Duck de King Haiya Mega Mall 金鴨季 海雅繽紛城店 (Shenzhen, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

For months, Master Shifu has been telling me about the wide selection of Peking duck restaurants in Shenzhen and there are many of them. And based on his experience, Duck de King (金鴨季) is the cream of the crop out there despite its generally very long waiting time.

There are currently two branches of Duck de King (金鴨季) in Shenzhen and its Haiya Mega Mall (海雅繽紛城) location is supposingly very close to where we are staying.

Of course to make sure that we didn't have to wait in a long queue, we already rang up the famed restaurant to secure our VIP room.

This looked more like it! A little bit of privacy and more space to wiggle around for the kids.

Peking-style roast duck (北京烤鴨 一只) (¥238) – We didn't have to wait very long for the main event which happened to be our Peking duck but first, we needed to set ourselves up properly with the scallions, hawthorn (山楂) jelly and thin strips of cucumber.

All this happening while the chef worked very hard peeling the crispy skin off piece by piece. 

Followed by the duck meat.....

Each order of Peking duck came with two portions of duck skin and meat like this.

I thought the pancake (or Chun Bing 春饼 as they call it) was really soft and pliable so we could really taste the flavors and textures of the duck skin and meat along with the rest of the ingredients. 

Tofu soup with duck bones (鴨架豆腐湯) (¥38) – The second serving of the duck was the tofu soup which has been cooked with the duck bones and vegetables. This was one dish that we could probably do without.

Deboned duck web marinated with mustard sauce (芥末鴨掌) (¥68) – The duck web was silky smooth with an amazing crunch. It worked really well with the homemade mustard sauce.

Foie gras lollipop (櫻桃鵝肝) (¥98) – The ones in red color was dipped in cherry sauce giving the foie gras a nice, fruity finish. Less delicious were the ones in yellow color (mango?).

Kung Pao chicken (宮保雞丁) (¥58) – Won't mind a little more spicy kick, and peanuts (or cashews).

Steamed egg with shrimps (蝦仁蒸蛋) (¥48) – This paled in comparison with the steamed egg we had this afternoon. Perhaps, it's the shrimp broth, or the lack of it.

Peking-style double crisp (京味雙脆) (¥78) – Yeah, I made up this English name myself without the luxury of an English menu.

I am typically not a fan of thousand-layered tripe (毛肚) and manyplies beef tripe (百葉) but this mixture of noodles made with those two types of tripes really made my heart sing. And I thought the extra kick from the spiced sesame sauce really delivered a nice finishing touch to the dish. Very nice.

Fatty beef in golden sour soup (酸湯肥牛) (¥98) – The golden soup was actually more spicy than sour which in fact made the fatty beef pretty tasty. 

Fried rice with soy sauce (醬油炒飯) (¥39) – The kids loved it. Something to go with the steamed egg and meat.

Hailed from Shaanxi province (陝西), Duck de King has made a name for itself with Peking duck slow-roasted over burning fruit wood, resulting in the rich mahogany color and perfectly crisped skin. Not surprisingly, the duck skin and meat both came with mild smoky flavors from the fruit wood. This branch of the famed Peking duck restaurant is a little easier to book than their other location at Shenye Shangcheng (深业上城) but it's less convenient without a subway station within walkable distance.

Still got time for a few more rounds of Minecraft as they close at 10pm! 

Food Rating: 5.5/10

Price: ¥¥¥

Address: Level 5, No. 99 Jian'an 1st Road, Bao'an Central District, Shenzhen, China

深圳市宝安中心区建安一路99号海雅缤纷城5楼

Tel: +86 (755) 18126172271

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 2:00pm, 5:00pm - 9:00pm daily

Map: https://j.map.baidu.com/31/-qIu