iDen & Quan Ju De: Michelin star Peking duck in Vancouver
Vancouver currently has 9 restaurants that have earned a Michelin star βοΈ but I find a lot places and people get it mixed up with the other restaurants that are featured in the bib gourmand list. The bib gourmand list features restaurants that are still great quality but are also more reasonably priced, whereas the star distinction is not restricted by any price considerations.
iDen & QuanJuDe Beijing Duck House is one of the 9 restaurants that currently have a Michelin star and their rise to fame is their signature peking duck. Since they earned a Michelin star, I was interested in checking them out and this month we finally dined here with a friend who is actually a VIP at this restaurant π€©!
iDen & Quan Ju De Beijing Duck House
2808 Cambie St, Vancouver, BC V5Z 2V5
Recommended: Read my review of St. Lawrence, a French restaurant in Vancouver that also has a Michelin star. We celebrated my 31st birthday here.
The vibe
So one of the first things we noticed when we entered the restaurant was this really pretty blooming floral art display πΈ. They said it was for some sort of Chinese Valentine’s Day or holiday.
After checking in with the hostess, we were basically ushered past the dining room (which looked very pretty – open and spacious with high ceilings and those blue walls) and into a private dining room π―. The dining room can seat up to 6 people comfortably and it was very private and enclosed – our server William told us it is like a wine cellar in Italy. The room had mirrors on both walls and some warm lighting with red accents.
I believe these types of private rooms are only available for VIP members and they have more private dining options that can seat more people.
Food and drinks review
Prices are in CAD and rounded to the nearest dollar for simplicity.
Cocktails ($16+)
We each ordered a cocktail to start – this is kind of new to me because most standard Chinese restaurants I go to don’t really have cocktails on the menu.
Smoky phoenix 2oz ($22): My friend orders this cocktail, which uses 400 Conejos Mexcal, mango puree, maple syrup and fresh squeezed lime juice. It is fruity and refreshing with a smoky after-taste for a bit of a kick at the end.
Empress orchid 2oz ($18): I choose this cocktail because our server William tells me this is their prettiest and most Instagram-friendly cocktail ππ»ββοΈ. As expected, it was very colourful with a nice gradient. This cocktail uses Empress 1907 indigo gin, elderflower liquer, fresh pressed grapefruit juice and lemon juice, honey, and lavender bitters. I felt the taste was on the stronger side, but after you mix it all up it still tastes good (and I like my cocktails a little strong).
Espresso martini ($18): My other friend orders an espresso martini, which I actually don’t see on the cocktail menu so I just put $18 because that’s what a regular martini costs on their menu.
French olympics cocktail ($?): Kelvin orders the special cocktail of the day, which is inspired by the recent Paris olympics. It comes in the colours of the French flag, which also reminded me of those popsicles that have the same colours. I have no idea what is in this cocktail, but it is very fruity and tasted like candy.
Jellyfish salad ($28)
For our first dish, we try the jellyfish salad. It comes with cucumbers and cordyceps flower.
You can’t really tell from this photo but this is quite a small appetizer (the item on the right is the tip of my fork). The jellyfish salad is a cold dish and refreshing – I really like the texture of jellyfish salads in general. It is light and slightly sour.
I liked this dish but I was pretty surprised at how small the portion is for $28 π€―. And this is a notion that kind of continuously reoccurs for me throughout the night since Quan Ju De is an expensive restaurant.
Fruity sweet & sour pork ($38)
Call me a basic bitch π but one of my favourite Chinese dishes is sweet and sour pork, so I was happy when my friend wanted to order the sweet and sour pork for $38.
It came in a very cool presentation – a larger bowl with dry ice wafting around it like some sort of mystical dish. The actual dish of sweet and sour pork is – surprise – very small once again and strangely, it had blueberries which kinda threw me off (not usually in this dish) but I guess it’s fine because the blueberries were plump and sweet.
The sweet & sour pork was actually quite delicious. It is fried well and the sauce is on point. However, I don’t think I can justify paying almost $40 for this handful amount.
Quan ju de signature Beijing duck ($128)
This is the star of the show everybody! This is their signature Beijing duck that takes around 55 mins to prepare if you order it. It comes with steamed crepes, scallion, cucumber and a sweet soybean paste for you to create your own duck wraps. If you don’t know how to make one, the server will be happy to show you how (but they don’t fold the crepes for you, haha π).
