Lacquered, glass-crisp skin carved at the table, rolled in a paper-thin pancake with scallion, cucumber and sweet bean sauce. This is Beijing's defining dish — here is how the open oven differs from the closed one, which duck houses locals actually queue for, and how to eat it the right way.
No dish is tied to a city more tightly than Peking duck is to Beijing — for plenty of travellers it is the reason to fly here, and it is a meal you remember long after. A good duck is the product of obsessive technique: air is blown between the skin and the flesh to separate them, the bird is scalded, brushed with a maltose syrup, then air-dried for hours until the skin is bone-dry before it ever sees the oven. The result is skin as thin and crisp as glass, meat that stays moist, and an aroma that reaches you the moment the bird leaves the heat.
What most visitors don't realise is that Peking duck comes from two distinct oven schools that give different skin and texture — and that the city's duck houses range from century-old institutions and Michelin-starred fine-dining rooms to tiny hutong spots the neighbourhood has eaten at for a lifetime. This guide lays out the difference in full, and tells you plainly which place suits which traveller, what each costs, and how to prepare before you go.
The chef carves the bird at your table into around a hundred thin slices — the rest is up to you. Here's the drill.
The thing outsiders rarely know — Peking duck is roasted two ways that give different skin and meat. Both are delicious, in different directions.
The duck hangs on a hook over an open fire of burning fruitwood — date, peach or pear. The fierce, direct heat gives the skin an exceptionally glassy crispness and lends the meat a faint smoky-wood aroma, and the chef turns the bird so it roasts evenly. This is the school of Quanjude and most of Beijing's famous duck houses, including Siji Minfu and Da Dong (which evolved it into a spherical oven).
A fire heats the oven walls until they're searing, then the fire is put out and the duck roasts in the stored radiant heat, never facing the flame. It cooks slowly and evenly, so the meat comes out noticeably juicier, with less smoke and a slightly softer skin than the open oven. It's the older method, and the school kept alive by Bianyifang, which traces this lineage back centuries.
From the place locals queue for to the tourist institutions and the fine-dining rooms — with a straight word on who each one suits.
Ask a Beijinger where they take visitors for duck and many will say Siji Minfu — consistent quality, fair prices, and at the Gugong (故宫) branch on Nanchizi Street, window tables that look straight across the moat to the Forbidden City wall, which is exactly why the queue here is the longest in town. Crisp skin arrives with sugar to dip for the first bite, the meat is beautifully carved, the condiments are complete. It is the best value in the upper tier.
The name the whole world reaches for when it thinks of Peking duck — Quanjude pioneered the open, fruitwood-fired oven back in 1864. The Qianmen flagship seats close to a thousand and runs over 400 staff, with chefs carving the bird tableside in the full ceremonial way. Be honest with yourself: this is a heavily touristed restaurant and it prices above the local spots. But if you want to see the original and soak up the full sense of history, this is the landmark.
If Quanjude represents the open oven, Bianyifang is the keeper of the older closed-oven (焖炉) school — the restaurant's lineage is claimed back to 1416, more than six hundred years. The duck here never faces the flame; it roasts in the oven's stored heat, so the meat comes out especially juicy and the skin softer than the open-oven version. If you've only ever had open-oven duck, this is where you meet the other personality of Peking duck that many people never knew existed.
Da Dong broke with tradition using a spherical wood-fired oven in place of the classic square one, producing what it calls "su bu ni" (酥不腻) duck — intensely crisp skin that isn't greasy, because nearly all the fat under the skin is rendered away. It's a refined, contemporary take, plated like fine dining, holds a Michelin star, and comes with a long menu of modern Chinese dishes. This is the one for a special meal or for anyone curious to see Peking duck taken upmarket.
Peking duck in an entirely different setting — Duck de Chine sits in an old Beijing courtyard dressed with painted beams and red pillars, roasts a crossbred duck over date wood, and serves it to the sound of a struck gong as the bird reaches the table. It's a polished, contemporary reading of the dish with a French accent, made for a celebration or a special night. The prices match the experience.
Tucked deep in the residential hutongs near Qianmen, finding your own way there is half the experience — you wind past old courtyard homes and washing lines to a small place that has roasted duck in an open wood oven for decades. Liqun once featured on an Anthony Bourdain show, and it still delivers an old-Beijing atmosphere the big houses simply can't. Around ¥120–200 per person, the setting is very basic — but that's the charm. Call ahead and check directions carefully before you go.
A small duck house on Chun Xiu Road in Chaoyang that local workers and clued-in travellers keep coming back to — genuinely good duck, gentle prices, a lively local buzz, and an outdoor terrace for a fine evening. It isn't fancy and there's no ceremony, but you get crisp-skinned, well-roasted duck at a price that makes it an easy repeat. A solid choice if you're staying around Sanlitun or Chaoyang.
One duck comfortably feeds two to three people, served with condiments (pancakes, scallion, cucumber, sauce) that some places charge for separately. Price per duck ranges from about ¥138 at a local spot to about ¥498 at the fine-dining rooms.
Travelling as a pair? Most restaurants offer a half duck at roughly half the price — just ask the staff, no need to feel awkward about it.
Book the famous places ahead, above all the Siji Minfu moat-view branch with the longest queue — take a number through the Dianping app or go in the 2–4pm afternoon lull.
The duck itself takes 45–60 minutes to roast at some places; a few fine-dining rooms let you pre-order the bird when you reserve, so you're not left waiting.
Most places run on WeChat Pay and Alipay; the big houses and fine-dining rooms take foreign credit cards, but small hutong spots like Liqun are worth carrying some cash for.
Set up Alipay with a foreign card before you fly — it's the smoothest way to pay all trip.
Peking duck is a meat dish with no traditional vegetarian version — but the pancakes, scallion, cucumber and sweet bean sauce are all vegetarian.
The bigger houses — Quanjude, Bianyifang, Da Dong — have vegetable and tofu dishes to share at the table. If your whole table is vegetarian, a general Chinese restaurant will give you more to work with.