Choi's Garden - Annapolis

I know it's been a while since the last review. I've decided to write this review freestyle. You guys just let me know if you prefer I continue writing my reviews based on the template or like this.

To the matter at hand. We had lunch at Choi's Garden in Annapolis a month or so back. Parking in this resto was hell. The place severely lacks decent parking. For a restaurant that caters to parties and gatherings where one can expect more than three cars per table, this was definitely a turn off for me (I suppose management didn't think this through). Upon entering the restaurant, the decor just blew me away. Impressive archway upon entering. The only thing that ruined this was that the place was extremely small. The tables are crowded together so there's little room for you to navigate yourself to your table.

From this point on, things have REALLY turned sour. As soon as we settled down, we were joined by several other buzzing guests. The dining experience was reminicent of a scene in William Golding's Lord of the Flies. The staff made the experience even worse. I noticed that several utensils fell on the floor. A waiter came along, picked them up and dumped them right back on the tray holding the clean utensils. I think contaminating the whole silverware with everything that's been on the floor counts as a MASSIVE no-no, doesn't it? Good thing we already have ours on the table.

And what's with the waiter of the place? Seeing that every other table has ordered the pigeon, we decided to have the same, and for some strange reason, the waiter keeps discouraging us. Service was extremely slow. Probably because it was lunch time and the place was full, but that still counts as a minus on their part. Plus several items in the menu were out of stock.

The food was not worth the price, and mind you, the place is not that cheap. I'd probably rate the price at about 'PPP'. You can probably have the same quality at Gloria Maris, but then again, it's their sister company. All in all, I'd give the resto a rating of '˜'.

Liqun Duck Restaurant (Beijing, China)

Restaurant Details
Location: No. 11 Beixiangfeng, Zhengyi Road, Qianmendong St. Beijing
Cuisine: Chinese, of course
Price: PPP
Attire: Whatever you want to wear – but wear thick coats if going in the winter as there is no air conditioning

Our Details
What we had: Peking duck, Bamboo with mushrooms, and Mandarin fish “squirrel style”
Rating: ˜˜˜

Comments:
Food
Duck was simply excellent – the meat was tender and juicy, though quite lean (in peking duck standards); skin was crispy. Mandarin fish was fresh and well prepared – it went well with the sweet-sour sauce. Bamboo with mushrooms was traditional home-made dish, simple yet good.
Price
Definitely worth it – we ordered more than what we should have – the duck itself just costs 120RMB (780PHP)
Service
Don’t expect star-quality service – not just in this restaurant but in most restaurants in China. They react when you ask them to bring you stuff, but there is no proactive asking how the food was or if there is anything else they can get you. Expect less than this service if you can’t speak Mandarin.
Ambiance
This is a run-down old house with less than 10 ratty tables – expect to be taken back in time when there was no air conditioning and people rely on sun-light to see inside the house.
Bathroom
Luckily none of us needed to use the washroom!

The Long Story
We are duck fans – if we can do a review just about duck everywhere we would do that, but we just have too much to rant about. Beijing was a primarily a duck food trip and this place was definitely the best place we had it – and also the ugliest restaurant we ever ate in. The funny thing is there are a few foreigners and chatting with a few friends from Manila, who are studying in Beijing, they’ve all tried this restaurant – this made us wonder whether this wasn’t a well-disguised tourist trap. You need to call ahead to book seats and let them know how many ducks you need – get the hotel to order the whole course for you if you cannot speak Mandarin.
Getting there, we were dead scared that the taxi driver was going to drive us down the alley to mug or kill us, but we saw funny drawings of ducks and we understood what duck heaven (or hell for the ducks) was like. Best have lunch here rather than dinner, where the alleys would make safety a little more than questionable. It was a little less than a five minute walk to get to the main road to find a taxi. But this place is close to Tianenmen Square, so you can do the Forbidden City in the morning then have lunch here. It’s best to go with a couple of friends, otherwise you can only have one dish.
This is definitely a place we would recommend to everyone who would go to Beijing.

Seems like they have an award...

like the year before

The signage

The logo

The menu

The kitchen

The fish

The fungii

The thing we came for

The pigs have left the building