At DaDong in Midtown, Modern Art and Lame Duck

Had pekin duck in Parsippany many times...Pete you really should try it. LOL

A nicely tart review of a restaurant that apparently relies far too much on sugar.

And once again Pete Wells wins the award for best written NYT column of the week. "A wraparound bar sits in the middle of the room under a hanging sculpture that looks like a flock of gold paper-towel tubes learning to fly." I didn't get to the picture embedded in the online article until after I read these words, and the image on my screen matched the one in my head almost perfectly. For the rest, DaDong gets added to my list of restaurants to avoid like the plague.

When I was in China, the Beijingese do not refer to anything about their city as "Peking." There is no "Peking Duck" but a "roasting duck". Perhaps the words have changed slightly to accommodate ignorant tourists but "Peking" was going out, out, out in the eighties. "Why," asked one of our group at that time, "do you call it Beijing when we call it Peking?" After a bemused look, the guide responded, "you will have to ask your people."

Very recently I dined at DaDong and it clearly had invested millions into its sleek surroundings, the food was OK, nothing to write home about. The next week I met some friends at Cafe China 13 E 37, a typical hole in the wall that just happens to be a Michelin Star Holder several years running. The space is ho-hum, the fare is spectacular and well worth a 90 minute wait. Go figure.

Sounds dreadful!!

Peking Duck House still reigns as pe KING.

It’s a shame DaDong didn’t live up to its pedigree. Sounds like the best Peking duck in Manhattan is still the recently added special at Pinch Chinese.

WOW, this place does not appeal to me at all. I'd rather cook a duck or duck breast at home. For $98 I'd want a few ducks and they better be succulent with crisp skin. I know one can get great Peking Duck for a heck of a lot less & of better quality in many places in NYC.

This report is interesting because it says how people are willing to help, or giving love to At DaDong, when they know that their dishes are very good and that they have a great warmth.

I love duck and have eaten it many places. Peking, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Kunming, London. I think the best was in London where all the Hong Kong Chefs fled in 1997. Second best is my kitchen.

I loved DaDong in China and find the description of the duck by Pete to be similar to what I had. Emphasis is on the skin, not the meat. The other dishes, on the other hand, sound much inferior to DaDong in China. As a Chinese-American, I love when high-end restaurants from China open in the US. Or when high-end Chinese restaurants open here organically. Chinese food is not only hole-in-the-wall places but has a whole range like any other cuisine, and it’s about time that the foodies and diners in general realize this.

The duck at Da Dong was divine. The Chinese modern Art was inspired. The duck cutting specialists were fascinating. We also enjoyed the people watching; families and other patrons were overwhelmingly upscale Chinese. The prices were stratospheric but it was worth it, and cheaper than a trip to Beijing!

Our duck was flavorless and the meat dry too. Spot on. A real disappointment after struggling to get a reservation.

A $95 duck is something I can never eat. Unless a friendly email in your inbox gets me a invite! But isn't the point of Peking duck the skin, the whole skin, and nothing but the skin? Unless the whole duck press act comes into play (where they crush the duck table side and you get to lap up its juices...). It is not mentioned in the review but did the meat return to the table in the form of traditional broth or was it just served with the skin?

According to a Chinese myth, the overly praised Peking Duck requires ducks raised in a particular marshland area outside of Beijing. The ducks have to be how young and how old, no more no less. They have to be slaughtered in a particular way etc. etc. If a restaurant does not use those ducks, the roasted ducks on its menu should not have been called Peking Duck. Upon the same myth, Peking Duck must be roasted by particular woods. If a restaurant is not allowed to use wood burning oven, the roasted duck on its menu should have not been Peking Duck. Next time, if anyone recommend you Peking Duck, please ask where the duck from. If the birds were not from Chao-Bai marshland, tell the owner, their roasted duck can not be called genuine Peking Duck.

