dtsm

Not a duck house but excellent food and they do serve peking duck made in the furnace near the front entrance.

Xiao Wang's Home Restaurant
Guanghualu Branch
6591-3255
6594 3602

北京小王店
光華路店

moondog

^

RichardInSF

I'm no duck expert but sure enjoyed the Pek Duck I've had at "Made In China" restaurant in the Grand Hyatt. Also liked their Beggar's Chicken a lot.

moondog

While "Made in China" appeals to the part of my brain that likes PF Chang's (btw, this no insult coming from me) and the atmosphere sure is cool, the Guanghua Lu Xiaowangfu (that dtsm mentioned) still serves up my favorite duck in BJ. I've brought many FTers there and heard no complaints.

iahphx

Yeah, I mentioned Xiao Wang above. I like this restaurant chain (he has a few restaurants) a lot, and would definitely eat there again whenever I am in Beijing. I'm not sure I'd go for the duck, however. It's good IMHO, but not as good as some other places.

moondog

For the record, the Guanghua Lu location makes the best duck in town IMO (and I've been to almost all of the other places that have been tossed around in various duck threads). I guess it all comes down to personal preference in the end.

jiejie

Sorry to be a dissenter here, but Xiao Wang's (especially the one on Guanghua Lu) serves up some seriously bad slop that somehow passes for Chinese food. I have (been dragged by others) there on a number of occasions, and it never fails to disappoint. Haven't had the duck there, but I shudder to think.... XW's just gets more than it's fair share of (expat and business) traffic due to location and pricing, therefore the undeserved buzz. However, horses for courses.

Peter_N-H

Agree entirely with the above. Eating Xiao Wang's dumbed-down-for-expats pan-China dishes is only borderline forgivable if taking visiting aged parents out for meal. But given the immense range and variety of real food of all regions available in Beijing, ought otherwise to be a criminal offence.

moondog

FWIW, I'm equally offended by the set of better-then-thou types that cast stones upon anyone who doesn't cream over braised sea slug and the like.

dtsm

Xiao Wang is a restaurant that I frequent when I visit because of the variety of the menu and the home style cooking. I have no idea how P-H tastes are but from a HK born Chinese with a Taiwan born wife that is a superb cook and who has lived throughout Asia for years, we can both attest that this is one of the better places to eat on a regular basis.

If you're looking for a banquet or gourmet dining, maybe P-H knows where the Kings or Emperors eat but as far as regular Chinese folks, this is a place to go.

Now, I haven't been back to Beijing in a year or so - if these opinions are from recent visits, I'll be less critical of their comments.

jiejie

Be offended if you must on the negative Xiao Wang comments. I call it like I see it (or taste it). For the record, I actually do NOT like Chinese fancy/banquet/Emperor/delicacies or whatever you are insinuating. All I'm looking for is decent and tasty homestyle Chinese cooking...and I'm OK with most regional styles. But I've had better cooking in hole-in-the-wall joints (my most frequent haunt) in various places around Beijing than at Xiao Wang's. Specific comments based on multiple occasions, which consistently seem to apply whenever I've been:
1) I've NEVER had a decent vegetable dish there--always overcooked, soggy texture, and veggies not fresh enough. Goodness, if one can't even do a simple ganbiansijidou, one needs to hang up the apron and get out of the kitchen.
2) EVERY dish at XW's has too much oil, and this is even by Northern/Beijing cooking standards.
3) I've had meals where most of the sauces used in the meat dishes are suspiciously similar in taste and ingredients even when they shouldn't be. Speaking of sauces, too much cornstarch and the sauces always glue up quickly---similar to Westernized Chinese restaurants most of us love to hate back in our home countries.
These are just a few of my pet peeves about this restaurant. Service is also marginal, even when you manage to miss the worst of the meal rush hour.

I'm a decent cook at home of both Chinese and South-East Asian, and trust me, I can do a better job at a lot of the homestyle standards than Xiao Wang's. Perhaps compared to you guys, I'm just consistently unlucky when I've been there and it's been Cook's night off with the busboys behind the woks.

Chapel Hill Guy

De gustibus non est disputandum. It's part of the human condition.

It's completely acceptable to disagree about restaurants. No need for offense.

I've had horrible meals at supposedly great restaurants and great meals at supposedly horrible restaurants.

moondog

Worry not. I was not offended by your comments.

dtsm

Next visit, let's go together, be my guest and let's see how the food is

abraxis

I'd be up for that. Now all I have to do is get out there...