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Twin Garden at Taipei International Hotel (台北國際飯店雙園廳)

Twin Garden's Beijing barbecued duck offers five-star dining for a reasonable price. PHOTO: HO YI, TAIPEI TIMES

Beijing Quan Ju De Restaurant's (北京全聚德餐廳) foray into Taipei's dining scene with its take on the classic Beijing barbecued duck (北京烤鴨) has created quite a stir among foodies. But if spending more than NT$2,000 on the dish doesn't seem like a rational expense, Twin Garden at Taipei International Hotel (台北國際飯店雙園廳) offers a bargain version of a similar quality.

Located at the intersection of Nanjing East Road and Linsen North Road and overlooking two city parks, the first-class restaurant at the boutique hotel stands out from the crowd as it combines the two perennial favorites of great Chinese cuisine: dim sum and Beijing barbecued duck.

Quan Ju De uses frozen meat to make its version of the duck dish, but, for half of the price it charges, Twin Garden uses freshly slaughtered ducks.

The key to the dish is to bring out the flavor of the meat and skin, the hotel's general manager Chen Yu-qi (陳昱齊) revealed. No condiments are added except for malt sugar to make the skin crispy and give it a wonderful golden hue.

The whole duck hangs in a huge stove for 50 minutes.

Crisp on the outside and juicy on the inside, the duck skin wrapped in freshly made flat cakes melts in the mouth and is spiced up with green onion and the sauce. If green onion is too potent for your taste buds, it can be substituted with cucumber.

The restaurant offers two classic side dishes: fried duck meat wrapped in lettuce (鴨鬆) and pickled duck broth (酸菜鴨架湯).

Fresh lettuce goes extremely well with the smokey taste of the shredded duck.

As for the highlights on the dim sum menu, the steamed rice sheet roll with shrimps (蝦仁腸粉) had an exceptional, gel-like texture.

Regular items on the menu at any Cantonese restaurant, leek dumplings (韭菜餃) and barbecued pork shortcake (叉燒酥) are the two must-tries at the Twin Garden as the use of high quality ingredients makes all the difference in creating a distinguished dim sum set.

Reservations are recommended as on a previous visit the tables filled up quickly at the weekend and the restaurant serves a limited number of the duck set menus per day.

Address: 66 Nanjing E Rd Sec 1, Taipei(台北市南京東路一段66號)
Telephone: (02) 2562 7569 or (02) 6608 5999
Open: 11:30am to 2:30pm; 5pm to 9:30pm
Average meal: NT$500
Details: English and Chinese menu; credit cards accepted

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