Every year, my now husband and I go out for my birthday for Peking Duck. Each place we've tried, we've enjoyed, and this year, we thought we'd go to the Peking Duck House in Orange, CT. With an outstanding review in the NY TImes, we thought we were in for a real treat. Instead, we were in for a real suprise. The restaurant is clean, and smelled wonderful. We sat down and ordered wonton soup to start, and the Peking Duck. You have a choice of a half or whole duck, so we asked for a whole duck. The wonton soup arrived, the broth was nice, but the wontons were overcooked and falling apart. The meat filling was fair, but the amazing thing was the frozen carrots and peas that were floating around??? Frozen veggies in wonton soup? Then the 1st course of Peking Duck, which was crispy duck skin with some meat, wrapped in thin crepes, with scallions and hoison sauce. The duck skin was well cooked, but the thick layer of fat that is supposed to be shaved off was still on the skin, and we were left to create our own wraps after cleaning the skin ourselves. The next course came, and we actually thought it was not the correct dish. The plate was overloaded with julienned carrots and celery, and about 4 cups of green beans which clearly came from the frozen food aisle along with the carrots and peas in the soup. We dug around the plate, and found about 1/2 of a breast worth of overcooked, dried out duck meat. All the duck meat in both courses amounted to about 1 breast worth. What happened to the rest of our whole duck? The only thing we can think is because we had a groupon for the meal, they cut down on the amount of duck. This restaurant and their supposed ""celebration"" of Peking Duck as touted in the NY times seems like nothing but a sales ploy. Over a year in business, they have no liquor license, and the chef who was mentioned in the NY Times as preparing the Peking Duck and creating the wraps tableside, seems to be non-existent. Too bad my 50th birthday was spent at an establishment wrought with false advertising.
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