Imperial Treasure Super Peking Duck - Best Peking Duck in Singapore?

According to the latest Asia's 50 best restaurants list, Imperial Treasure Super Peking Duck is the Best Chinese Restaurant in Singapore (10th best overall). So by default, it should also have the best Peking Duck in the country ... right? We're not sure if this logic quite holds up, but we had a birthday to celebrate, so we headed over to the Paragon to get our duck on!


Better Peking Duck restaurants don't normally serve half or quarter portions, and no exceptions here - a whole duck is $78. While we usually decline the default peanuts/pickles appetizer, these sugar-coated crunchy walnuts were actually pretty good. Decently priced, too, at $3 (considering that Chinese tea is $2 per person).


Peking duck, as its name suggests, originates from Beijing a few centuries ago. The ducks are specially bred, seasoned and roasted to get the skin as crispy as possible. In most eateries the duck is sliced table-side by a chef (or by someone dressed up like one):


The first serving: a small plate of square duck skin, with instructions to dip into sugar and eat on its own. We're not quite sure which part of the duck this skin came from but it was irresistibly crisp. Pity that there are no second helpings - just 4 squares for 4 diners after all.


The rest of the skin is served with a thin layer of fats and meat. These ones are eaten the traditional way - with sliced cucumber, scallion and sweet bean sauce wrapped in pancakes. Or you could just eat it without any accompaniments and savor the crackling of the crisp skin, accentuated by the burst of juicy deliciousness from the fats just underneath. Superb.


Peking Duck, of course, is normally eaten two ways: Once all the crispy, fatty skin is gone, the remainder of the duck meat is fried with rice or noodles. We asked for noodles ($10 supplement) - which won't win any best dish accolades but was definitely good enough to serve as a tummy filler.


We also ordered one of of favourite egg-and-vegetable combination dishes for $18: Baby Bok Choy (小白菜) with three kinds of eggs - typically century egg, salted duck egg, and chicken egg with broth.


We won't go into whether the restaurant deserves it's spot on Asia's Top 50 restaurants list, but we did come away thoroughly impressed with the peking duck on offer. The decor's quite nice and classy, but as with practically all Chinese restaurants it does get rather noisy. The Imperial Treasure group has two Super Peking Duck outlets in the city - Paragon and Asia Square. Reservations recommended.