Melbourne VIC 3000
The Da Hu Peking Duck Restaurant is located in the heart of the Melbourne CBD Chinatown on Little Bourke street. A couple of our friends invited us for dinner in hope of ordering a whole Peking duck dish. We could not resist the temptation of engulfing an entire duck and gladly accepted the invitation. After walking a flight of stairs you enter a large size restaurant with roughly 20 - 30 tables. Everything from the clean white table cloths, to the delicately laid out cutlery and tissues has been well thought out and intricately presented. Here you can expect to pay 20-40$ for a main meal and 6-15$ for an entree or an appetiser.
We were seating right away and from my point of view I could see the awesome Chinese red gate that marks the China Town area just outside the front window, increasing my anticipation that this was going to be a truly authentic Chinese cuisine experience. For the mains we ordered one whole Peking duck, very spicy kung pow chicken, and for an appetiser I ordered cold chicken marinated in white wine sauce.
The food began to arrive after about 20 minutes. Interestingly for the Peking duck the chef actually came out next to our table and began carving it up in-front of our eyes. To me it looked like there was still plenty of meat left on that duck but for some reason the chef waved for the waiter to take it back. The amount of duck meat strips that were than presented at our table did not look like it came from a whole duck but more like only half a duck.
Nonetheless the waitress also placed a tray with what looked like very thin pancakes, a small bowl of specially made sauce for Peking duck, and various other bowls with salads. She than showed us how to take the duck strips and place it on a pancake, top with the sauce and the salad, and then wrap the pancake right around. The duck tasted amazing. It had the right amount of juiciness and the skin was perfectly browned and crispy. Make no mistake this was good duck!
In additional to the duck, the kung pow chicken and the black bean beef were also prepared very well. The flavours were wonderful, and the meat was cooked just right to the point when it was still tender, juicy and not too dry, whilst soaked in the complicated flavours of the red peppers, and black bean sauces. The only thing I was not too impressed with was the cold chicken marinated in white wine sauce appetiser. The chef just took his cleaver and cut the chicken into several slices, right through all the bones underneath the meat. This dish would have been much nicer to eat if the chef had bothered to remove the collection of bones from the meat.
The food portions here are moderate. Provided you order a single meal WITH rice you should be satisfied. I found that what we ordered was plenty for the four of us. In general this is an excellent, well presented restaurant that I would love to come back to again to taste some more of their authentic traditional Chinese food but only on occasions because of the hefty price tag.
Quality of Food: 8.5/10 stars
Quality of Service: 8/10 stars
Atmosphere and Presentation: 8/10 stars
Value of Money: 5/10
Overall Rating: 7.4/10 stars
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