Great review -- though a disappointing conclusion. I've had maybe two dozen meals at various Da Dong outlets in China, and the duck is always superb (I'm one of those who thinks it's the best in Beijing). However it is specially raised to be low-fat, so the risk of dryness always hovers nearby. Sounds like the switch from wood to gas could be to blame, though if the kitchen was pouring oil over the duck in the finishing stage (as they should), you'd think the change would be survivable. As for the other dishes... you don't go to Da Dong for the other dishes (except, maybe, sea cucumber). They're usually a tad pretentious, aspirationally Japanese, and disappointing. But that duck...

I work across the plaza and had been anticipating a NYT review of DaDong. I had an amazing meal in their Beijing Wanfujing area restaurant, kind of sad this place in NYC hasn't lived up to that.

Just one look at the photo of two shriveled dry duck legs on the white platter is enough. Reading further only confirm the impression. This duck is up to no good. Peking duck is an overblown dish. (Pun intended: in old days the cooks use a tube to blow air under the skin of the duck to inflate it like a balloon, before the marinated duck is hung out to dry then roasted). It is somewhat theatrical to anyone who had never seen it before: waiters carving up the roasted duck on a trolley next to your table, serve the skin separately with pancake wrapper & condiments, and return the naked duck back to the kitchen for two more duck dishes, usually sauteed duck meat with vegetables and duck soup. It is mostly show time. To really enjoy a well prepared duck at bargain price, go down to your local Chinatown if there is one, find the best Cantonese BBQ shop, and buy a whole roasted duck when they come fresh out of the oven. Take it home and get on with the carnivorous ritual. Cantonese roasted goose is a lot harder to find unless your are in Hong Kong or in Canton. I've been warned that the standard has gone down in recent years, though still quite good.

As has been known for decades, the best Peking duck in Beijing comes from the "Sick Duck" restaurant, so called because it is opposite a major hospital. . It's competitor, as you might guess, is called the "Healthy Duck." You can't make this stuff up These are nicknames. I have no idea what the real names are.

The Beijing location on Jinbao Street was so extraordinary that we visited four times in five days (twice for lunch, twice for dinner). So the first NYC location was highly anticipated. We tried it last December it was was a crushing letdown -- dry duck that tasted like it came off an assembly line. The surroundings were, unlike the Jinbao location, muted and free of theatrics. Very Hyatt Regency. Overall, the dinner was a ridiculously priced C-minus. All these months later, Pete Wells seems to have had a similar experience. I wish we had tried the desserts the first time because there ain't gonna be a second.

Some of the best restaurants I have ever had the pleasure of a dinner have been some "hole in the wall" place. In my experience, limited though it may be, the less pretentious, the better the food.

one burning question, how does the guy who throws salt at food spend his Tuesdays?

in Argentina, Russian dressing is called Salsa de Golf. in other words, country club dresssing. i.e, what's good on toast with a turkey club after playing tennis at the club.

Duck is generally an overrated protein. But a place that fancies itself a "duck house" ought to be able to turn out a half-decent plate of it. With Flushing only a few short miles over the Queensborough Bridge, I won't go chasing waterfalls. Manhattan is a joke in the Chinese food category with the exception of a few holdovers in Chinatown. Glaringly honest and pointed review.

So DaDong uses a non-traditional method to produce Peking duck, and then had to modify that method even further to satisfy NYC's codes. It's no wonder the dish didn't deliver. I enjoyed Peking duck prepared in the traditional fashion while in Hangzhou several years ago. It's very much a presentation thing -- but at least the duck I had was flavorful.

I find this review very harsh. I'm from Shanghai not Beijing, so I can't say I know Peking duck well. But I will say that the duck skin at DaDong NYC is the crispiest I've ever seen anywhere in the US. In addition, about 50% of the dish is the sauce. DaDong's not a generic sauce in any sense. Whether you prefer a lean or fatty meat is a personal choice, but at least know what a cuisine is generally valued for before criticizing. To be clear, I think DaDong is supremely overpriced and I will likely never return. But that is not to say it doesn't give you good food. In addition to the reviewers recommendations, there is also Cherry Foie Gras that is simply a delight to look at and a uniquely pleasant culinary experience. I also agree that the jab at Russian food is totally uncalled for.

