptown wins the NYC Peking duck race by a nose. . . but the costs financially and sartorially may even things out. I was at Peking Duck House last night and as Weinoo says in the opening post, the duck was exactly as delicious as it has been every other time I've been there over the years. My wife and I have become committed orderers of a dish we like to call A16. That's its number on the menu. It has all sorts of things, sort of a platter of semi-weird deliciousness. Jellyfish cut like noodles, julienned carrot, egg, cucumber some pork, scallions, wide slippery clearish noodles and a few other things I'm forgetting. It's all served cold to room temp. Highly recommended.

[LPShanet]

LPShanet: Mr. Chow's peking duck is superb. I'd say it's a step above PDH (which is fine in its own right) - probably the best I've had in Manhattan.

Do you know what they get for it? Kinda hard to navigate their web site.

Not sure of the exact amount, but it's definitely expensive. I've never actually been handed a menu there - the meal is negotiated verbally with the waiter, and I usually put myself in his hands and say, "please make sure we get the Peking duck."

Chinatown Brasserie also used to do a decent version, though I don't know that it's still up to snuff, as some of the original kitchen staff are no longer there. I wouldn't say there was a major separation from PDH in level, but on a good day, they did aspects of it very well. Not as pricey as Mr. Chow, but a notch higher than actual Chinatown.