Peking Duck House — Restaurant in New York

Today in NYC disappointment. We have been eating at Peking Duck House since it opened in 1978. It became famous as the favorite restaurant of foodie mayor Ed Koch, and as the only place in Manhattan where you could get Peking Duck without ordering the day before. It used to be upstairs in a dumpy space with cheap Formica tables. They would bring the duck to your table and carve it in front of you, and if you asked they would cut up the carcass and bring it to you on a tray so that you could get all of the meat left behind after the carving. You would wrap the duck in traditional rice and wheat pancakes and garnish with hoi sin sauce and thinly sliced cucumber and scallions. It was expensive but glorious. It was a go-to restaurant for celebrations and reunions and for bringing friends from out of town. Eating there was a core part of my childhood and adolescence.

About 25 years ago they moved next door to a street level space and they became a bit fancier. They shrunk the menu but, critically, they replaced the traditional pancakes with flour tortillas. This was a huge scandal, but the duck was still so good that I suppressed my disappointment and we continued to eat there. At some point they also stopped serving the cut up carcass in the restaurant, presumably because it was too messy for the now higher brow clientele (although you could still get the carcass for take out).

I haven’t been back for about ten years, and I will never go again. The signature meal is no longer obviously Peking duck. The skin is dull and not crispy, and the duck had almost no flavor. The hoi sin sauce was watered down. The scallions came in huge chunks of stem. And, of course, the pancakes remain Mexican tortillas. And they gave us very little duck. We also had laughably bad dumplings (the frozen ones from the grocery store are better), ordinary noodles, and an overly small lobster with weak sauce.

So after spending nearly $200, we walked across the street and got glorious take out dim sum from...

This is not what a Peking duck should look like. I just got back from Beijing where I tried authentic Peking duck and this was a cheap parody catered to unwitting NYC tourists. Previous comments have been made about how this is roast duck not Peking duck. I'll go a step further; this is a horrible disgrace and waste of a duck, an embarrassment to Chinese culture, and the true epitome of food that instagrams better than it tastes. If you're a 20-something looking for a cheap date with terrible service, cramped eating, but a hash tag or two to share and grab likes from like-minded friends who also would rather have a hash tag than a real meal, this place is for you. But don't bother posting pictures of your meal on social media with a Peking duck tag, because you'll be a laughing stock to your friends who realize you're uncultured and have no idea what Peking Duck really is. Seriously, there's a reason the duck must be inflated before cooking - it's to separate the skin from the meat, so the skin roasts properly and develops a characteristic crispy rind that melts in your mouth. The duck served here was hurried, and it was obvious from the preparation that no attempt whatsoever had been made to inflate the duck. A joke. Leave this place behind and try a...

I've been eating in this restaurant for nearly 20 yrs, with no complains up today. I got really surprised when order a Peking duck this afternoon. The situation started when I saw the chef preparing the duck and suddenly the waiter spoke in Chinese with him to avoid the 2 duck legs. I mean, not cut the legs to put on the plate. He probably did not know that I could understand Chinese, despite been an American. So he served the plate with out the 2 legs. In 20 + yrs eating duck in this place it was the 1st time I was served a P Duck with no legs. I did complaint right away ... and I said to the waiter that the legs were missing ... So the waiter went in to the kitchen, and with a bunch of laughs, in the kitchen, of him self and some other people he brought me 4 legs already half eaten. That was the biggest disrespect I ever got in a restaurant. Of course I order the check at the same moment ... I wish I could be a sanitation inspector to close that place right away. I don't know what was his intentions but the waiter definitely lost a customer for the restaurant. I will never eat in this place ever again ... and I recommend every body else not to as well ... watch out for left over...