Review of the Duck House

 

The Duck House is a contradiction in terms.  It is anything but.  Of the major duck purveyors in Los Angeles I rate it at the bottom.  The meat was tough, the hoisin sauce was soupy and the taste was off.  The pancakes were too thick.  In addition, like the old borscht belt joke, "The food was awful, and the portions were too small."  No Peking Duck is awful, this was still tasty, but the portion was small.  Not as small as shown above.  Our party was hungry and we scarfed down some duck before I took this picture.

The final critique--when the restaurant is busy, the service is chaotic.  For instance, for our party of eight we ordered two ducks, one for each end of the table.  The second duck arrived 30 minutes after the first.

Nonetheless, I rate the restaurant 3.5 stars out of a possible 5.  It may not be a duck house, but it is an excellent Chinese restaurant.  All of the other dishes we ordered were first rate.

The Walnut Shrimp was as good as I have had,  The shrimp had perfect texture, and there was just the right amount of sauce.  The same held true for the other dishes, scallion pancakes, spicy eggplant and garlic string beans.  The string beans were al dente and effusively garlicky.

The Duck House is at 501 So. Atlantic in Monterey Park.