Beijing Roast Duck
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Beijing Roast Duck
Written by Matteo Updated Nov. 15, 2025
Beijing roast duck is a renowned dish in Beijing, boasting a worldwide reputation. A visit to Beijing is not complete without trying Beijing duck.
This tasty cuisine has been passed down for generations. High-quality stuffed duck is the raw material, hung in an oven, and roasted over a fire burning fruit tree wood. Roasted duck looks bright and dark red with a crispy skin, and is traditionally cut into a hundred and eight slices before serving to customers. The meat tastes fleshy and fatty but not greasy.
Beijing roast duck is categorized into two main genres based on the cooking method. One is a hanging roasted duck, and the other is a braised roasted duck in a closed oven. The two popular roast duck restaurants in Beijing, Quanjude and Bianyifang, are the most representative of these two genres.
Three Well-Known Roast Duck Restaurants in Beijing
Quanjude is the most well-known among Chinese and overseas tourists. It uses a traditional method to roast ducks. Despite the high demand today, all the roast duck is still cooked by hand, not by machine, as hand-made products are more valuable and authentic than machine-made products.
The authentic taste has been passed down for generations. In Beijing, there are ten Quanjude chain restaurants open in the main districts. They are always fully booked for lunch and dinner. Book before you go.
Bianyifang mainly serves stewed roast duck. It is popular because it maintains the duck's nutrition through stewing. The process of roasting a duck maintains the duck's mineral elements, such as potassium, calcium, manganese, iron, copper, and other trace elements in significantly higher amounts than ordinary roast duck.
Duck breast fat and calories are significantly lower, and there is higher carbohydrate content. The protein content of the duck is unaffected. It is altogether a healthier option, reducing the health problems associated with excessive intake of fat. There are 21 Bianyifang restaurants open in the main districts of Beijing. The average cost is CNY100 per person.
Dadong Roast Duck Restaurant is focused on the high-end market. It has a high reputation among foreign tourists and is recommended by many tourist guidebooks. The restaurant not only serves exquisite roast duck, but also provides outstanding service. It is decorated in the ancient Chinese imperial palace style. The walls imitate the palaces of the Ming and Qing dynasties, as does the traditional window lattice-work, and bright yellow table cloths.
Quanjude
Quanjude is the most famous time-honored brand restaurant for Peking Roast Duck in China. Quanjude enjoys a high reputation for its special roasting technique and its longstanding culinary heritage.
Technique
Distinct from the method of Bianyifang, where ducks are roasted with radiant heat in a closed oven, Quanjude hangs ducks from a hook in the ceiling of the oven and roasts them over burning non-smoky hardwood fuel, such as Chinese date, peach, or pear, to add a subtle fruity flavor and a golden crispiness to the skin.
Besides the peculiar roasting technique, Quanjude has a well-established integrated process from raw duck selection, to feeding, to slaughtering, and it ensures the fat but not greasy, crispy but tender taste of Quanjude roast duck.
Dishes
Quanjude is a famous national brand of restaurant in China. It specializes in roast duck and duck dishes.
It was founded in 1864 (in the Qing Dynasty) and, following hundreds of years of development and innovation, it has formed a duck cuisine series including roast duck and other duck dishes (including ducks' internal organs).
The profound food culture of Quanjude roast duck is now regarded as an important part of Chinese culinary art, and is also popular abroad. We have carefully selected six dishes from the menu that are most representative of Quanjude duck dishes.
Roast Duck - Highly Recommended: Quanjude roast duck has a long history and is a must-try dish in a Quanjude restaurant. The duck is roasted by hanging in an oven over a fruit tree charcoal fire for a strictly controlled 45 minutes.
The features of roast duck are crisp skin, tender meat without tendons, and fruit tree fragrance. When roasted and dried, the duck is a brilliant dark red, brightened with oil.
The traditional way to eat roast duck is to put the meat, together with onion and cucumber, in a Chinese pancake, roll it up, and dip it in sweet soybean sauce.
Quanjude Mustard Duck Plum: This dish is considered the most popular among the Quanjude cold dishes. The texture is soft and tender, with a strong flavor of mustard. It tastes fresh and a bit spicy, and will awaken your taste buds.
Quanjude Stewed Duck Heart: This dish is marinated with Maotai Wine (a nationally recognised brand), and seasoned with pepper powder, sugar, and soy sauce. The duck heart is cut into a flower shape. It is crisp outside and tender inside after stewing. Enjoy the color and its wonderful taste.
Quanjude Boiled Duck Liver: This dish features a brown color, soft and tender texture, with a mellow smell. It is a bit salty but has a wonderful taste.
Quanjude Gravy Duck Gizzard: This dish tastes salty, fresh, and nicely fragrant. The texture is soft, crisp, but firm; a nice choice accompanied by wine.
Bianyifang
Bianyifang, founded in 1855, makes use of a closed oven and straw as the fuel, using this method ensures that flames will not go directly onto the duck. Before being put into the oven, a duck is filled with specially-made soup to make it possible to roast the duck outside and boil it inside at the same time.
Technique
Beijing roast duck is divided into two types. One is the roast duck made with a closed oven, where the heat is from the inner oven wall. Bianyifang is representative of the closed-oven type, with ducks roasted without using an open fire.
The other type is roast duck made with a half-open oven (an oven without a door) where the duck is hung over the heat, using fruit trees as charcoal. It requires higher technical expertise to roast a duck using a closed oven.
