Fowl Play

After my latest visit to Quanjude, I've decided to reduce my rating to 1 star.

The duck is OK but it's gotten so bloody expensive to be a downright rip-off. Aside from duck, there's nary an item on the menu that isn't overpriced. Want a simple vegetable to accompany your dish? The meagre selections of greens start in the range of RMB 60. For a plate of vegetables???

Here's my previous review, where I initially gave the joint 3 stars.

Quote:

Never in my experience of dining at chain restaurants have I come across one brand with such wildly inconsistent quality. Some locations of Quanjude are fabulous, some are utter crap. Rumor has it that the even within one location -- the Wangfujing location, to precise -- the quality (and price) varies floor by floor, with the first floor serving sloppy ducks for the masses and the top floor lovingly preparing the finest birds for Beijing's upper classes.

What all this means in practice is that your first visit to any location of this venerable "time-honored brand" is going to be the culinary equivalent of Russian Roulette, unless of course you have previous reports on that particular location beforehand.