Jingwei Zhang Roast Duck Restaurant Wongtee Plaza 京味張烤鴨店 皇庭廣場 (Shenzhen, CHINA) ★★★★☆

Dubbed as one of the top eight roast duck restaurants in Shenzhen, I was eager to check Jingwei Zhang Roast Duck Restaurant (京味張烤鴨店) off my list this weekend. Thankfully, they have a branch at Wongtee Plaza (皇庭廣場) where little nugget and I would be spending a ton of time at for our arcade games.

One of the things about Jingwei Zhang that immediately caught my eyes was the mix of modern and traditional decorations.

They have a no-reservation policy so we have to arrive a little after 3:30pm for our ticket. Once we got our table secured (with the ticket), we were asked to come back in about an hour where dinner officially starts.

A little early for dinner at 4:30pm? Not according to this kid....

Chinese bok choy with cracklings (油渣奶白菜) (¥32) – Not a bad way to start off the meal with some veggies, especially when we have the Peking duck coming up shortly.

Roast Duck (精品烤鴨) (¥128) – This was what we came here for, baby! Of course, we had to wait for the chef to do all the hard work first before our indulgence.

The usual condiments for Peking duck including cucumber, scallions, sugar, melon, hawthorn (山楂) and hoisin sauce.

I thought one of the things that set Jingwei Zhang apart from their competition was the details to their Chun Bing (春饼). They did a great job preserving the warmth of those pancakes and even went as far as to have a staff come separate them one by one so they didn't stick together.

Little nugget was equally impressed with the venue and the Peking duck in front of him. He kept saying to us that this looked upscale and top-notch.

I am a purist when it comes to Peking duck. No scallion, sugar....

And I like having some duck meat to go with the crispy skins. 

Second round....

To me, this was a little better than what we had at Duck de King (金鴨季). There was a little more smokiness in the skin and we could really taste and smell the aroma of apple wood. The super tender chun bing also played a key role in delivering a very nice mouthfeel.

Deep-fried shrimp balls (貴妃荔枝蝦球) (¥98) – Talk about making an entrance...

     

These came in the shape of a lychee hanging beautifully on a tree with special effects from the frozen ice. That was impressive especially considering the price. We would never have this kind of presentation and "entertainment" for that price tag in Hong Kong.

I had these kind of lychee-shaped balls as a dessert before but not in a savory dish.

The accompanying chili sauce was mildly spicy. I could live with that!

This was OK. Not surprisingly, it was one of those dishes that looked much better than it tasted.

Stir-fried pig's kidney Traditional Beijing-style (老北京溜腰花) (¥68) – By now, I am kind of used to this dish cuz it was the third time that Jelloman ordered while visiting Shenzhen. I thought the pig's kidney, bamboo shoots, black fungus and cucumber worked very nicely together; and the spicy kick and numbing effects from the sauce was a reasonably good touch.



We didn't order desserts cuz we had all the time in the world to do so later tonight. It's time to get our feet wet with the arcade games next.

A lot of friends were asking why we were so hooked to Shenzhen these days. I can honestly say it's not the price cuz unlike what people are saying, dining-out in Shenzhen isn't really all that cheap. It might be about 20% less than what we are paying in Hong Kong but factoring in the transportation (rapid train tickets) and other stuff, it's hard to justify it solely on the price tag.  For me, what impressed me most about dining in Shenzhen was the service. I have never come across a restaurant where I'm badly treated or having some staff with poor attitude. In fact, some of those restaurant staff were willing to go the extra mile just to get us back for the second time (Just look at the photo of the staff with little nugget. See the smile on his face). That was really the difference maker. Back in Hong Kong, we got poor attitude from restaurant staff all the time. These guys should never be in the hospitality industry. They are the ones forcing the locals to spend it elsewhere, with Shenzhen getting the biggest bite of the pie.

Food Rating: 6/10

Price: ¥¥¥

Address: Shop No.29, Level 1 Wongtee Plaza, 118 Fuhua Road, Futian, Guangzhou, China

深圳市福田区福华三路118号皇庭广场 L1-29铺

Closest Metro Station: Convention & Exhibition Centre (會展中心)

Tel: +86 (755) 83224833

Opening Hours: 10:00am - 10:00pm daily

Map: https://j.map.baidu.com/de/Ppgh

Gongau Cha 港究茶 Wongtee Plaza 皇庭廣場店 (Shenzhen, CHINA) ★★★★☆

The clock was down to about half an hour left before our dinner table's ready. With another 30 minutes of Me Time, I decided to swing by Gongau Cha (港究茶) for a sip of my favorite Hong Kong style milk tea.

