Review Beijing Impression - Ashfield

OK. How do we start. 1. Peking Duck is not as good as I expected. They did not use wood fire , let alone using fruit tree branches as fuel . I cannot taste any smoky flavour. For the price, this is a failure. However, the duck was decent, better than majority of the chinese restaurant out there, size is ok. However, I would prefer them to cut it with slightly more skin than flesh. It would be more enjoyable, as I grew up having tried the best peking duck on earth. I am more critical than most. 2. Other dishes were excellent. Vegetable salad, stir-fried lamb or vegetable and also the sweet and sour fish were made to excellent standard. You can have some of the best Beijing dishes here, thats for sure. 3. About the service. - this is a a draw back. Staff were nice, but not attentive enough. For example, for any peking duck restaurant, it is a common sense to serve the entree first, then the duck dish, then the rest of the dishes comes after you finish the duck. They served everything together including the desert, now this is a big failure. This isn't a local dumpling restaurant, if it was, then having them all lay out on the table make sense. 4. Table were way too small for 8 people, we had to put some of the dishes on a seperate chair, or on the side window. Lack of attention to details, I am sure an experienced waiting staff could solve your problem and this is another drawback. I would say this restaurant worth 4 stars, but service and the table size and the duck can easily take away 1 star. I would say it worth more or less 3.25 star. Will I come back, yes, probably with less people, and for its other dishes, not the duck. ps. to shop owner. - please present the duck to the table before carving it, as it looks great from what I could peek at the time. Serve it like a proper restaurant, try add some smoky flavour into the peaking duck, hire 1-2 professional and seasoned hospitality staff. You could be right up there in the 4.5 stars range. I hope when I come back next time, I can see some improvement.

One of the waiter is super friendly and pay attention to details and know what we need even before we ask for it. (While one waitress is quite impatient) The Peking duck is well cut, and roasted perfectly. The skin is very crispy. The lamb with coriander is also a good choice. Whereas the fried king oyster mushroom has lost its taste and texture after deep fried. Overall, we quite enjoy the food with a reasonable price and love the decorations in the restaurant.

Food was amazing and delicious! I especially loved the Peking duck :) Has a little bit of issue grabbing waitress attention, but they were very friendly and nice :)

As a Beijing born Chinese, I recommend this place. However, if you have no idea what Beijing food is like, kindly advise you don’t try it until you’ve been to Beijing. I personally still can’t stand to have beetroot after 15 years living in Australia. So it is one of those things you either love it or hate it. The portion size is small, but it gives me room to have more variety of food. I recommend 卤煮，烤鸭，烤肉，炒红果。

This place seems to specialise in Peking ducks as they roast them in house. They are quite good but the cuts are a little bit too meaty and they aren't very generous on the spring onions or cucumber. The sauce on the other hand is pretty close to perfect. The other dishes we ordered were not very impressive even though the waitress recommended them. Too many dishes were covered in thick sauce, it was too heavy on our palates making us wish there was something more acidic to balance it out. We came here early around 5.45 and it filled up very quickly leading me to believe the other reviews complaining about 2 hour waits We probably wont be back anytime soon... At least until the crowds die down. It's just not worth the wait

This is one of my shortlisted eateries in Ashfield. I have friends from Beijing who often ask to have a gathering at Beijing Impression, as the food is the closest to those in their hometown. This place has received their seal of authenticity. Roast Beijing duck is unsurprisingly the most popular dish, so is the flambé sticky rice dish (蜂窝煤，can’t remember its formal name in English but there is a flambé performance at your table when you order it). However, if you are not in a big group or are just interested in a light dinner for one or two, then try the Beijing fried sauce noodle (老北京炸酱面) and you’d be amazed that a bowl of noodle that is so simple can effortlessly entertain your tastebuds and bring you full gastronomic satisfaction. First, do your ritual of noodle-mixing. Throw the vegetables and sauce (came in a special serveware) into the freshly made warm noodles and give it a really good stir, after which you will observe the fried sauce happily clings to every strand of this floury wonder. The vegetables come in the set (carrot, spring onion, edamame, sprouts) really compliment the taste of noodle by adding texture, flavour and sophistication to the dish, when mixed into the noodles. Chewy, flavoursome and satisfying. I could have it every day! There are many other dishes I repeatedly order on different visits. Quality is consistent throughout. Price is reasonable. I have been there over a dozen times but have never been disappointed!