Living in China a while ago, I often had an opportunity to enjoy Beijing duck. It's a very ceremonial dish, particularly as you watch the waiter skillfully carve it table-side from the carcass, and are instructed on the correct placement of condiments on the pancake, etc. But the delicious crisp skin comes at a cost: long-cooked, dry meat, moistened somewhat by the sauce. After a while, I came to feel that like a lot of ceremonially consumed dishes, it was kind of over-rated and over-mythologized. (Maybe you need to be more of a connoisseur of particular ovens, inflation psi, cooking woods, and glazes than I am.) On the other hand, I have also eaten Guangdong (Cantonese) roast goose on a few occasions. It doesn't carry the mystique of the other but, boy, is it good. It's served cut up, like roast chicken, but the thicker flesh on a goose is more flavorful and much more moist. I didn't regret that the delicious glazed skin wasn't served separately, or the absence of condiments and pancakes. If anyone knows a place....

There are a lot of strong competitors in the Peking duck scene lately. Not counting the more traditional restaurants in Chinatown, Decoy and Hakkasan seem to be at the top of the pyramid. Reviews for this restaurant have been pretty negative across the board, with critics and casual diners on Yelp panning both the duck and the service.

A good idea for a restaurant would be to do one over one of those Icelandic geysers.

I had the exact same experience at Dadong in Beijing a few years ago. The duck was dry and tasteless. In Beijing, I had a far superior meal at Duck De Chine right nearby. Their menu was also much better. Needless to say I will not be going to Dadong NYC.

Is this a trend? Spend God only knows how much money to bring a fancy chain restaurant to Manhattan only to serve disappointing food. This review, coming just after L’atelier de Joel Robuchon, does not make me want to dine out in New York. Frankly, I’d rather eat my own pork chops at home in Parsippany. Can’t get any worse than this. Come on people!

Greatly enjoyed reading this sarcastically humoristic review of another Chinese restaurant making a claim to fame. About the wine: I never thought that there was any wine that would go well with Chinese cuisine.

Dadong is better at presentation than at good Peking duck. I took my husband to its famed restaurant in BJ years ago, and were very disappointed. Fancy setting, nice presentation, small serving size, crispy duck skin, however duck, duck soup and other dishes we ordered lacked flavor. When I mentioned our experience to a Chinese friend who is also a foodie, I learned that she shared the same opinion. Bravo to the writer who was not fooled by the name and presentation. If you are in BJ and want to have really good Pekíng duck, go to Quan Ju De (the original Peking duck restaurant) ,it’s branch at Chaoyang Beilu is the best.

There is no such thing as Russian dressing in Russia. It's an American invention, and the potshot at Russian food is uncalled for.

After reading the review, I hope Mr. Wells had the volunteers sign an indemnity waiver.

Exact opposite of our experience when we visited Da Dong in the Tuanjiehu neighborhood of Beijing in 2015. We dined there twice and were very impressed with the food, service and decor. (We lived in Asia for years and have eaten this dish many times in many countries.) On our first visit, we were offered paper-thin pancakes to wrap the duck. On the second trip, they provided puffy hollow breads (like in your photo here). I noted it was a bit expensive for lunch in Beijing - $50 for two. Can't imagine what the same meal must cost at the NYC restaurant.

Pete writes: "Sweet-and-sour pork ribs with preserved plums were as sweet as if they’d been stewed in Dr Pepper." I am tempted to go there just to see what this concoction might taste like -- or maybe I'll ask for it without the Dr. Pepper and bring my own to add to it myself according to my personal preferences.

Cue residents of that fine Morris County community with outraged responses to the unfortunate attempt at alliteration by the Times food critic.