Dayali - Spinach and Peanuts, Stir fried Tea Tree Mushrooms, and Yes, Peking Duck

Dayali Beijing Roast Duck
20 Gibson Dr.
Markham, ON L3R 0M7
T: 905-604-8680

About a month ago I was craving Peking duck, so I invited some friends to come try it out with me. We have ordered Peking duck for just 2 of us but I thought it would be good to try some other dishes and looking at the menu, I wanted to try a lot of other dishes!

We ordered the signature duck which was pricier, but unfortunately it wasn't the star of the show that afternoon. It was good but not "you have to eat this HERE!" type reaction.

The signature duck I believe comes with the extra slices of skin that I are around the chest area, fattier than other parts. It also comes with a warmer for the wrappers and extra sides which actually weren't that interesting after all. Overall, this was an average tasting bird. The special pieces were crisp but also because of the fattieness, the fat was somewhat "spongy" as my partner put it.

We ordered a number of sides to go with our duck...

From top L (counter clockwise): meat jelly, glutinous rice stuffed lotus root, spinach and peanuts, jelly fish, marinated duck wings

The best was the spinach and peanuts but it is a spicy dish.

Here are the other items we ordered...

 

Beef noodle soup

Fried rice

Tea tree mushroom stirfry (You can buy these at Chinese supermarkets...they don't taste like tea though, or at least I don't think so since it was stir fried with soy sauce and chilis)

Braised pork with glutinous rice

Spicy clams

 

Dishes that I'd order again based on taste:

Spinach and peanut salad
Spicy clams
Stir-fried tea tree mushrooms (although the picture in the menu was quite different, showing a mix of different types of mushrooms which would have been more ideal): these mushrooms are chewy and the dish is spicy so if might not be everyone's cup of tea.

Average:

Beef noodle soup
Lotus root stuffed with glutinous rice (sweet tasting)
Braised pork with glutinous rice (very little glutinous rice)
Fried rice (can't remember the exact name but I believe it was seafood)

Lacking flavour and wouldn't order again:

Meat jelly
Marinated duck wings

A number of the dishes seemed quite oily but I know that this is often the case.


Service was sub-par...there weren't many servers to attend to the tables, a friend had to get up and get little things like extra napkins himself!