We had to wait 30 mins before being seated but for here on everything changes the service is impeccable, once being seated we had to change table so they can fit a three person table to ours the owner decided to give us the pear soup on the house (a really nice gesture and a bonus since my girlfriend wanted to order that anyways). We ordered a cold mixed dish that consisted of picked cabbage with wasabi, hawthorn fruit in vinegar, beef slices and a pork jelly dish. Everything from that dish was delicious and with small portions of Beijing snacks this is the best of them all. Next came the crispy prawns which both myself and my girlfriend considered a little too sweet although the prawns were fried to perfection. Followed from that is the fried mushrooms with beef this dish is really nice in however nothing exceptional from it (although it's more mushrooms than beef that isn't really an issue) Followed from that came the dessert (weird that they served dessert midway through the meal) the consistency of the dessert is that of a sweet bean cake that's just hard enough to be picked up but not so soft that it's crushed before it enters your mouth. The bean is grounded into a paste that cannot be picked up when eaten. I highly recommend this dish. Following that is a deep fried bread/dough dish that is served with a garlic dip (it's not a thick dip rather a watery liquid dip) although not to my liking but is one of the traditional Beijing snacks which I do recommend to try should you want that experience. And finally comes the big finale dish that everyone that goes here for the Peking duck which is roasted in house so none of the pre-purchased and reheated stuff. Beijing impression has 3 different sets you can chooses from 1. Is there signature set that consists of the whole duck and extra sides for $78. 2. A whole set but doesnt come with extra sides and 3. A half duck that just comes with the standard sides. We had the half set considering the amount of food we ordered. The duck was crispy on the outside and moist and soft on the inside the meat absorbed most of the juices and seasoning when it was cooked so great to be eaten by itself. (cannot recommend anymore) THE BONUS PEAR SOUP it's served as more of a drink rather than a traditional soup although not to my liking it is also a traditional Beijing food.

Fantastic restaurant. Definitely a must try. The staff are quick , polite and efficient. The dishes here are authentic beijing dishes with a nice modern twist. Visually well presented. Very tasty. Great atmosphere. Will be back .(We had the duck pancake, beef and vegetables and honeycomb rice scores: 7.5,9,8 out of 10) . Wait time - 3 people Saturday lunch time : 3 mins.

More of a 3.5! My friends loved the duck but then again who wouldn’t! They were impressed! Had this string bean dish which was nice too. Food came out quicker than expected! I’m pretty sure we’ll be back

Great Peking dish! Best in the town! The Peking duck was 80% similar to the authentic one in Beijing. The wrap and duck sauce was not as impressive as the duck itself. Try their meatball as well yum yum

A Chinese restaurant for Beijing cuisine. The shop was super popular during its grand opening a few years ago. The popularity is still very high and sometimes you need to queue especially on public holidays.<br/><br/>The deco mimics traditional Beijing Hutong. It’s pretty nice and full of Beijing characteristics. <br/><br/>🦆[Peking Roast duck] $68<br/>A whole roasted duck, which contains two plates of duck slices, and duck soup. The duck soup was forgotten by the staff. I reminded them and they realised that there’s a soup to be served. Service is not very prompt as indicated in other reviews.<br/><br/>[Sizzling Cabbage and Vermicelli with Pork belly] $14.8<br/>The dish is good from overall perspective, but we didn’t see the pork belly. <br/><br/>🀄️[Sweetened and Chilled Pease Pudding] $16.8<br/>Very interesting dessert. It looks like Mahjong. Tastes sweet.

Never returning. Terrible duck and food was horrendous<br/><br/>Idiotic staff and 0 service.<br/><br/>Over use of pepper in all the dishes<br/><br/>Would not recommend plenty of other choices in Ashfield

Delicious food and nice ambience. We ordered the whole duck for a table of 4 and it was spectacular, with several courses. The other dishes were great too - cumin with lamb and beef. It is $5 pp BYO and a basic alcoholic drinks menu. Highly recommend!

It was the worst dine out experience that we ever had! Have no idea where are the good reviews from???<br/>1), Desserts came to the table first before the mains.<br/>2), Peking duck was a joke.<br/>3), the private function room was hot when 30+ degrees outside, we felt like having sauna instead of diner.<br/>We will NOT be back.<br/>

Owner / reception is very rude and impolite, poor service. Averages food taste compare to its price. Even for selling some stylish dishes, I can't recommend this restaurant to Chinese food goers.

Ducking Ninja<br/><br/>When it comes to Peking duck at Beijing Impression does the best and the most accurate.<br/><br/>Serving Northern Chinese food this place can get packed during peak hours, the Peking duck is cooked in a wood fire oven and served think sliced (skin only) which is the traditional way of serving it.

Their roast duck is a must try along with their glutinous rice dishes. Other dishes are a bit small for their price but still enjoyable. Definitely better to go in groups to be able to get a good taste of everything.

Beijing Impression is a relatively new restaurant in Ashfield. In the last few months, you wouldn’t be able to get a seat at the restaurant without queuing for hours or booking it a month in advance. They built up a reputation on their Peking duck. They put on a bit of show when serving the duck. Unfortunately, on this occasion, we did not try their Peking duck as there was only our family dining in. There are quite a lot of unusual items on the menu. They are not your typical Chinese dishes found in Chinese restaurants.

