London-based restaurant wizard Alan Yau (of Wagamama chain fame and Michelin-starred Hakkasan and Yauatcha) has waved his magic wand at China’s capital – SHAZAM! – and pulled a duck out of his hat. A sumptuously roasted Peking duck, that tastes, umm, magic.
OK, clumsy wizard metaphor over. He’s designed a restaurant in the Opposite House Hotel called Jing Yaa Tang. It’s one of the hottest openings of the year, it serves duck and it’s quacking brilliant.
Oh. You’re still here? More info, huh. Well, a glam bar beyond the entrance pours a line-up of signature cocktails like this eponymous beauty, the Jing Yaa Tang (infused bourbon whiskey, lemon juice, orange juice). Imagine the Chinese Don Draper – this would be his drink.
The dining space is artfully theatrical: a glassed-in kitchen presides over diners, the duck chefs slinging birds in and out of a crackling brick oven. Raised seating around the edges of the room enhances what you might call an amphitheatre of roasti….. HURRY UP ALREADY AND TELL ME ABOUT THE DUCK!!! Quite right. Read on.
Gimmicks here are few – Jing Yaa Tang’s noble bird is a stickler for tradition. Roasted over date wood and carved tableside, the dark glazed skin is shatteringly crisp then unctuously soft, the pale meat moist and substantial. Best of all, the pancakes are molecule-thin and steaming hot – too often an area where other roasters loose points. For extra sweetness, Jing Yaa Tang infuses its treacly sauce with ground dates. The condiments feature all the standards, served, like many of the dishes here, in playful, gourd-shaped tableware.
About those other dishes: JYT has rustled-up a button-popping rollcall of regional Chinese favourites, with everything from Sichuanese kungpao chicken and dandan mian to Hunanese smoked pork, Cantonese claypot fish and more.
It’s practically impossible to choose anything that picky eaters might shun, and the dishes we tried were working their socks off to upstage the duck. Dandan mian was delightfully aromatic with a lingering numbness courtesy of the Sichuan peppercorn. Braised greens were vibrantly, well, green and zappy. A dish of melt-on-the-tongue ‘three-cup’ cod with basil was an unabashed, booty grinding taste twerk.
Deserts were a lot of fun, too. Beijing’s traditional sweet treat of wandouhuang (pea flour cake) was plated up like a little tree, and as for JYT’s custard tarts – eating those was an experience our stomachs will tell their grandchildren in years to come. Save some room for them, if you can.
The verdict? We can confidently assert that Jing Yaa Tang is the most idiosyncratically ‘Beijing’ restaurant of contemporary times. It serves killer duck, and elects to pair it with unpretentious, crowd-pleasing Chinese regional fare (rather like the culinary melting pot of the city itself). Prices are very competitive, flavours big, bold and assertive. (Though thankfully the service is suitably sharp, slick and dare-we-say, ‘Southern’.) All in all, if JYT isn’t a hit in these parts, we will eat that giant rubber duck floating in the Summer Palace.
Jing Yaa Tang, B1/F, The Opposite House, Sanlitun Village, 11 Sanlitun Lu, Chaoyang District. +86 (0)10 6410 5240. Open daily for lunch and dinner.
About the author: Tom O’Malley is Propaganda Secretary at Bespoke Beijing. A lifestyle journalist, guidebook author, glutton and bon vivant, Tom is a tireless crusader for fine food, hospitality and tourist experiences in China’s capital.