Duck Pier 春江晚景 — Restaurant in Melbourne

We had lunch at Duck Pier yesterday This place is new , and has had a major interior refit . Much more modern and upmarket than the old Shanghai 1930 it has replaced. The food here is fantastic!! We love asian food , especially Chinese and this was a really great treat for our taste buds...The Char Sui Sou 'roast pork puff pastry ' is the finest we have ever had...so delicate and full of flavor. The vegetable spiring rolls were good , and the sizzling pepper beef and vegetarian fried rice were both fantastic. The Wine list is very limited with only 2 reds available by the glass and if the owners read this please place beer glasses in the fridge . If I'm paying $10 a beer at a local restaurant I expect cold beer glasses to go with it... However, the real let down is the service. They do try , and are helpful, but most staff aren't fluent in English, so some communication can be lost in translation....fix a few things and it's a 5 star local worth visiting.... Went for lunch today for our 2nd visit here...Again I must say the food is fantastic. Wonderful Mongolian beef and really good lemon chicken (and yes it's made from breast meat , not any other rubbish like some others use) They also now have COLD beer glasses as promised. The seafood in the tanks look really fresh too.... The service however really needs to pick up , and I mean in a hurry !! When the manager (who spoke with us a few times) and one other waiter was looking after things it was good. The rest of the staff are suffering from mass confusion and I believe inexperience. They did ask our opinion, and they know how we feel but this needs to be addressed asap... 3rd visit today for lunch. Spoke with the manager (Tim) ,and very happy with the level of communication. The service has definitely improved...all of our drinks were poured , the staff listened to all our needs, food was fantastic as always and they even opened the door for us when we left!! Very, very happy with the service today . Ate here again last Friday and the new lady in charge (Fiona) has got the place running well. Her English is very good , and finally the rice came together with our mains instead of 15 minutes...

Duck Pier Review on 31/1/2024

Our friends invited a few fellow residents for this exquisite lunch as a token of appreciaion for helping them to settle at the Village. They play hosts and book the VIP room.

Upon entering the front door, the interior is stunningly red. The dining area is not in a regular shape, however, the seating is well spaced.

The VIP room is more like cylindrical shape, painted red, with light fittings resembled inverted umbrellas. The strong colour is too daunting, and the large round table that occupies a lot of floor space, may lead one feeling claustrophobic.

Many dishes are of Shanghainese style, but it also has Cantonese dishes as well.

Although Peking Duck is supposedly what the restaurant is famous for, our hosts choose some more expensive seafood dishes, including lobster, scallop, whole barramundi, abalone, sea cucumber.

The presentation of some dishes on appropriate crockery is much better than many other Chinese restaurants'.

While red is a colour for good luck, happiness and prosperity, over use of it has an opposite psychological impact on the customers.

I can see a couple of things can be improved to make this restaurant more visible to drive-pass potential customers, and give a better ambience.

It is still a very good...

Come to experience Chinese cuisine that is cooked from the heart. Don't let the unassuming exterior fool you. kudos to the chef.

The spacing of tables were generous and shows how the owners treasure their customers comfort while enjoying their food.

We started with 2 cold dishes, first being a vinaigrette jelly fish and second is a spicy buckwheat noodles. Both were excellent, jelly fish is nice and chewy and the noodles were silky smooth. Really appetizing.

The Shanghai style braised pork belly not only melt in your mouth, the balance of flavor showcases what good stewed pork belly should taste like.

Deep fried seafood, especially prawns, often gets overcooked and becomes rubbery. Not in this joint. Salted egg butter prawns were cooked perfectly with the right amount of batter to coat the prawns instead of overpowering it with batter. The deep fried Murray cod came in an interesting squirrel shape and though battered, were not heavy and were delicious.

Finally the dessert, a sweet fermented glutinous rice wine balls finished off the meal perfectly. Was too busy eating and forgot to take photo of the dessert. But will be...