Gongau Cha is a collaboration between 7 Hong Kong-style milk tea champions who decided to join forces to offer some of the best "silk stocking" milk tea (港式絲襪奶茶) in the market.

Even for milk tea, Gongau Cha offers a number of options with different formulas. I was also curious of the "ice fire" toast served with thick slabs of frozen butter.

Champion Silk stocking milk tea (冠軍絲襪奶茶) – The most popular brand of Hong Kong style milk tea developed together by the 7 champions. This was a milk tea lover's dream.

The tea exuded a delightful fragrance and richness (can tell by its color) accompanied by tremendous velvety thickness. I am impressed!

With my Peking duck dinner coming up shortly, I finally decided to pass on the butter toast for now. Until next time then...

Price: ¥¥¥

Address: Shop No.66, Level 1 Wongtee Plaza, 118 Fuhua Road, Futian, Guangzhou, China

深圳市福田区福华三路118号皇庭广场 L1-66铺

Closest Metro Station: Convention & Exhibition Centre (會展中心)

Tel: +86 (755) 18718325762

Opening Hours: 10:30am - 11:00pm daily

Map: https://j.map.baidu.com/cd/02Ki

 

NiNi’s Cake Wongtee Plaza 皇庭廣場店 (Shenzhen, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

There wasn’t much happening for us this weekend. Little nugget had a number of classes scheduled on Saturday and Sunday; and the plan was to lay low for the rest of the day. When it comes to food, we’ll simply grab something quick in our hood. Nothing fancy. But things were about to heat up when Jelloman popped the question, “don’t think there will be train tickets available to Futian this late right?”.

That got the ball rolling and the next thing I knew, we were already on a taxi on our way to West Kowloon. It was already 2pm.

As planned, we arrived at Futian’s Wongtee Plaza (皇庭廣場) a little after 3pm. Since we already decided to have Peking duck dinner tonight, there was no point for us to have another late lunch at this stage. So, we hurried up to get ourselves a ticket at Jingwei Zhang Roast Duck Restsurant (京味張烤鴨店) and before returning for an early dinner there at 4:30pm, we headed off to NiNi’s Cake for a round of sweet treats to kill some time off the clock.

NiNi’s Cake is a French patisserie and cafe I spotted on my last visit to Wongting around CNY. They have some amazing cakes on display including one that looked like a fire cracker (炮仗). Very eye catching. 🧨

Strawberry passion fruit (莓果慕斯) (¥43) – Inside the crust made with strawberry flavored white chocolate was a layer of strawberry mousse.

This came with a sponge cake base and a centre of strawberry ganache. I didn’t get the chance to try it myself but I assumed that’s also where the passion fruit was hiding, right in the middle of the sponge.

Peach, cream cheese, earl grey (桃礼) (¥43) – Here we have a slice of peach 🍑 sitting on top of some cream cheese. The base was a crepe pouch filled with peach and cream. OK.

Hazelnut praline, dulce, coffee (香草榛果) (¥48) – I am an absolute sucker for hazelnut praline (榛果帕林內) so this should be right up my alley.

I thought it was by far the best out of the three we tried this afternoon. Yes, the hazelnut praline could have been richer in flavors, especially the nuttiness part (It was more creamy than nutty) but all in all, the hazelnut praline, crushed hazelnuts and caramel (menu did say coffee) worked well together as a team.

Food Rating: 5.5/10

Price: ¥¥¥

Address: Shop L2-6, Level 2 Wongtee Plaza Exit C, 118 Fuhua Road, Futian, Guangzhou, China

深圳市福田区福华三路118号皇庭广场西門 L2-6铺

Closest Metro Station: Convention & Exhibition Centre (會展中心)

Tel: +86 (755) 13570811368

Opening Hours: 10:00am - 10:00pm daily

Map: https://j.map.baidu.com/6e/Q4ii