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| - My parents brought me here for my birthday dinner. My dad made the reservation almost a month in advance, so he got to pretty much pick whatever time he wanted. The restaurant is very nicely decorated, spacious and clean. Definitely feels a lot more upscale than the average Chinese restaurant. There were a lot of waiters around, and they were much more attentive, so I thought service was definitely better.
We order the deluxe duck, which the chef cuts and plates into a pretty flower in front of your table. The duck was very yummy, we each got our individual sauce and green onions (usually it's just a shared plate), and apparently the cucumbers were organic. However, was the taste worth 3x the price of other peking duck places? I don't think so... So my conclusion is that you are really just paying that price for the brand of this restaurant and the "experience" of seeing it plated nicely into a flower. When the waiter served our duck, he didn't say much. However, there was a big table nearby who seemed to know the manager, and they specifically asked the manager to give a speech when they got heir duck. The manager gave a very nice history of the restaurant, a lot more details about the duck, how they cook and cut it and how they plate it. That was actually very interesting. I wish this was offered to every customer who ordered the duck.
We order a few other items. I thought the other dishes were actually quite good, and noticeably better than other restaurants. The price were still slightly higher than average, but I thought the other dishes were more reasonable given the better quality.
Overall, if I had $$ laying around, I would probably come here over other peking duck restaurants. However, I don't, so if I really wanted peking duck, I would probably choose another restaurant that has much better value.
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