Siji Minfu Restaurant 四季民福 - Dongcheng - Beijing, China

Beijing is a beautiful city. These photos were taken at Beihai Park within the Imperial City. 

Browsing through Wangfujing Snack Street was an interesting experience.

There are all kinds of wonderful and exotic things such as fried bugs, insects and star fish. Anything take your fancy?

You can even buy a packet of pre-packed Peking Duck to take home if your country's custom permits.

A trip to Beijing is not complete until you try at least one Peking Duck and by that I mean the real thing. A short walk from the markets and we arrived at our next dining destination.

Siji Minfu Restaurant is located in Dengshikou and is rated by many as having the best Peking Duck in Beijing. 

It’s busy and crowded with locals, foreigners and tourists. There were people waiting inside and outside. One takes a ticket and then waits for a table.

We expected to wait an hour but time ticked by and it approached two hours, then we lost track of time afterwards. Our hungry bellies were no longer as hungry as we got sick of waiting. But how could one leave after waiting so long already. We were awfully tired from the day tour but one must persevere for good food or so we hoped. 

They have an extensive menu but their specialty is the traditional Peking Duck. The menu is in English and Chinese which makes ordering relatively simple even though the waiters speak minimal English. All items are affordable and won’t break your wallet.

A complimentary serving of ‘Jujubes (Chinese Dates)’ arrives at the table first as an appetizer on a bed of dry ice. The fruit is crunchy and sweet. 

This restaurant offers a half size or full size duck. We opted for the 'Half Size Peking Duck (RMB 108.00)'.

The skin is glossy, thinner and crispier than Quanjude. I much preferred the texture of the duck here as there was no greasy or oily aftertaste. 

The plate of duck is placed on top of a candle heating element so the meat doesn’t go cold.

Paper thin ‘Pancakes (RMB 6.00)’ are steamed in a basket.

There is a variety of ‘Condiments (RMB 5.00)’ on offer such as ginger, garlic paste and sugar. 

The duck is curved table side and then a demonstration is given by the waiter on the technique used to wrap a pancake. 

A light and milky 'Duck Soup' is a nice palate cleaner.

‘Kung Pao Chicken (RMB 39.00)’ was unfortunately disappointing. A Sichuan spicy stir fry dish consisting of chicken, onions and peppercorns.  I found the sauce used overpowering and it just didn't have that wow factor. 

We also ordered a plate of ‘Poached Kai-lan (RMB 36.00)' as we were craving some greens.

While the food was decent and the duck was delicious, we found that the waiting time outweighed this and made the experience not so enjoyable. I recommend going before 6pm to avoid the nasty long waits or be prepared to wait a long time.

Where?

32 Dengshikou W St,

Dongcheng Qu

Beijing Shi

China 100006

Phone no: +86 10 6513 5141 

Opening Hours

7 Days a Week

10:30am – 10:30pm

Website

http://www.sjmfky.com/

Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant 全聚德 - Qianmen - Beijing, China

Continuing on with the China travel posts, we now move onto the city of Beijing. The city I have wanted to visit since I was a child.  Beijing is the capital city of China and a highly populated city behind Shanghai. It retains a lot of the old and ancient architecture whilst also combining the new and modern.

We stayed here for a total of five days.  Visiting the tourist sites was part of our agenda which included places such as the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven and The Great Wall of China to name a few. 

A city so rich in culture it’s fascinating to be able to witness this in a span of a week. Seeing the Great Wall of China was beyond my imagination. The sheer size and scale of it cannot just be observed in pictures. It’s part of the Seven Wonders of the World for a reason and if you haven’t been, do attempt to make a visit to this historical site. 

When one asks what to eat in Beijing, the answer would usually be along the lines of Peking duck. It originates from Beijing and is the one thing that must be eaten when one is in town. There are an abundance of restaurants to choose from and choosing one might be quite a challenge. From my research, these three places including ‘Da Dong Roast Duck Restaurant’, ‘Li Qun Roast Duck Restaurant’ and ‘Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant’ have rated highly on a number of lists.  

The Chinese people and even tourists are willing to queue for good food. If there is a queue at the front of a restaurant, that says a lot.

So on a wet and miserable night, we braved the rain and lined up for Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant.

There is the restaurant on one side and there is an express restaurant on the other which serves only the Peking Duck and side dishes. We joined the line for the express and waited for about 15 minutes before getting a table.

It’s one of the oldest establishments, having opened since 1864.  There are multiple branches across China with the original branch being located in Qianmen. With a history of over 150 years, it’s sure to be awesome right? Each duck is roasted in ovens fired by fruit tree wood which gives it a unique fragrance and taste.

It’s bright, noisy, loud and crowded inside. A casual restaurant that is by no means formal which is what we like. You get the local dining experience.

We queued up for the express restaurant. The menu is in both English and Chinese. The waiter could not speak English but we managed to point at what we wanted and got what we wanted despite the language barrier.

The ‘Pickled Cucumber’ is a cold side dish with hints of vinegar. I didn’t really like this as the sourness was too much for me but it’s a nice balance to the duck to be consumed later on.

