Old Beijing Roast Duck

We went to Old Beijing Roast Duck for my mom's birthday. They've been there so often they're now friends with the owner. Naturally, I thought we would be in for a treat. I was wrong.

We ordered a 12 course meal for 10 adults and 2 children. We ordered the Emperor Roast Duck, which I understand was supposed to be made four ways.

First up, Duck skin and kiwi slices on a chip, with a dab of jam underneath. I didn't particularly like this though others at the table were amused at the "novelty" of it all. The best part about duck skin is its fatty richness. Once you add the kiwi and jam, it just cuts the fattiness and you're left with skin that has little flavour to begin with. I also felt that prepping and serving it on the kiwi made the skin less crispy.

These ribs were two things: Sweet and Dry. The meat was not moist and did not fall off the bone. They sprinkled some "smoky snow" on it, but all I could taste was the sweet sauce.

These are zoodles, served with some mixture of soy sauce, vinegar, and chili. Rather bland, but I suppose it was refreshing.

Duck second (and third?) way, as pieces of meat for your wrappers. Unfortunately the wrappers either weren't cooked enough or stale because mine was rock hard. It also didn't come with the duck itself, but much later when we had to ask for it.

Chinese version of a meat platter. There some liver and duck feet skin in there. Nothing had much flavour to it. Everything lacked seasoning.

The sea cucumber was cooked nicely.

The eggplant had a great sauce to it. It's not as spicy as you think it looks.

Steamed buns with an urn of fatty pork. At least these buns were steamed perfectly.

Tripe. Not much to say about it.

Taro root was cooked and seasoned well. It was the only dish where I went for two pieces instead of one.

Duck (third or fourth?) way: slices of meat stir fried with peppers and onions. This also lacked seasoning and had very little flavour.

Lastly, when they started giving us new plates for "Dessert," I was expecting something big, like a pancake or some kind of cake. But all they gave us were two of these dinky melon trees.

Sometimes my parents go to a restaurant for the food, sometimes for the deal, and sometimes because they're friends with the owner and get really good service. I have no idea which of the three they went for because the food tasted bad, it's overpriced for Chinese food, and we didn't really have the caliber of service I was expecting.

Not recommending. Definitely not returning.

Shining Garden

Came here for dinner with the family. The "kids" table ordered hot and sour soup, two plates of salt and pepper chicken wings, fried pork with mayonnaise, Chinese sausage with gai lan, enoki mushroom and tofu on broccoli, ginger gai lan, and ginger scallop fried rice.

I guess we were a little hyped because it was sooooo busy. It was a good thing we made reservations.

The food came quick and the service was good enough for a Chinese restaurant.

The soup was only okay. The broth tasted like sausage and too salty. Definitely the weakest dish of the evening. Not our favourite soup.

The chicken wings were a little too salty and not spicy enough despite the mound of peppers on it. They were also abnormally big. It was crispy and the batter was nice and fluffy.

The pork was really good. It wasn't crispy, but it was nice and tender and the sauce went well with it. I don't have a picture of it because it went really quickly.

All three veggie dishes were well seasoned and cooked perfectly. They gai lan and broccoli had a good crispness to it. The Chinese sausage really added a lot to the balance.

The rice was also very well seasoned. There were baby scallops in every spoonful.

As dessert, we had pumpkin tapioca sweet soup. It wasn't too sweet and the shredded coconut added some good texture to it. Pretty tasty. Enjoyable.

Overall a decent experience. Would recommend making reservations before your visit.