well. I personally don't the setting but it is the most ghetto place I have ever ate at. It is really out of the way and appear to be slightly dirty. The food was no where nearly as good as i expected. The sauce was too salty and not sweat enough. The duck had this wierd almost dirty taste on the skin that wasn't right.
To be fair, the duck wasn't bad, it was just really really average. On the plus side it was very fat. the pan cakes were thin.
major problems:
WAY overpriced especially when I am paying just for the food(the setting should be free) it was like 324 for two people.

slightly dirty

I feel this is one of those restaurants that USED TO BE good back in the day. there are tons of celebs and foreign dignitaries on the wall but I suspect those were taken years ago.

Maybe there was a time when the duck here was well made, before Da Dong took over the city with his awesome duck this might have been the non-Quanjude duck option, but these days, going here just doesn't make sense. You pay high end prices (close to what it would cost at Da Dong, Duck de Chine, Made in China) to eat in a dingy, grungy, downright dirty restaurant for a duck that really isn't that good. There is a reason why you'll only find expats (or mostly tourists) here, the food isn't that good and Chinese don't like being ripped off.

The food is good - you can't argue that. Is it the best duck in Beijing? Eh I'm not so sure about that, but it does give the likes of Da Dong and Quanjude a run for their money - it better considering the owner is a former Quanjude Master Roaster and Carver!

The Duck: Wonderfully roasted.
The Plum Sauce: Tasty
The Pancakes: Paper Thin
Overall: Excellent

The atmosphere. It's awesome if this is your first time to Beijing and filth is still a novelty, however for us long term residents it is ridiculous. My first visit was tonight - a rainy night - and half-way through our meal the "ceiling" above our table started leaking. I　heard that the owner wants to keep the place "authentic" well, the last time I checked, "authentic" didn't mean a leaky ceiling, dirty tables and plates, and un-swept floors.

The Price: WAY OVERPRICED for the condition of the restaurant you're eating in. You can pay the same amount and eat in a beautifully appointed dining room at Da Dong.

The Service: One word - Rude. Again, for the price you can eat in a beautifully appointed dining room at Da Dong where the fuwuyuan keep their snide remarks (and hands) to themselves.

Would I go back? Only if guests were in town.

Li Qun is the type of place worth visiting once for the shock factor of finding great food in a ramshackle environment. Out-of-town guests will find hutong location, the tiny dining room and filthy bathrooms charming in a rustic, Third World sort of way. Food's great but at some point you just kinda want to ditch the kitsch and go for a place that's not so run down and hard to get to.

After going for several times with visitors from outside China to Dadong, we went to Liqun to try another Beijing Duck restaurant, thinking it would be more "authentic" in this courtyard and we were very disappointed.
It is quite dirty (I am travelling all over China for my work and did eat in dirty places without problem but it was not the same standard and the price of food was not the same at all!): a foreign couple with pregnant lady was there at the same time and they left just in the middle of apetizers, just after the lady came to toilets!
The duck we were served was half cold already, the taste was Ok but nothing exceptionnal compared to Dadong or Quanjude ones and the service, as I saw in another review, was very very poor: we ask the waitress to change or at least heat again the pancakes as the ones we got were quite cold already when served and she said it is the way they should be and didn't want to take it back.

I don't know if reviewers from tourist and city guides had special cares from this restaurant when they visited as this restaurant is largely selected in various guides but I really don't see why it would be worth to go up to that hutong for this!