Simon Lay has been described as rude and arrogant and named
the “Duck Nazi”, but our experience was quite a bit different. He is a perfectionist, without doubt, in the
preparation of Peking Duck and his antics in the dining room are fun. If you want the best Peking Duck in
Melbourne, but don’t have a sense of humour, don’t go. Simon’s stock-in-trade is perfectly prepared
and inelegantly served roasted duck – the standard 3-course menu is Peking Duck
served in pancakes, then a noodle dish with the ‘white’ meat from the duck and
the last is a clear soup prepared from the residue of the duck. All three courses are delicious and the
choice of soft noodles with the second course was a wise one – they are scrumptious.
Simon’s Peiking Duck Restaurant is in Middleborough Rd, Box
Hill Sth and we decided the day before when talking to friends, to try it
out. Bookings are essential as the ducks
are prepared well in advance and the place is very popular, but we were
fortunate to get a table. You also need
to order the number of ducks required, but 2 ducks for a table of 4 people is
quite sufficient. The dining room is very
noisy and meals are served in shifts, so the tables turn over at least once
during the evening, with a 6pm and 8pm sitting.
Lots of tables are occupied by chinese families which usually indicates
that the food is authentic. The staff
are attentive without being overly professional and Simon, himself, serves the
duck with the pancakes, flipping the pancakes across the table to land on
plates at each setting. He then proceeds
to show diners how to fold the duck and vegetables into the pancake. He is quite a character! And the duck is superb!
The restaurant is fully licensed or BYO and we shared a
couple of bottles of delightful local pinot noir, which went beautifully with
the food. One bottle was from the Yarra
Valley and the other from the Mornington Peninsula, both extremely enjoyable in
their own way, but somewhat different in character. One thing to remember when dining here is don’t
bring the credit card – this is a cash-only experience, but don’t expect to be
spending heaps either, because each duck is only $55 and we ate 2 ducks for our
table – very economical. Corkage is very
reasonable and ‘deluxe’ noodles adds a few dollars, but this is one dining
experience which we’ll repeat, perhaps often.
