Disappointing

I had heard great things so I was really looking forward to taking our visitor to Da Dong Roast Duck in Dongsi shitiao last night.

As you are not able to book a table, we waited to be seated in the downstairs bar area.
There is a glass wall separating the bar from the duck ovens which is really fantastic. We sat looking directly at all the Chefs as they went about stoking the fires and roasting ducks. Really impressive! At least there was that...

Naturally, we were quite hoping to have a cocktail while we waited to be seated - that proved a challenge. As there was no staff actually working in the waiting area (there were approx. 20 ppl waiting in total) we ordered over the bar, which happens to be the same bar preparing drinks for all the downstairs tables. We waited 15-20 minutes or so without drinks (we followed-up twice during that time) and we were still empty handed by the time our table was ready. We informed the bar to send the drinks upstairs whenever they were ready.

We were then led upstairs and followed the waitress around in a haphazard manner across the restaurant. She clearly did not have a particular table in mind. We were sat at an unset table for 10 (there were 3 of us). It felt a bit odd, so we immediately asked to be moved which they were happy to do. We waited while they cleared and set a smaller table nearby.

Seeing as our drinks still hadn’t arrived we asked for some water. Despite asking again three times over 10-15 minutes, no water was brought. This was made even more frustrating by watching the staff chatting and lingering around by the water station. Our cocktails arrived (25-35 minutes wait in total) before our water was eventually poured and carried the 5 steps to our table. I would definitely have got the water myself (I tried to do so) but the water glasses were not kept at the station and we had no glasses on the table.

By the time we ordered, we were pretty frustrated with the experience so far and although the food was pretty great and the service improved, we still felt that it had been so disappointing to have had such a negative experience in the first hour of our arrival.
Unfortunately, we can never take clients there and I won’t take future guests… it just isn’t reliable enough. It was approx 250RMBpp including drinks. Nice décor and tasty duck, but the atmosphere was disorganized and the value for money was questionable.