Simon's Peking Duck is a small, but extremely busy Peking Duck restaurant located in a small strip of shops on Middleborough Road. The restaurant is well known as having some of the best Peking duck in Melbourne, which has left the restaurant extremely busy, which means bookings are essential. Simon's is most well known for its Peking duck sets, in which you purchase a whole duck, which is then portioned out into different dishes including the traditional Peking duck wraps.
Simon's Peking Duck
Pancakes
Spring onion and cucumbers
Peking duck
Duck wrap
The duck was tender and the skin was slightly crispy, which was quite pleasant when eaten with the pancake wrap. The duck at Simon's Peking Duck restaurant is sliced in such a way that it leaves a decent amount of the meat on the skin. This gives the pancake wrap a more substantial bite, but with less texture than the traditional method, which leaves only a tiny bit of meat on the skin so the crispiness of the skin stands out.
Duck meat stir fried noodles
The remaining duck which was unsuitable for use in the pancake wrap was made into duck meat stir fried noodles. The dish itself was quite bland and lacking in seasoning, while the noodles were very mushy.
Duck bone soup
My experience at Simon's Peking Duck restaurant was filled with ups and downs. The noodles were not very pleasant, both in flavour and texture. Although the duck was definitely a highlight of the meal and deserving of the praise it receives as one of Melbourne's best, the only comparison I have is when I visited Quanjude in Beijing, which was on a completely different level.
Food Rating 7.5/10
Overall Rating 7.5/10