Quan Ju De is a Chinese restaurant that was founded in Beijing in 1864. They are known for their Peking Duck. They have a number of restaurants around the world and this review is of their Vancouver location.
The dining room was open and easy for social distancing.
There were a lot of nice details which made the place elegant. They were offering two tasting menus and a la carte. We went with this tasting menu:
The service was very good but the kitchen needs to work on the timing of the dishes. The food did not arrive in the order presented on the menu and some courses arrived before we even finished the previous course. The soup arrived first. It reminded me a a huge XLB without the skin.
Next was the sashimi which was delicious though I believe the salmon was farmed. The uni was from B.C. which is my favorite kind.
Next came what we had all been waiting for, the Peking Duck. It was carved tableside.
With some skin presented first, to be eaten with a little brown sugar.
The rest of the duck was served with wraps, cucumber, scallions and hoisin sauce. The wraps had a more dumpling wrapper like texture than some places which have a more bread or tortilla type texture. The duck was served with both meat and skin. I prefer just the skin with maybe a little of the meat.
Overall it was enjoyable though not the best I’ve had. The most memorable Peking Duck for me was at Imperial Treasure Peking Duck in Singapore. I was going to Beijing this year and had looked forward to having this dish in its hometown, but that trip was unfortunately affected by COVID.
Next up was the Prawn which was pretty good. Very moist.
This was followed by the short rib which while tender, I found to be dry.
Next was the sweet and sour pork. I did not find this dish particularly noteworthy as it reminded me of any sweet and sour dish at your average Chinese restaurant, just presented nicer.
The last dish was the fried rice which was just ok also.
I thought that the dessert was very well done. Not too sweet and good balance of textures. The fruit garnishes were not of high quality though.
Overall this was a pretty enjoyable meal in nice surroundings. I do not know if there is a large enough market for this type of food in Vancouver, especially since there is an abundance of lower priced, and good Chinese food in the city. If you are going to charge this kind of price, I believe everything in the food needs to be elevated which is not the case here. Nothing was particularly mind blowing. Still, for a night out on the town, date, for a special occasion, entertaining out of town guests or clients, I can see this place working. I would return. I would probably order a la carte. They also have a 5-D dining experience currently in development which is launching in the next few months. 7.5/10