Shop 8 & 9/375 William St, Northbridge
Ph: (08) 9228 9883
You can Peking all Year Round
Do you want to know the secret nosh pit for the top chefs and food critics in town? Tucked away in a small shopping centre off William Street is an ordinary looking Chinese Restaurant that has far from ordinary food!
We entered through the take-away area which was bright and clean, into a large open restaurant. We were greeted by owner Tim and a big pot of Chinese tea was popped in front of us with the little white cups. Hot and fragrant, just my cup of …
The original Roasting Duck was a tiny take-away until 4 years ago when Tim bought the shop next door and expanded into a BYO family run restaurant. His emphasis is on quality and freshness. All his food is cooked from scratch on site, not bought in as apparently happens in many restaurants.
He called it Four Seasons to create an “all year round” feel to the place. The emphasis is on Peking Duck and it also has an extensive Cantonese menu, including live seafood, ‘Snow crabs’, ‘Sang choy bow’ served in a lettuce cup, ‘Garlic king prawns’, ‘Salt and pepper squid’, ‘Coconut pudding’ and ‘Fried ice cream’.
We were served the house specialty ‘Peking duck’ which is a series of three courses.
The pancakes are DIY. We rolled the filling of golden crisp duck skin with a little meat attached, julienne cucumber, spring onion and chilli and hoy sin sauce into small rice flour pancakes and ate them in our fingers. Delicious! No wonder it is a Chinese favourite. I could really taste the skin and feel its crisp texture, and the crunchy vegetables plus the sauce made a winning combination.
As its BYO, we brought a bottle of Freshy Bay Shiraz 2005 and a bottle of Freshy Bay Chardonnay 2008, both Margaret River wines.
The chardonnay enhanced the flavour of this course but the shiraz had the upper hand. It brought out the taste of the duck beautifully.
The second course was ‘Shredded duck meat soup’ which is made from chicken stock to keep it light, Chinese mushrooms, bamboo shoots, Chinese black fungus, chilli, ginger and shredded duck. It was a nice thick soup bulging with goodies. I savoured the tang of ginger, the crunch of bamboo shoots, the smooth mushrooms and the generous pieces of duck. The white wine went nicely, but again the red was the winning wine to marry with this soup. Tim told us we could have more ginger or chilli added to taste but I was happy with the delicate blend of flavours.
The final course was ‘Stir fried shredded duck with noodles’. (There is an option with no noodles). There was loads of meat along with bean sprouts, egg noodles, sesame seeds and spring onions in a light soy sauce. It amazes me how the chefs get so much flavour from so few ingredients! Even though this dish was dry it was so flavoursome and moorish. The red wine again delivered the perfect combination.
I now understand first hand why the Four Seasons Roasting Duck has won so many awards. I have already made a note to bring my friends along.
Tim prides himself in keeping the costs down for patrons, making all main dishes the same low price.
Open six days a week from Thursday to Tuesday from 9.30 am to 10 pm, and popular Yum Cha is daily 10am to 3 pm.