Beijing Impression

OK. How do we start. 1. Peking Duck is not as good as I expected. They did not use wood fire , let alone using fruit tree branches as fuel . I cannot taste any smoky flavour. For the price, this is a failure. However, the duck was decent, better than majority of the chinese restaurant out there, size is ok. However, I would prefer them to cut it with slightly more skin than flesh. It would be more enjoyable, as I grew up having tried the best peking duck on earth. I am more critical than most. 2. Other dishes were excellent. Vegetable salad, stir-fried lamb or vegetable and also the sweet and sour fish were made to excellent standard. You can have some of the best Beijing dishes here, thats for sure. 3. About the service. - this is a a draw back. Staff were nice, but not attentive enough. For example, for any peking duck restaurant, it is a common sense to serve the entree first, then the duck dish, then the rest of the dishes comes after you finish the duck. They served everything together including the desert, now this is a big failure. This isn't a local dumpling restaurant, if it was, then having them all lay out on the table make sense. 4. Table were way too small for 8 people, we had to put some of the dishes on a seperate chair, or on the side window. Lack of attention to details, I am sure an experienced waiting staff could solve your problem and this is another drawback. I would say this restaurant worth 4 stars, but service and the table size and the duck can easily take away 1 star. I would say it worth more or less 3.25 star. Will I come back, yes, probably with less people, and for its other dishes, not the duck. ps. to shop owner. - please present the duck to the table before carving it, as it looks great from what I could peek at the time. Serve it like a proper restaurant, try add some smoky flavour into the peaking duck, hire 1-2 professional and seasoned hospitality staff. You could be right up there in the 4.5 stars range. I hope when I come back next time, I can see some improvement.

One of the waiter is super friendly and pay attention to details and know what we need even before we ask for it. (While one waitress is quite impatient) The Peking duck is well cut, and roasted perfectly. The skin is very crispy. The lamb with coriander is also a good choice. Whereas the fried king oyster mushroom has lost its taste and texture after deep fried. Overall, we quite enjoy the food with a reasonable price and love the decorations in the restaurant.

As a Beijing born Chinese, I recommend this place. However, if you have no idea what Beijing food is like, kindly advise you don’t try it until you’ve been to Beijing. I personally still can’t stand to have beetroot after 15 years living in Australia. So it is one of those things you either love it or hate it. The portion size is small, but it gives me room to have more variety of food. I recommend 卤煮，烤鸭，烤肉，炒红果。

This place seems to specialise in Peking ducks as they roast them in house. They are quite good but the cuts are a little bit too meaty and they aren't very generous on the spring onions or cucumber. The sauce on the other hand is pretty close to perfect. The other dishes we ordered were not very impressive even though the waitress recommended them. Too many dishes were covered in thick sauce, it was too heavy on our palates making us wish there was something more acidic to balance it out. We came here early around 5.45 and it filled up very quickly leading me to believe the other reviews complaining about 2 hour waits We probably wont be back anytime soon... At least until the crowds die down. It's just not worth the wait

This is one of my shortlisted eateries in Ashfield. I have friends from Beijing who often ask to have a gathering at Beijing Impression, as the food is the closest to those in their hometown. This place has received their seal of authenticity. Roast Beijing duck is unsurprisingly the most popular dish, so is the flambé sticky rice dish (蜂窝煤，can’t remember its formal name in English but there is a flambé performance at your table when you order it). However, if you are not in a big group or are just interested in a light dinner for one or two, then try the Beijing fried sauce noodle (老北京炸酱面) and you’d be amazed that a bowl of noodle that is so simple can effortlessly entertain your tastebuds and bring you full gastronomic satisfaction. First, do your ritual of noodle-mixing. Throw the vegetables and sauce (came in a special serveware) into the freshly made warm noodles and give it a really good stir, after which you will observe the fried sauce happily clings to every strand of this floury wonder. The vegetables come in the set (carrot, spring onion, edamame, sprouts) really compliment the taste of noodle by adding texture, flavour and sophistication to the dish, when mixed into the noodles. Chewy, flavoursome and satisfying. I could have it every day! There are many other dishes I repeatedly order on different visits. Quality is consistent throughout. Price is reasonable. I have been there over a dozen times but have never been disappointed!

We had to wait 30 mins before being seated but for here on everything changes the service is impeccable, once being seated we had to change table so they can fit a three person table to ours the owner decided to give us the pear soup on the house (a really nice gesture and a bonus since my girlfriend wanted to order that anyways). We ordered a cold mixed dish that consisted of picked cabbage with wasabi, hawthorn fruit in vinegar, beef slices and a pork jelly dish. Everything from that dish was delicious and with small portions of Beijing snacks this is the best of them all. Next came the crispy prawns which both myself and my girlfriend considered a little too sweet although the prawns were fried to perfection. Followed from that is the fried mushrooms with beef this dish is really nice in however nothing exceptional from it (although it's more mushrooms than beef that isn't really an issue) Followed from that came the dessert (weird that they served dessert midway through the meal) the consistency of the dessert is that of a sweet bean cake that's just hard enough to be picked up but not so soft that it's crushed before it enters your mouth. The bean is grounded into a paste that cannot be picked up when eaten. I highly recommend this dish. Following that is a deep fried bread/dough dish that is served with a garlic dip (it's not a thick dip rather a watery liquid dip) although not to my liking but is one of the traditional Beijing snacks which I do recommend to try should you want that experience. And finally comes the big finale dish that everyone that goes here for the Peking duck which is roasted in house so none of the pre-purchased and reheated stuff. Beijing impression has 3 different sets you can chooses from 1. Is there signature set that consists of the whole duck and extra sides for $78. 2. A whole set but doesnt come with extra sides and 3. A half duck that just comes with the standard sides. We had the half set considering the amount of food we ordered. The duck was crispy on the outside and moist and soft on the inside the meat absorbed most of the juices and seasoning when it was cooked so great to be eaten by itself. (cannot recommend anymore) THE BONUS PEAR SOUP it's served as more of a drink rather than a traditional soup although not to my liking it is also a traditional Beijing food.

Fantastic restaurant. Definitely a must try. The staff are quick , polite and efficient. The dishes here are authentic beijing dishes with a nice modern twist. Visually well presented. Very tasty. Great atmosphere. Will be back .(We had the duck pancake, beef and vegetables and honeycomb rice scores: 7.5,9,8 out of 10) . Wait time - 3 people Saturday lunch time : 3 mins.