Been eating Beijing food all my life and this is by far the most authentic Beijing cuisine restaurant in Sydney. This place is rated 4.5/5 on Chinese app Dianping with some creative and fun dishes alongside the old school dishes. Great atmosphere and decorations that throwback to the old bygone 90s Beijing.<br/>If the customers are all Chinese, you know the place is good.<br/>Cons - Slightly overpriced and remember, never order Peking Duck from a place that doesn't specialise in duck!

ok the menu on first impression looks like a book on ofel. But if you look closely there are a few gems in there. The hero of this establishment is the Peking duck- we had a work do so we got the whole roast duck option-not dissapointed in the slightest. I nevernever really tasted the crispy skin before- I could of eaten the lot. The chef came out and carved the whole duck. It was amazing and yummy. The next best dish was the bbq lamb- flavoursome and juicy. Outside of them not having a wine cooler, this place had a good value menu. Would go back just for the duck.

🍖 Special Roast Duck🍖<br/>This is their signature dish and my favourite one out of all the dishes. When you order it, the waiter will strike a gong and the chef then slice it infront of you. Its very entertaining. Afterwards, you can choose either to take home the duck bone or let the restaurant boil it into a soup. We chose the later. When you eat the duck, you place the shredded pieces inside the bun along with veges like cucumber and carrot. The duck was very juicy and had crispy skin. The only downside was probably the portion, seriously not enough!<br/>.<br/>🍽️Cold Dish Combination🍽️<br/>The cold dishes consist of hawthorn, duck feet, pork skin jelly and cabbage with mustard sauce. I think my favourite would be the cabbage, it just goes so well with the mustard.<br/>.<br/>🍽️ Special fried rice in honeycomb briquette look🍽️<br/>The name fried rice was so misleading, there you thought it would have a savoury taste but instead, it was very sweet. The dish was more like a dessert in that sense, kind of like babao rice. The fried black rice came with some fruits and was served with the waiter pouring alcohol on top and lighting it up with a lighter. Honestly, I doubt it actually made any difference to the taste but it was fascinating to watch.<br/>.<br/>🍖 Bbq lamb 🍖<br/>The lamb was tender and not very gamy. I would say that this is a decent dish, however, the portion of lamb was still not enough.<br/>.<br/>🍽️Combination of meats and vegetables🍽️<br/>This was an interesting dish. It was severed with 3 small dishes and the waiter came and mixed them for us with rice. Nothing out of the ordinary though.<br/>.<br/>🍽️ Sizzling cabbage and vermicelli with pork belly 🍽️<br/>Another hard one to write review about since it was so average. We ordered it simply because we were still hungry after all these dishes. A nice dish if you are only looking to fill your stomach.<br/>.<br/>🍽️ Sweetened and chilled pease pudding 🍽️<br/>An eye catcher, great for Instagram photos lol. Honestly though, it was not a relatively satisfying dessert. It simply didn't leave you wanting more.<br/>.<br/>We went there at 4:30pm to get a number and then waited 2 and a half hour for dinner........I would suggest people go there during lunch time. Food was decent but minus 0.5 point for the wait.

Lines are crazy long so best to book if you're not a fan of queueing. The dishes we ordered were a bit hit and miss for me, but the menu is extensive so I wouldn't mind returning to try other items. Recommended: the Peking duck is the speciality here and our set was served with pancakes, condiments and sesame pockets; cumin lamb; pear tea. Undecided: ribbon fish with roti - the chewiness of the fish and roti grew on me after a few bites; the stewed intestines - funky smell still lingered, I've definitely had better; the flaming black glutinous rice - topped with fruits and doused in sweet wine, it tasted more like dessert but top marks for dramatic presentation.

Wouldn't go back. Biggest problem was I saw both the guy who cuts the duck and a waiter go to the toilet wearing their gloves and come back out with gloves still on and go about their job, thinking of reporting to council. Second problem was it took an hour from getting our number to getting our duck after we were told 20min wait and no need to order the duck early as it would come out immediately. Also they stuffed up the order and brought us the wrong food then tried to blame us. Also for a whole duck that costs $69 they only give you 12 pancakes forcing you to pay $6.90 for more pancakes, it's the same with cucumber and sauce all costing extra when they don't give you enough to start with. Their sauce for the duck is far from authentic and I've eaten duck many times at many places in beijing. The best point about this restaurant is the fat on the duck is rendered down beautifullyand the skin is crispy. However the duck meat itself was not that good.

