Simon's Peiking Duck & Dessert Story

Simon's Peiking Duck

The animated & easy going Simon, hailing from the former glorius Old Kingdom in Collingwood, has been running his own restaurant in Boxhill South for some time now and of course, specialising in Peking Duck. The restaurant lacks atmosphere, the walls are quite bare and at most times, service can be abrupt but you come knowing what you want and what you want is Peking duck. When you call to make a booking, you need to specify how many ducks you will be having that night. Typically they recommend 1 duck between 2 people so we had 2 ducks between 4 people. With your duck course, you have an option of having it with either beanshoots and soup or for an extra $7 you can choose from a variety of noodles and the standard soup. Since we had 2 ducks ordered, we had one with beanshoots and one with handmade noodles. Thus, our dinner began with the Peking duck pancakes.

The pancakes were paper thin which Simon tossed to our plates from across the table with his usual flair.

Pancakes

The Duck all sliced up with extremely crispy skin and succulent meat. The duck legs and wings are left on the plates for diners to munch on which we do.

Peking Duck

With a piece of duck, cucumber, shallot & plum sauce, the Peking duck pancake is assembled and ready to eat. Sometimes nothing can beat good ol' Peking duck and this is one of those moments. The skin is delightfully crispy, which is the main feature of the duck, with a thin layer of fat and meat hiding underneath. The Duck wasn't as fatty and greasy as it typically/used to be so we felt this was one of the better Peking Duck meals.

Peking duck Pancake

The noodles looked extremely dull on arrival however their springy texture with slivers of bamboo & mushroom are very tasty. These noodles were the best I've had yet here at Simon's.

Home Made Noodles with Mushroom, Bamboo & Duck

The beanshoots retain their crunch and have a great "wok hei" flavour. Wok hei is a cantonese phrase which relates to the somewhat charred taste & aroma of food which is cooked in an extremely high tempuratured wok. Hard to explain but this dish was quite tasty albiet a bit greasy.

Beanshoots with Duck

The Duck soup is full of duck bones, ginger, star anise, vegetables and tofu. Usually I enjoy this soup alot but it was quite light on the duck flavour and tasted bland.

Duck Soup

Between 3 guys & myself, we were struggling to finish everything so perhaps 2 ducks was too much, but then again, 1 duck between 4 people is definitely not enough. Nonetheless, we were extremely full and satisfied with our fill of duck. No more duck for awhile, please.

Food: 8/10
Service: 7.5/10
Value: 7.5/10
Will I return? Yes, I always come here when I'm craving Peking duck!



Dessert Story

After our duck feast, we craved something sweet so off we headed to Dessert Story in Glen Waverley which recently opened and is very popular already. With groups of people spilling over onto the sidewalk, there would be a good 15 minute wait for a table of 4. Luckily there were massive heaters to keep us sane from the frosty winter weather.

Hanging lanterns

The menu shows a gigantic array of dessert offerings and overwhelms you with choice.

Menu

This is the signature dish at Dessert Story and the combination of the chewy Taro Balls and Herbal jelly was tasty.

Herbal Jelly with Ice, Taro Balls & Cream

Mr A was pleased with the Mango Pomelo Sago dessert he had and thought it wasn't overly sweet and one of the better versions he's had lately.

Mango Pomelo Sago in Coconut Milk

I love Grass Jelly and Red Bean and all the flavours went well together. The only bad points of this dessert were that it had too much Red Bean in it and I didn't like the ice shards in the vanilla ice cream. I will probably chose something with Green Tea Ice Cream next time.

Grass Jelly in Red Bean Soup with Vanilla Ice Cream

The Peanut Soup looked like a bowl of liquid Peanut butter and smelt like it. I was assured that it was tasty and warming though.

Peanut Soup

As you can see from our bill below, Dessert Story is reasonably priced.

Our bill total

I like that the servings are quite large and it is decently priced for one of the few dessert cafes in Glen Waverley. It is often packed but turnover is quick. The service may be lacking but the desserts are made at a fast pace and the quality is consistent. If you choose well, you will have quite a tasty dessert.

Food: 8/10
Service: 6/10
Value: 8.5/10
Will I return? Yes, a good alternative to all the surrounding cafes.