MEIZHOU DONGPO RESTAURANT Arcadia — Restaurant in Arcadia

Meizhou Dongpo restaurant is one of my favorite restaurants for spicy Sichuan food while I was working in Beijing. Named after one of the oldest area in Sichuan province, the restaurant serves family style Sichuan food. I’ve always seen long lines in front of their restaurants. I remember they opened their first restaurant when I was sent to Beijing to work there in 1996.

The food they served were excellent at the time when Sichuan food was ranked very low in Beijing due to its homey style of cooking. In early days, Beijing people don’t eat too spicy food. Over time, Meizhou Dong po adopted less spicy cooking and became one of the most popular restaurants in Beijing. They were the first restaurant implemented ISO 9000 quality management in the restaurant business to manage their 12 restaurants and 7,000 employees.

The Arcadia location is a new addition which opened its door few years ago in the Arcadia mall. The restaurants in North America deployed plush interior design catering high end clientele. While majority of dinings are done in the open area, the restaurant also offers many private rooms to add prestige in dining entertainment.

In addition to the traditional Sichuan dishes on the menu, the restaurant added Peking duck dish which became their anchored dish for the restaurant.

For our lunch today, we ordered half a Peking Duck for two of us and a popular Mapo tofu as well as a Dan Dan noodle dish.

The duck was excellently roasted with crispy skins. This dish very much matched the Peking duck flavor and texture I had in Beijing. Although the tofu and the Dan Dan noodle were very authentic, they were too spicy for me. I don’t remember having such a spicy flavor for these dishes back in their Beijing restaurants.

Overall, the food are good especially the Peking duck. The prices are definitely on the high side for...

Quick Summary I really wanted to like this place, but was ultimately disappointed. Decent but not good food. Service felt understaffed. And all this with paying a premium rate. Definitely many better alternatives, but they do offer plenty of outdoor seating (which is a plus during the pandemic)

Food- 2 stars Roasted duck- this was pretty typical of all other Peking duck places that specialize in this. The wraps were done well, the duck slices were sliced thin, and plenty of condiments. We ordered 3 ways with it, which came with duck soup and roasted duck bone with spiced salt. These 2 side dishes were just okay. We should've stopped here, because it went downhill

Serrano pepper beef- this was okay. on the spicier end, but you're basically paying for a savory, spicy bulgolgi for $23.

Classic dongpo pork- this was pretty good, but each serving is basically for 1 person

wok fried spicy pot- this was excessively salty. wouldn't recommend

hot chili oil poached sole fillet- I was impressed by the texture of the sole fillet. This was on the spicy Sichuan numbing side. It was decent

Service- 3 stars They felt understaffed as we felt like we had to chase down our waiters. Also the timing was off, as they almost forgot our roasted duck and it arrived towards the end of the meal

Parking There's plenty of lot and street parking

Bottom Line For paying a premium on their food, was very surprised that the food and service did not meet expectations. There's many more better alternatives, but this location has the benefit of outdoor dining during...

Overall, the food was delicious and good service. This was my second time here and I will be back for more. We ordered the Mapo Tofu, Pea Sprouts, Eggplant appetizer, and Half Roast Duck. The Mapo Tofu had good flavor, although be warned, it is quite spicy. Pea sprouts were simple, yet very tasty, they had a nice, light flavor and were slightly crunchy. The eggplant was probably my favorite- very delicious, slightly spicy. Some pieces were tender and absorbed with sauce while others were slightly less cooked but still perfectly tasty, so you could taste the umami eggplant flavor. Half roast duck was also delicious- came with spring onions and cucumbers that added a fresh touch to the richness of the duck and the salty sauce. Service was good as well, nothing extremely special, but the servers were polite and attentive. The atmosphere is nice. It is a big, spacious room. The restaurant is perfect for any occasion- catching up with friends, date night, business dinner, or casual get together. The only thing is the price is a bit steep, but portions...