The heat in the oven is composed of the fire and the heat from the inner oven wall, which requires a well-controlled temperature to make sure the roast duck is crisp and tender.
Before being put into the oven, a duck is filled with a specially-made soup to make it possible to roast the duck outside and boil it inside at the same time. Roasting in a closed oven reduces impurities resulting from open fire roasting.
With crisp skin outside and tenderness inside, having flavorsome fat without being greasy, and a fresh and delicious taste, the closed-oven roast duck of Bianyifang enjoys a great reputation for being a green food.
Dishes
Besides the main roast duck dish, Bianyifang has created a series of additional duck dishes, such as Crispy Roast Duck with Flower Fragrance, Crispy Roast Duck with Vegetable Fragrance, Salty Duck Liver, Crystal Duck Tongue, Duck Feet with Mustard Sauce, Drunken Duck Heart with Rice Wine, and Dry Fried Four Duck Treasures. You should give it a try when paying a visit to the restaurant.
Beijing Roast Duck Branch Restaurants
The most famous roast duck restaurants in Beijing are Quanjude and Bianyifang. They have many branches in Beijing.
Qianmen Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant
Qianmen Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant is the oldest Quanjude branch and the representative of the time-honored Quanjude Brand, dating back a hundred years.
Address: No.30, Qianmen Street, Beijing
Nearby Places: Tiananmen Square, Wangfujing Street, the Forbidden City, Liulichang Street
Hepingmen Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant
Hepingmen Quanjude is the largest roast duck restaurant, opened in 1979. It can accommodate over 2,000 guests dining at the same time.
Address: No.14, Qianmen Street (West), Xuanwu District, Beijing
Nearby Places: Tiananmen Square, Wangfujing Street, the Forbidden City, Liulichang Street
Wangfujing Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant
The Wangfujing branch was established in 1959. The well-known All-Duck Banquet is headed by QUANJUDE roast duck and supported by over 400 dishes with QUANJUDE's characteristic flavor.
Address: No.9, Shuaifuyuan Hutong, Dongcheng District, Beijing
Nearby Places: Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, Liulichang Street, Hutong, Shichahai, Nanluoguxiang
Fangzhuang Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant
Address: No.18 Pufang Road (Southeast Corner of Fangzhuang Huandao, near Carrefour), Fangzhuang, Fengtai District, Beijing
Nearby Places: the Temple of Heaven, Kungfu Theater, Liyuan Theater
Olympic Village Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant
Address: Building A. Tianchuangshiyuan, No. 309, West Huizhong Street, Chaoyang District, Beijing
Nearby Places: Olympic Green, the Summer Palace, Beijing Zoo
Hademen Bianyifang Roast Duck Restaurant
Address: No.2 chongwenmenwai Dajie jia, Beijing
Nearby Places: the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Wangfujing Street
Xingfu Dajie Bianyifang Roast Duck Restaurant
Address: No.36 Xingfu Dajie, Chongwen District, Beijing
Nearby Places: Tiananmen Square, Wangfujing Street, the Forbidden City, Liulichang Street
Anhua Bianyifang Roast Duck Restaurant
Address: No.6 Mid Road, the North Third Ring (Beisanhuan Zhonglu), Xicheng District, Beijing
Nearby Places: Tiananmen Square, Wangfujing Street, the Forbidden City, Liulichang Street
Yutingqiao Bian Yi Fang Roast Duck Restaurant
Address: No.73 Tiantan Donglu, Chongwen District, Beijing
Nearby Places: the Temple of Heaven
The New World Center Bianyifang Roast Duck Restaurant
Address: 3F, 2nd II, Beijing New World Center, No.5 Chongwai Dajie, Chongwen District, Beijing
Nearby Places: the Temple of Heaven
History of Beijing Roast Duck
Beijing roast duck is one of Beijing's unique and classical cuisines. The duck has a long history of over 1,500 years. Legend has it that an emperor of the Yuan Dynasty (1206-1368) occasionally hunted wild ducks and then roasted them.
He used a simple and original method to roast the duck. It was listed as an imperial dish in the Complete Recipes for Dishes and Beverages, written in 1330 by Hu Sihui, who was an imperial doctor. He wrote how to cook the duck in his book.
In the Ming Dynasty, when the capital was shifted from Nanjing to Beijing, Roast Duck became one of the famous official dishes. The first restaurant specializing in Peking duck was Bianyifang, which was set up in the Xianyukou, Qianmen area of Beijing in 1416. In this period, the method of cooking duck was to hang the duck from the ceiling of an oven and roast it over burning wood.
The walls of the oven were first heated with sorghum stalks, and then the duck was placed inside and cooked by the heat given off by the walls. Bianyifang roast duck is crisp to the touch and golden brown in appearance.
During the Qianlong Period (1736-1796), roast duck was a favorite dish among the upper classes. According to the records in a book named Zu Ye Ting Za Ji, it said that roast duck was a popular gift given when visiting friends or relatives. In one collection of Beijing poems, it was written Fill your plates with roast duck and suckling pig.
The best seasons to eat Beijing roast duck are spring, autumn, and winter. Eating roast duck has a variety of methods. The main method involves the chef slicing the duck into more than 100 thin flakes with meat and a piece of crispy skin in each slice. Diners then take a small, thin pancake, roll it up with a piece of meat and small slices of spring onions inside, and lastly dip it in a sweet sauce and take a bite.