Service -poor<br/>Wait - no rules for seating, cannot be seated until all guests on your table arrive even though table was available.<br/>Table - not cleaned <br/>Staff - need training on service <br/>Safety - rice dish - staff lit the fire and the flame almost burnt me, was given no warning to move back

The dishes taste below average, make be I could be a better cook comparing with that. Even for the signature Beijing duck, the pancake is so thick. Just not as good as my expectation.

Very authentic Beijing dishes.. great Peking duck and lots of local food. This place is easier to get a sit for lunch than dinner. Line up starts from 4.30pm. If you're later than that then around 1 hour wait. Must try the desert 'Peking style cheese' it's made from fermented rice.

I went around 1pm for lunch. Lucky there was no line. We were pressured to order and make our decisions quickly as the kitchen closed at 1:30. Also they informed us that all the Peking ducks were sold out. Kinda sucks that's a restaurants main/most popular dish gets sold out. The staff were okay, they explained the dishes as some of the names of the dishes didn't make much sense. I wanted to order some more dishes but it would've been too much for two people. The prawns and lamb was really nice. I would definitely come back again, as long as there is no line 😂 Also, the decorations in store were nice. The restaurant is kinda small with limited seating.

The waiting time was awfully long and the food was creative but not yummy at all. I went there with 3 of my friends last Sunday. We arrived at 11:30 a.m. but been told that we had to wait for 40 mins....leaving me high expectations of the food. After 1 hour waiting we finally got in, thanks to those 8 groups of ppl who got tickets before us but did not show up. God knows how much longer we had to wait if those ppl all turned up. We ordered Peking duck, tripe hot pot, traditional 4 appetisers, steamed Pork and pear water. I have to say the Peking duck was quite nice but the rests were disaster. The appetisers were not tasty at all. The tripe smelt so badly. The pear water was way too sweet. Pork was very salty. I definitely will not visit a second time.

The waiting period belongs to bad management. The food is average. I once try to get some good for my daughter and the other orders for other Other customer came first. I thought maybe mines where more difficult to cook. Actually food as we open in the house was just very bad flavour and kinda burned. A few weeks later we decide to go and try again. It always look full and always visited by Chinese so I thought that's a good sign, oftenly when places are visited lot by their own is because is good, like a better cook homey resemblance. the guy in the counter specified a time frame for waiting then some other people appear with no number nor reservations and we got sit it and then another and again an again when I ask some of them about how did it work, what was his number ( I believe students) they didn't have a clue of what I was talking about. I feel like an idiot waiting with my kid outside. Was not about a reservation nor a waiting time, was something awful really. I don't have to say it. I feel awful. My daughter hungry, we can't eat there well cuz we r not welcome. If is not this I would say they really make it look this way and they don't care

What a waste of my wife’s money. 1. The duck pancakes were served in a basket without a lid so they quickly became cold. 2. The duck was served with a few slithers of cucumber and onion. I mentioned it to the man in charge and his response was, “Sir, when you come back again you can have more.” No, I won’t be coming back so I guess I’ll miss out on that extra cucumber and onion. Poor me! 3. The chicken and mushroom was a rip off and DANGEROUS. The chicken was overcooked, from the cheapest cut,  mostly skin and bone, and then hacked to pieces shattering the bone into tiny shards which they didn’t bother omitting. I personally found 6 or so pieces, a few mm long, which could have easily pierced my palate or choked on. (And no pal, you don’t use the Heimlich Manoeuvre any longer as it too is dangerous, not that I think anyone there had their First Aid Cert) I told the man in charge and his response was direct, and relevant: “Sir, we cook the highest quality food here.” Well, mate, you are a disaster just waiting to happen! 4. A waitress dropped a beer onto the floor from a fridge. The man in charge stepped in, picked up the bottle and placed it back in the fridge. I mentioned to him that he shouldn’t do that because if it’s opened it will almost likely spray everywhere. Finally he did what I thought any sensible person would have immediately done, but instead of removing it completely, he placed it on top of the fridge, on the edge, and just waiting for someone to open the door hard or a person to knock into the fridge. The bottle would then fall on top of someone’s head or smash on the floor.<br/><br/>Amateurs and way too expensive. Smoke and mirrors, smoke and mirrors!

Don't go, only if you have time to waste! My mum went to the restaurant and got the reservation ticket at 3.30pm for 5pm seating. However when we turned up at 5.05pm, they already let other people into the restaurant, telling us that we had to wait for at least another 30-45 mins. Additionally they told us that there were still another 2 groups with the same size before us. The waiting could be potentially even longer. Apparently they allow people to jump the queue. I've never been to a restaurant like that in the past.

Peking duck and stewed livers are on average, eggplant is awesome, tripe is bad. Can't compare it to the restaurant in Beijing, but this one is probably the most authentic Beijing food in Sydney.  Service is ok, most of waiters and waitress are Beijinger.