> It should be "pianyifang" 便宜坊
Actually the first character is a duoyinzi, and Bian is correct, 'bianyi' meaning in this case 'convenient'.
The prices at the restaurant’s two locations are a little cheaper than at Quanjude, and the method of preparing the duck a little different. Whereas the Quanjude bird is traditionally roasted over pear wood here the method involves millet stalks. The restaurant claims an even greater antiquity than Quanjude, although not at either of its two last two addresses, and now it's in the ground floor of a modern hotel. It's the sort of place middle-ranking out-of-town cadres go to eat at the work unit's expense.
For those who like the old-school restaurants there's real and unaffected early 80s atmosphere at Jiuhua Shan, the service a bit tiefanwan (lacklustre and uninterested), which is inside the Zibao Fandian, just inside the West Third Ring Road between Hua Yuan Qian and Hang Ten Qiao. It's nothing more to write home about than Quanjude or Bianyifang, but it completes the set. The 九花山精品烤鸭 or 'top quality' duck is ¥128.
The Da Dong branch at the Nan Xin Cang (as mentioned in characters in a posting above) remains my favourite of sensibly priced ducks (as opposed to Made in China, etc.) not least because of a large supporting case of other inventive dishes. Several people of unknown reliability have recently been speaking warmly of somewhere called Duck de Chine, but I have yet to try it.
Peter N-H