Lousanshao Roast Duck Livat 娄三少烤鸭店 荟聚购物中心店 (Beijing, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

It's been a decade since I last visited Beijing and almost two decades since my last business trip to the nation's capital. There was mixed feeling going through my mind when I first heard about this opportunity to come to Beijing. Not that Beijing is not a great city to visit but the cold weather in November and tight schedule all played in my head a little bit. But at the end, I was too happy to be part of the delegation.

We got in very late on Sunday night so we stayed in house for dinner before crashing early. But no, we were not going to be denied on the second night. After various activities throughout the day, we wrapped things up at around 5pm and the plan was to take the subway to the nearest shopping mall for a decent meal.

As planned, the ten of us (we call ourselves "十壮士" 😁) met up at the lobby, slowly walked to the subway and embarked on our journey back to civilization. Our destination, Xihongmen Station (西红门地铁站) wasn't too far off where we were staying and through the grapevines we heard that there was this large shopping complex by the name of Livat (荟聚购物中心) directly connected to the station. Well, sounds like we have a plan there!

Not surprisingly, everyone was rooting for a Peking Duck meal this evening so we all went out looking for a roast duck specialist in the mall with all signs pointing to Lousanshao Roast Duck Livat (娄三少烤鸭店 荟聚购物中心店) located on the third floor of the building. This is a place touted for its Peking Duck pancakes or "Chun Bing" (春饼) more than the duck itself but none of us was in the mood to hunt for a replacement.

I thought the dark-colored interior was more suited for a karaoke but I guess that's just me.

Deep-fried tofu cubes (一口酥豆腐) – The deep-fried tofu cubes came sizzling hot and there was enough seasoning from the salt and pepper that really made the chilli sauce a bit redundant.

Shredded beef with sweet bean paste (京醬牛肉絲) – Of course, we had to order a few popular dishes from Beijing cuisine and this immediately came to mind because the name of the dish had the word "Beijing" in it, Jing Jiang Rou Si, or Peking Shredded Pork (京醬肉絲).

This time around, the dish was made with shredded beef instead of pork but the heart and soul of the dish remained the same, the sweet and gluey sauce.

The presentation was certainly very nice and everyone was raving about the wrapper made with was I thought was bean curd. It was thick like a cloth!

Traditional Peking Duck (北京清真傅統烤鴨) – The main event was next.

The Peking Duck came with very nice smoky flavors and I thought I tasted applewood or something fruity there as well. And the pancakes (春饼) I thought was top-notch (albeit a little hard to peel off).

Sautéed string beans with minced pork and chilli (干煸四季豆) – A little hard (instead of crunchy) on the outside. The spicy kick and numbing effects from the spices had everyone scrambling for water!

Simmered steamed rice with lobster bisque (龍蝦湯泡飯) – I didn't get the chance to take a photo of the lobster but the simmer steamed rice was pretty decent. The flavors of the bisque (and its orange color) was a little artificial though.

Braised tendon with scallions (蔥燒蹄筋) – This was the last dish to arrive and everyone was already stuffed. Not bad.

Dessert was next but everyone decided it was time to venture elsewhere for our sweet ending. After a bit of an adventure with our electronic payment (recurring theme), we finally left and the search was on again, this time for a good dessert place (more on that later).

Food Rating: 5/10

Price: ¥¥¥

Address: Shop 311, Level 3 Livat Beijing, 15 Xinning Street, Daxing District, Beijing, China

Closest Metro Station: Xihongmen (西红门)

Tel: +86 13693268825

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