Li Qun Roast Duck Restaurant, Beijing

Like so many others before us, we were attracted to Li Qun based on the many excellent, quality reviews posted all over the Internet, and on the desire to hunt for a "gem" in the hutongs of Beijing. However, we have noticed several bad reviews warning us of very bad food (and very poor hygiene to boot), and the trend has been more negative of late. Against better judgment, we ignored these bad reviews and paid the price for it...Our advice, save your time and money, and go elsewhere..there are definitely better places in Beijing.

We went on 3/23/2009. It took us a bit of effort to find it after we walked over from Tiananmen Square, but sure enough, we found it after finally locating the duck drawings as mentioned on earlier posts. We didn't have a reservation for 6PM, but that wasn't a problem. One thing we immediately noticed that spelled trouble -- all patrons were non-Asian tourists. We were shown a menu with dinner plans all nicely spelled out. For 2 people, there were two 288 RMB dinner plans (=$42 USD), which included an appetizer, a vegetable, and a whole duck. Not bad, we thought, but definitely first-class pricey according to Beijing standards. So then the bad:

1. If you do make it to Li Qun, make sure you go on an empty bladder. Don't bother going to the bathroom. It's all true. It's the most gross squat pit in all of China. Smelled like cow manure. Seriously. And too bad our table was right next to the bathroom. Fine, no problem, we thought. We were asking for it especially since we decided to "rough it out" and get the real deal in a Beijing hutong. However, the bad news is that even this hutong experience is not authentic.

2. The appetizer was spongy duck liver. Not bad if you like that..unfortunately, we didn't.

3. The vegetable was broccoli saturated in grease. Horrible, but broccoli is not a native vegetable in China, and so I can't blame them for not knowing how to prepare broccoli. Most of it gets imported from California...so it may probably be the most expensive dish on the table!

4. Worst of all, the duck was horrible. All fat, no meat, and all fat. The skin was not great, eventhough it was a freshly-prepared duck. Look, we're Chinese (Chinese-American), and we were brought up to definitely know how real Chinese food--and for that matter, Peking duck, should taste--and this meal was horrible.

5. When it was time to pay the bill, the restaurant manager who came to write up the bill literally made up the final pirce on the spot--and the price mysteriously shot up to 340 yuan . We ordered 2 Yangling beers in addition to the above meal...the beers may have cost 52 yuan (very unlikely), or the waitress decided she could milk us for more money (most likely). It wasn't worth the trouble to complain because we wanted to get the hell out.

I wouldn't bother writing this, and would have chalked it up to us having fallen victim to a bad tourist trap...unless I had a reason. The reason: there are better Peking duck places in Beijing. We went to Da Dong three nights later, and found the duck to be truly amazing (and with a great, clean atmosphere too). And the surprise? We paid LESS --> 336 yuan at Da Dong for a whole duck, with an appetizer, 2 other dishes, and 2 beers.

Conclusion: Li Qun's days are over. I would not trust any other positive reviews about this place. Don't go, unless you want to waste your time and money.

Favorite Dish: Nothing. It was all bad.

Because the 'big' Peking Duck place was full, our local tour guide took us here. I loved walking through the hutong to get here. I loved the fact that it was not fancy at all. I loved being able to see them roast the ducks. It was a great experience!

Favorite Dish: We had an appetizer that consisted of finely chopped shrimp, scallions, spinach in a cooked duck egg wrapper, and then sliced. That was good. Then came the Peking duck - thin slices of duck skin served with a thin Chinese pancake, scallions, and hoisin sauce. There was so much that we couldn't finish it all. Then came duck soup which was mainly just thin soup that tasted like turkey soup with some scallions in it. We also had an eggplant dish, a chicken with red peppers (that Bill deemed too hot to eat), and a shrimp dish with what looked like rice-crispie treats in it. The last dish presented was the duck carcass that had been deep-fried.