Beijing Da Dong — Restaurant in Beijing

Da Dong is to duck what Lucas-Carton in Paris is to Nouvelle Cuisine: the epitome of how to prepare, cook and serve duck in a magnificent way.

The restaurant decor is a modern take on the 70s. It's a big place, with a very large common room and like so many big restaurants in Beijing, lots of small private rooms you can book for the evening with a minimum order guarantee. The restaurant is well lit and very clean. I can't say the same of many local restaurants. You access it by an elevator, just like you access the famous Tour d'Argent in Paris by an elevator. The reception girls lead you to your seat very quickly, no wait.

The feat starts with the menu: the photos of the dishes are absolutely impressive. Each dish is a composition like a painting. Extremely creative. It reminded me of a ryokan I stayed at in Kyoto, where each dish was created like a landscape. Absolutely stunning. Da Dong puts the same level of effort in their presentation, it's gorgeous.

My date and I ordered ... duck (what else?) accommodated in several manners. At Da Dong, you pick the duck you will eat from those that hang next to the oven. It's a ritual: pick your entire duck, and this specific duck will be cooked only for you.

Each dish was a discovery of how duck can taste so differently depending on spices and cooking style. French and Chinese chefs prepare duck in a very different way. Whereas in the French culinary tradition a magret (filet) will be pink inside and a confit will be as melting under the tongue as well-cooked pulled pork, Chinese cuisine prepares duck well done but tender. This is the case of Imperial duck and roasted duck dishes. Certain dishes are so roasted, they crack under your teeth.

In the Imperial style of cuisine, skin is served apart from the meat. You wrap it in a small rice flour galette together with Chinese onions, and dip this "soft taco" in a deep brown slightly sweet soja sauce. To die for.

A specialist slices the meat of the Imperial duck before your eyes on a tray table, and serves you the various parts of the duck in stages. It's a long ceremony dedicated to celebrating the many tastes of duck.

Da Dong has an impressive wine list which includes many French wines but also New World wines from Argentina and Chili. My date and I weren't into wines, so we had a high-class tea to accompany the meal.

Prices are commensurate with the experience, though relatively reasonable compared with fares in 5-star restaurants in other large cities.

Da Dong is a feast for the eye, the nose and the palate. It is a very specialized slice of an incredibly rich Chinese culinary tradition. If you never tried duck, don't go to a cheap duck place; go to Da Dong. If you are a duck connoisseur, go to Da Dong too. You will...

Terrible service!!! We were ushered in by a disinterested waitress. Our table wasn't laid out. This was one of the top things we were looking forward to in Beijing. We were given the menus, we were deciding what to order for drink, appetizers and of course the duck. The waitress comes to us and asked us what duck do you want? We figured duck would take time to roast so we were being asked to order that before hand. We ordered the duck and were looking through the menu to order appetizers and drinks. Voila 5 mins later I noticed a movement behind me and the guy had started carving our roasted duck. We were at first confused since our drink orders were not taken and no one asked if we wanted to order anything else. We told the waitress that she hadn't taken our complete order. Her response was you wanted duck right? At that point we were too pissed to order anything else, we ate what was in front of us, paid for it and left. I won't comment on the food because it does not matter after being treated like this. We are tourists and new to China, we have eaten at a lot of local places during our visit. This is the first time I have seen such a terrible service, in fact this takes the top spot of being the worst restaurant experiences ever!!!...

We were recommended this place for Peking Duck by a colleague of my husband. And yes the duck was very good, while the rest of the dishes were ok. The presentation of some of the dishes was ugly and nothing like the pictures. When we arrived, we were given a private table, much too large for 4 people. Very cold and dark athmosphere. Only my husband received a menu, which was this 50 page long completely unorganized picture book. There are no suggestions which dishes go together, and in which order to eat them. If you market yourself as an upscale Michelin place, this is not good. Service was terrible, the worst we experienced in 10 days in China. After 20 minutes of complete non-communication a sour lady with some English skills arrived. She was so annoyed that we needed help with the menu. In the end we had to go with some vanilla options, and the duck of course. This place is a waste of time. I feel sorry...