We ordered the ‘Whole Peking Duck’. Each duck is carved near the table and one can observe the technique used to slice the thing layers of that crispy skin and meat. The waiter points at the duck carver and I quickly rush to catch a photo opportunity. 

Four generous plates of meat with skin arrive at the table. 

The skin is glistening, slightly fatty and crispy. One bite and the skin melted in the mouth. The meat is juicy and flavoursome. Oh so good!

A stack of paper thin pancakes that's not too doughy and just the right thickness. 

Shallots and hoisin sauce.

This is wrapped together inside the pancakes. 

They also provide a constant flow of duck soup, a refreshing contrast to the otherwise heavy meal. We probably needed a serving of vegetables to balance out the meatiness.

We enjoyed our first Peking Duck experience in Beijing. It met our expectations of what an authentic Peking Duck constitutes. I do recommend this restaurant if you are looking to have decent Peking Duck at reasonable prices.

Peking Duck restaurant number 2 post to follow shortly! The longest time we have ever waited for a restaurant. Was it worth it?

Where?

No.32 Qianmen East Street

Dongcheng District

Beijing

China

Opening Hours

7 Days a Week

11:00am – 1:30pm

4:30pm – 8:00pm

Website

http://www.quanjude.com.cn/

Imperial Treasure Chinese Restaurant - Hurstville - Sydney, Australia.

Imperial Treasure Chinese Restaurant

Happy Spring! Finally, the warm weather has kicked in and the miserable winter cold is slowly disappearing.  Yay! Love Spring and Summer.

The first Sunday of September meant one thing, Father’s Day! This year around, we had our Father’s Day celebration on the Friday, to avoid the crowds on the actual day, Sunday. Dad said he wanted to have Peking duck, so we had what he wanted.

 

 

Imperial Treasure is a relatively new Chinese restaurant, opening last year within Club Central Hurstville. It occupies half of a floor on level three of the club and can cater for many diners as they regularly hold banquets and functions, serving yum cha in the morning and dinner at night. Nice modern interior with glass floor to ceiling windows, gives it that casual yet luxury feel.

 Usually, when you have Chinese food in a nice restaurant, you get served complementary house soup before you start your meal. The bowls and spoons were on our table but there was no sight of the soup. One of my favourite things about eating at a Chinese restaurant is the soup they serve at the beginning of the meal.

We saw soup being carried to other tables but not ours! I assumed they ordered a banquet and as such, the soup formed part of the meal deal. It was not until the middle of the meal that I asked the waiter if they served complementary house soup and he nervously said yes. As we spoke in English, he assumed we weren’t accustomed to having soup, as they do put some weird ingredients in it sometimes, and as such it wasn’t offered. He immediately brought it out and we all laughed it off.

 ‘Pig Intestine Soup’ may not be for the faint hearted. Its name may not sound very appealing, but it is certainly delicious and hearty. It has most likely been cooked for hours and hours to get that strong, fragrant flavour . It’s after you taste it that you realise how soothing and refreshing the soup is. As you can probably tell, I do love my soups.

 

 

 

They had a ‘Peking Duck – 2 Courses’ special for 30 dollars! Yes, you read correctly. So cheap for a delicious whole duck. They are currently having a promotion on for the month of August and September where you can get a whole duck for 30 dollars. Bargain! The first course is the usual pancakes. A dozen rolled duck pancakes filled with finely sliced shallots, cucumber and hoisin sauce. The second course is a ‘Sang Choy Bow'. The waiter we had on the day was in a hurry in cutting our duck and ended up cutting mainly strips of skin and no meat. How disappointed we were. The meat that was left was then used for the  Sang Choy bow but there were only 4 little cups of lettuce with very minimal meat and vegetables. Where did all that meat go??? Nevertheless, it still tasted good but a bit on the salty side.

 

The ‘Sweet and Sour Pork Ribs ($16.00)’ were nice but weren’t very crispy due to the sauce coating. I like how they used the rib cut of meat as a lot of places end up using cheaper cuts of meat like the pork neck.  Quite generous with their portion too.

The ‘Combination Bean Curd Hot Pot ($17.00)’ had an assortment of vegetables, tofu and meat. The tofu was particularly cooked well. It was fried but still had that nice, soft texture to it.

'Chicken Fried Rice ($15.10)' was well cooked with good balance of flavours and had that wok flavour that you know its been tossed about in a very hot wok.

 

 

Ended the meal with a nice complementary plate of fruits and biscuits.

 

A clean and modern Chinese restaurant that serves reasonable food at decent prices. Members get an additional 10 per cent discount (Prices listed above are inclusive of the 10 per cent discount) and alcohol at club prices.

They are also having another promotion with the Tsingtao Beer and Heineken both at $4.00 each during the month of September. Another plus plus!

Please note standard club rules do apply.

Where?
2 Crofts Avenue
Hurstville NSW 2220
Australia

Phone no: 02 8957 7254

Opening Hours
Monday - Friday
10:30am - 3:00pm
Saturday - Sunday
10:00am - 3:00pm
Sunday - Thursday
5:30pm - 10:30pm
Friday - Saturday
5:30pm - 11:00pm

Website
http://www.clubcentralhurstville.com.au/site/index.cfm?display=297343