Peking Garden Restaurant     北京樓  

located in the basement of a historic building at central, this peking garden restaurant looks plush, elegant & inviting. but then why did I see more westerner tourists than locals on this saturday eveningthe carving was done at a kitchen counter facing the dining room, apparently by a substitute, rookie or trainee that night. he did his job hesitantly & slowly. this was the first time I saw that a peking duck was carved upright instead of laid down on a plate. I asked them to serve the skin separately from the meat. the skin was oily but crispy. the meat was tender but a bit dry (not juicy). the wrap was thin & became cold before all was consumed. I wonder if they know there is such a thing called tortilla box, in which mexican restaurants keep tortilla warm on the dining tablethis dish did not look the prettiest, but boy did it taste wonderful! the jumbo prawn was done just right, with crunchy feel. the crust with the salty egg gave an uncommon flavor & not salty at all.basically the tofu was deep fried to brownish & sprinkled with fried, diced garlic on the top. it would be better if there is a way to make the garlic stick to the tofu, so that one bite would take in both, without spilling the garlic.the soy bean wrap was not crispy as expected, but the filling was soft & tasty.nothing to write home about!service was good, as expected of a tourist class restaurant. the wine menu covers a broad range of prices. I picked a bottle of red ($300) that had a decent taste.

I don’t know if this restaurant line is a flagship of the maxim corp or not. but knowing that 2 locations had gone out of business, I wonder if its management or executive chef needs to reinvent themselves on many fronts.

If you asked where did I have the best Peking Duck in HK, that would be no doubt Peking Garden Restaurant. We went to the one in central today which has slightly more chinese elements in it, but still furnished with a western look. The ambiance was still as jolly noisy as a Chinese dim sum resto, but most of the laughters and chatters are in English here.In the middle of the dinner, I suddenly realised there was some passionate music playing at the background and almost everyone had turned their heads towards the same direction at my back. I turned and found a noodle master pulling noodles! I haven't seen one for long and the last I saw was at my Primary age I think. I was extremely excited about it and was once again amazed by the refine noodles that the master skillfully pulled. Such a nice show to watch! P.S. They don't have it in their PP branch.

1) Winter Melon Soup with Conpoy (8/10)Instead of a strongly flavoured chicken soup, we decided to have the Winter Melon Soup which was listed on Chef Special today. The soup was full of winter melon puree but was not too thick. The taste was light but the conpoy taste stood out mildly which was pretty nice I think.

2) Sauteed Pork with Onions (6/10)Cilantro was all over the dish, I figured I somehow accepted the unique taste of cilantro and found its taste pretty refreshing now. The portion of the pork and onions were very generous too. The pork was quite tender and the taste was nothing special at all. An average dish to go with the rice.

3) Deep Fried Shrimp Balls in Sweet Sauce (9/10)I have never seen Shrimp Balls in such a big size, which I literally feel full after the first one, but was too good that I had my second one. The shrimp ball was very meaty and was bouncy in texture with a thin fried crusting. The shrimp taste was strong and tasted delicious with the sweet sauce. Nice dish that worth trying!

4) Peking Duck (10/10)The peking duck was heavenly made and tasted. One minor drawback is that the duck was not cut in front of us, which the PP branch does. Anyhow the waiter did show us the duckie, both ways before serving the duck. The roasted duck looked much bigger and prettier than Wu Gong with a much shinier brown skin.One head-burned poor duckie can fill up two porcelain duck plate in Peking Garden. The portion was actually a bit less than average, but the arrangement is definitely the best. The size and thickness of each single piece was almost exactly the same, marvellous work! The duck wasn't very fat but the oil could be withheld within the skin, so the duck taste was very strong and flavourable. Most of the slices were meat slice which they were all tendor in texture.

What I love most was actually their flour pancake, the flour scent and the taste was heaven's work. It was made very thin and light to touch but not easily broken.One typically nice thing about having Peking Duck is that you could usually fully utilise the remaining bones and meat for soup or sauteed minced duck dish. However in Peking Garden they would not provide this kind of service. And if you want the soup/ sauteed dish, you have to order them as a separate dish but not add on dish. Such a rip off.

******************************
My sweet tooth was yelling for Banana Fritter but the two guys said they had no room for dessert unless I am having the whole dish! How horrible

Anyway, I do love dinning at Peking Garden as I found they do provide quality food every time. I also found the Central Branch more fun to dine in than the PP Branch. The dinning atmosphere is much more causal and the decor is slightly more Chinese in Central Branch. It might be a bit pricey, but the quality and service undoubtedly deserve the price.

:PThe date that we brought our American visitors to the Peking Garden Restaurant by Maxim's for dinner, as the place would provide spectacular Chinese culture to the friends. Around 8:00 pm, the chef came out with a wheel table, on top of it was placed a lump of flour, then the chef started to rub the flour & pulled it from thick noodle strips into very thin strips with his fingers, everybody was attracted by the demonstration, then clapped their hands loud when the show finished. The other gimmick was to use a tiny golden hammer to break the cover (mud) of the "Beggar Chicken", which was delicious & the guest could keep the hammer as souvenir, what a unexpected gift for my friend. Actually, it was not the 1st time for me to visit Peking Garden Restaurant, as I love the atmosphere & the food is in good quality, also it's a place for one of the program to entertain foreigners.

It has been quite a long time I have not been to the eatery, it was used to be business meals and this is the first time having 'relaxed' dinner.

The five of us have the following dishes:
Vegetarian Goose - it is a wrap filled with veggie and rice noodles I think. I really cannot tell what it is since it is a reddish stuffing ... but not bad, it is quite delicious instead!
Fried fish in Sweet and Sour Sauce - the fish is just fried and crunchy, together with the fresh and sour sauce, it is nice to match with rice. Yet I prefer more sauce on the fish, quite dry. But the texture of the fish is good
Deep fried chicken with dried garlic - the portion is small. The garlic should be more, yet the chicken is tender and served hot. Also good with rice
Peking Duck - excellent presentation and really great! The seafood sauce is tasty and the wrap serves hot. The duck skin is crispy, and the meat is well-cooked. I am not a big fan of skin, and it is definitely more preferable to have skin and meat together. The whole thing is just yummy! As usual, cannot over-eat.
Pan fried Lamb slice with Spring onion - not bad at all and comes well with rice. Just that there is far more onion than lamb slices ... and it can be more spicy.
Stewed cabbage with chinese ham - the cabbage is well-cooked and sticky *due to the sauce* but the saltiness of the veggie is just right from the ham. Nice dish.
Toffee apple - banana enemy chooses apple, haha. Just that the apple pieces are too big, yet the crispy skin is superb! And the soda flavor is strong.
Fried roll - it looks nice ... but I am too full to have one already

For sure I do enjoy the handicraft noodle show. And unexpectedly, the room stating Mr. Tung is our previous Chief Executive!

Back to the eatery, with the quality of the food and courtesy of the staff, plus high chance to meet celebrities ... it is a recommended place overall, in particular ... business meetings *lol*

we went there in a large group, ordered no shark fin but ordinary dishes, including the peking duck.
the ambience is good, the service is supposedly superb but the younger waiters seemed to be rushing this and that all over the place a little too much, which is a nono at any restaurant that position itself high-end. train the customers to be patient for real good food.
the food was ok but gave no surprise, only the fried ramen was a big big disappointment. the texture of the noodle is not acceptable, it was bland and tasted like flour. It would be considered a failure even if served by local shops.
the pork dumpling (siu lung bao) is also quite disappointing, the pork filling is rather chewy and not fresh enough.