QJD Peking Duck Restaurant - Markham, Ontario

Been curious to try this place for a while but never got around to it. The duck was nicely presented but didn’t seem anything “omg this is amazing outstanding” stand out over any Peking duck I’ve had at other restaurants. I actually think the one I ate at ... Bahamar was crispier. They odd thing was they didn’t bring out the remainder of the meat either in plain bony form, or like some restaurants stir fry it and serve in lettuce. I’m not sure where it went? Other food was fine, again nothing spectacular. Asparagus were quite tender. Service was decently attentive. I think it was one of those places I can say I’ve been but wouldn’t be yearning to go back to. Read more

For the price point, this is surprisingly a poorly performing place. Duck prices at the time of the review averages at nearly $100 for a full duck, and around $60 for half, when opting for the traditional Beijing duck experience (involving a dough wrap with onion and cucumbers as ... additives). A lot of mishaps noted: - The duck was overcooked, mitigating the natural sweetness to duck meat and instead resulting in a rough chewiness. - Duck slices were somewhat haphazard in shape and size. - Good cuts in similarly priced restaurants will avoid cutting close to the glands that cause a strong gaminess to the flavour; this wasn’t done with our serving. Other dishes we ordered were similarly disappointing. Dishes typically looked much worse than their menu counterparts, as you will see in our photos. More specific issues that we had: - The Japanese tofu dish is marketed as refreshing, but diners aren’t told that the tofu is deep fried. The tofu itself uses a very common tempura batter; in our experience, this was so heavily coated and poorly fried that the result was nauseating, with bites leaving a strong tempura batter aftertaste and a heaviness from the overuse of oil. A surprisingly very poor performance. - The red wine beef brisket is sold as a bit of a fusion dish. While there is some sweetness to the brisket at the end, the flavour is otherwise very trite and regular for a dish of this style. - We had also ordered the winter melon dish and couldn’t help but notice that the restaurant chose to use a combination of plate and dish that made scooping up the actual winter melon pieces impossible. You can pick up the pieces directly with chopsticks, but the whole point is to scoop the melon and sauce together. We usually don’t nitpick on these things — but again, as you’ve seen with the $$ amount, this is not a cheap dining experience. The average meal cost would suggest a certain level of attention to these details that wasn’t there. A really disappointing experience overall. Read more

Peking duck costs CAD 128 (on the top there is 13% tax and 15% tips) which is considered to be very expensive compared to the best ones in Beijing and Hong Kong. It reflects the typical mindset of high-class mainland Chinese restaurants, where they like to make the presentation extraordinary, especially ... in terms of plating. It is impressive how they plated the duck in a floral shape on a huge special plate, but honestly, the duck meat was already cold! The freshness and taste of the duck cannot compare to what you can get in Beijing, and the restaurant can only use an electric oven to grill the duck. Regarding the other two dishes: the eggplant is touted as an award-winning dish, but it's not as good as they described in the menu. The other vegetable dish is a typical dish. As for the service, it was reasonable, but after I paid with AMEX, the server suddenly asked me to pay with Visa or MasterCard. Since the transaction was already completed, I refused. What's the point of hassling the customer after the payment has been made? Are they just trying to save 1% on the AMEX fee, which is less than CAD 3? It's really frustrating and foolish to hassle the customers like this! Read more

Given the price point, food offered is on par with our expectation. Peking duck is delicious and you should always order it if you are there. Fried rice is also amazing. Portions are good. The place is well furnished, but sometimes we feel a bit cramped.

One of the best Peking ducks I’ve had in a long while. The duck’s skin was crispy, and the fat was rendered nicely. The wrappings were so thin, so you don’t get a mouthful of flour, instead you taste the duck.