iDen & Quanjude — Restaurant in New York

It has potential, but I won’t be checking back in anytime soon. I give two star for how hard the staff works.

Our friend learned the opening of this famous Pecking Duck house by walked by one day, made the reservation under the excitement. As a Michelin star restaurant franchise, we have very high expectations going into the dinner, with the rich history behind, we thought for sure Quanjude can deliver, but oh boy how we were wrong.

I arrived early than the rest of my group, wanted to have a drink at the bar before seated. While I sit at the bar I could already sense how chaotic the restaurant is, clearly under staffed, not a clear define roll between the workers, and all operate under the sense of “what can I do to help?”

I stated I wanted a drink before my group shows up, yet was given food menu after I sat at the bar dry for a good 5 minutes. Had to ask specifically for wine list and cocktail menu and the waiter had to go into the restaurant floor to fetch that seems to be the only cocktail menu for me. Bar tender was absolutely lovely, from him I learned the restaurant is under soft opening, they had a private event upstair that night, so the kitchen was already behind.

We carried some of the weight off the staffs, we pre-order two ducks (this will come into play later), looked up the menu online before they were brought to our table, so we have questions about the menu already, order drink and food all together so we avoid that orchestrated dance of fine dining. But still throughout the night, it was a very slow operation with at least 30 minutes of gap between everything, from the water, show us the menu, take our order, and each and every courses, we ate the embellishment meant for the duck by itself before the duck came out because the wait time was just too long between all the actions. There are tables sat down before us, were still there when we left, and we were there for 3+ hours for a simple 3 course dinner.

We didn’t order a lot of the food, against the advice of our waiter, but the food portion was surprisingly small. Our waiter advised the food portion is big enough to share between 3-4 person, but honestly it is more of a single serving portion than family style share dishes. The dish was so small to the point when the duck was brought to our table, we fully assume that’s the portion of our two pre-ordered ducks combined. Not until later when the night was dragging too long and we asked for the check, our waiter was surprised and went “Have you had your second duck brought out already?!” And they quickly brought it out when we asked to cancel.

The service was also obviously rushed, we order a bottle of the wine, the waiter only checked on us to fill the glass once, when most of the glasses were empty for a while due to the wait time, the wine were spilled because of the rushing services, we ended just grab the wine from the ice bucket in stead of waiting for the waiter. The bathroom has water spill over the vanity and no napkins for the guests, meaning it hasn’t been tiddy up thought out the night. We had to ask basic things like new plates to be brought out or table to be cleaned.

I sympathize towards the staffs, you can tell they are trying their best under the difficult circumstances. The food is excellent, but the food itself cannot carry the restaurant. Fine dining at the prestige price level Quanjede is trying to demand, is a show and experience, not just the food. There are plenty of restaurants around would offer way better dining experience and price than the night we had. If Quanjede does not want to repeat the mistake made by Da Dong, they have some serious...

I rarely write reviews but I cannot recommend this restaurant to anyone that is trying to do a dinner that takes

Really wish I could’ve liked it. I’ve been to their other locations and this one pales in comparison by A LOT. Not only was the jellyfish incredibly tough when typically it’s meant to be crispy with some chew, but the duck had a sour off scent to it and worst of all— it was soggy. To make matters worse, our pancakes that are meant to come with the duck (typically at most Peking duck spots the sauces come with the pancake first, then the duck to make sure the duck is enjoyed while hot before the oil sinks in) ended up making their guest appearance 15 minutes later. Nice. I got to eat cold duck with leather jellyfish, and had to deal with a kitchen that apparently can’t seem to properly time when they steam the pancakes and when they serve the duck. This seemed to only happen at my table, yet it’s still ridiculous for such a respected brand to host such odd service for table side duck, and poorly sourced jellyfish. If this experience was at any other restaurant, I would’ve honestly been fine with it…. Disappointed sure but not upset. I came with expectations from eating at their Vancouver location, and I guess I was.. wrong for that?

Also, the design just seems off. I’m sorry but the interiors seem like… off puttingly fancy? Gaudy almost? It was a confusing concept.

Luckily, they were kind enough to comp the duck or well they said they would, then they gave us the bill with the duck still on it, and then the they comped...