They also have a premium duck that comes with caviar for $268 if you feel like balling out.
Since we were in a private room that didn’t have space for the chef or carver to carve the duck in front of us, they carved it right at the door of the room on a little pulley cart.
The first way to eat the duck is the skin that they carve for us. There weren’t that many pieces of skin that they prepared for us, but I did notice these pieces had basically no meat underneath the skin. Usually when I eat peking duck at other restaurants, there are a lot more pieces of skin but they always had some meat attached to it.
Here, we dip the skin into some sugar and it had a thin and crunchy texture. The skin was really tasty and didn’t taste too oily or greasy.
Next, the serve us 2 plates of Beijing duck meat. These are the pieces you would use in your little duck crepe wraps.
Each piece is cut pretty uniformly – all similar size and width and all of them had a bit of skin on them. Again, I am used to peking duck being chopped up to look like this:
The duck was quite good and I liked that they basically offer unlimited crepes, cucumber and scallion for you to make as make wraps as you want. The crepes are also quite thin so that was nice also.
$128 is still quite expensive for Beijing duck – you can order a Beijing duck meal set or with lettuce wraps for cheaper than this but I think for the quality, $128 between 4 people and a lot of duck wraps is not too outrageous.
Goby fish steamed with soy sauce ($158)
For our next main dish, we got a steamed fish. We originally wanted the grouper fish but they were out so we got the goby fish instead. It is a white fish and actually when this dish arrived, it reminded me of the steamed fish we had in Bali at Bali Sentosa Seafood.
The fish was yummy – very soft and silky fish meat and the flavours were on point with a simple soy sauce steaming method. Our server also removed all the bones for us so it was easy to eat π.
But at a price point of $158 .
Stir fried greens with golden garlic ($28)
I don’t have a photo of this dish because I forgot to take one, but essentially I suggested we order a vegetable dish because I am trying to eat more veggies. But really, I regretted suggesting this because I didn’t know everything on the menu would be so expensive π.
The least expensive veggie dish is this stir fried greens (the greens of the day was this small bok choy) with garlic – such a simple dish and it still costed $28. It was cooked well, but not well enough for me to pay $28 for veggies.
Coffee – free (if you’re a VIP)
We are told VIPs get free coffee after the meal so we ordered an Americano and 3 lattes. These coffee beverages are around $12 if you are not a VIP.
The coffee and lattes came in a pretty cute glass actually, and I quite enjoyed my latte even though I am not a big coffee drinker.
Final thoughts
Loewe’s rating: βοΈβοΈβοΈ
So we had a yummy dinner at Quan Ju De and I am really thankful to my friends for bringing me here and treating us to this meal as well as giving us access to a VIP experience that I didn’t know existed.
Was it worth it?
Unfortunately, I cannot share a solid yes from me on this question. I think most of the prices are pretty crazy π¬ – the jellyfish salad, sweet & sour pork, stir fried veggies, and the steamed fish… so almost everything. The only thing I think could be worth the price point is the signature Beijing duck, which is a saving grace since that is what this restaurant is known for. The quality is here – every dish was delicious and prepared well… just not well enough for these prices.
What about the VIP experience and service?
Being a VIP seems cool if you can afford their membership (I am told it’s around $2,000 to be a VIP π₯΄), but the main benefits they list out of VIPs is priority booking, free upgrades to a private room, access to member-only menu items, and free coffee and tea. None of these really seem to be worth a $2k price tag to me.
Pricing for VIP aside, I felt the service to be a bit overbearing π. Our server is a nice guy, hard-working, and definitely made sure we were well attended. But we were also asked multiple times to write 5 star Google reviews and make sure we mention certain things in our reviews, and there seemed to be in general, a lot of “sucking up” attitude to our VIP friend. It’s kind of strange to think for a fancy expensive restaurant with a Michelin star to have to resort to this type of “salesy” service behaviour.
Again, maybe some really enjoy this kind of service and VIP experience, but for me there were moments of awkwardness.
This, combined with some pretty high exorbitant prices leave me to give Quan Ju De a 3 star rating despite their Michelin star status π₯. When comparing against a lot of other good Chinese restaurants across the Lower Mainland with prices that are much more reasonable, I don’t think I will return again unless it’s for a very special occasion and there’s someone at my party who really wants to eat here.
Sincerely, Loewe