Da Dong Roast Duck in Beijing 大董烤鸭

I was in Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai for work recently, and managed to take a few days off to tour Beijing at the end. Having previously gone to Da Dong for work-related meals during which photo-taking would have been extrememly inappropriate, I was very pleased to have finally gone there on leisure which meant that I could take all the photos I wanted to my heart's content. Of course it meant that I also had to pay for my own meals :(

There are 3 Da Dong branches in Beijing, but I've only been to the 2 older ones. This one's the one at Dongsishitiao - it's housed in Nanxincang, which is a restored precinct (I suppose the term 'conserved' wouldn't apply since it's probably entirely reconstructed).

You have to walk past the older single-storey buildings to get to the new glass curtain wall tower at the rear.

The menu is super huge, heavy and has so many things in it there's even a contents page.

Of course we had to have the roast duck.

That's my duck hanging around somewhere in there.

We ordered the 口水鸡，named after its ability to induce a lot of salivation in hungry diners.

The 口水鸡 did not disappoint! The blend of sesame sauce and chilli oil was just perfect.

We also had scallops with XO sauce. These were good too. The scallops were fresh and solid, and the XO sauce was sufficiently spicy without being too salty. Plus I thought the hydrangeas were a very pretty touch.
This is the 招牌菜, or signature dish - Chef Dong's braised sea cucumber. This was amazingly small for the amazingly high price. I didn't think it was worth the money though - the sauce was too salty, and had a tad too many spices which complicated the entire taste.

We knew the roast duck was on its way when they brought out the condiments. The most important one was the sugar granules, meant for dipping the duck skin in.

Our duck being carved by the master.

The skin's the best part!

There wasn't much left of the duck after it was deboned : ( But the skin was oh-so-amazingly-crisp...one bite and we were left melting in our seats. There really wasn't enough skin to satisfy us.

In addition to the flour skins, they also serve 烧饼, or little biscuit-like things to eat the roast duck with. I thought the duck went better with the crunchy shao bing.

We also had jellyfish with garlic, sesame oil and a touch of vinegar. This was nice and crunchy.

Da Dong also gives fruits and a choice of one dessert per person gratis - either an almond cream with papaya, or sesame cream. Both are pretty decent too. This meal cost us around RMB 600-odd (including tea and beer), which translated into just over S$120. The main culprit was the braised sea cucumber, which cost about RMB 200-odd for a 70g piece. Comparing Da Dong with Quanjude, although it's more expensive, I think Da Dong's better value for money in terms of the quality of food and the ambience. Not only is their roast duck one of the best in Beijing, the rest of the other dishes were also pretty well done.

5th floor Jinbaohui Shopping Centre

No. 88 Jinbao Street, Dongcheng District

Tel: 86-10-85221111

No. 3 Tuanjiehu Beikou (South-east of Changhong Bridge)

Chaoyang District (nearest Subway station: Tuanjiehu Station)

Tel: 86-10-65822892

No. 22 Dongsishitiao at Nanxincang

Dongcheng District (nearest Subway station: Dongsishitiao Station)

Tel: 86-10-51690328