I've always loved Peking Duck but it's definitely not something you eat everyday. I've only always had it in traditional Chinese restaurants but when I saw pictures of the whole duck prixe fixe situation at Decoy, I felt like I had to try it out. Decoy is part of the Red Farm empire and is located downstairs in a small basement space. You must make a reservation in advance if you want to guarantee yourself a whole duck but you can roll in and try your luck if you want (especially if you want to eat things besides duck).
With the whole duck prixe fixe, you get your choice of an assortment of appetizers, sides and another main course - for $69/pp. For our assortment of extras, we got the shrimp and snow pea dumplings, oxtail dumplings, sautéed snow peas, vegetable fried rice, and the sautéed dice lamb. Yes, all of that food along with an entire whole duck - obviously you'll be taking a lot of food home afterwards. The dumplings were great - steamed and fresh although the oxtail one was a bit heavy for me. We got the snow peas because we felt like we needed a green and as usual, it was fantastic. Like most greens in a Chinese restaurant, it's got a ton of garlic and oil which makes it delicious. The fried rice was a nice carb supplement - it wasn't super greasy like the kind of fried rice you would get in take out joint but in the end it is just a basic rice dish. The star of the show is obviously the duck which comes with 10 pancakes and 3 different sauces. Before you get into the duck, you are served a shot of duck consomme to get you primed for the whole experience. The skin was perfectly crispy and the meat was juicy with the right amount of fat on it - combined with the scallion and sauces it's a heavenly bite. There really is nothing like a perfect Peking Duck bite wrapped in a thin pancake. Then after all this food, they served the lamb dish. It was complete overkill but we had to try it. It was served with Chinese broccoli and pickled shallots and I was kind of expecting it to be like a spicy cumin lamb dish but it wasn't really like it at all. It didn't have the heat or spice level to it but combined with a bite of fried rice and snow peas, it was pretty damn tasty too.
Despite our best efforts, we couldn't finish all the food. The wait staff was nice enough to split all the food equally into take home bags for us and it made for a decent lunch the next day - the lamb was better than the duck since the crispiness of the skin doesn't hold up at all overnight. Overall, it was a great experience and the amount of food is crazy. While I really enjoyed the quality and taste of all the food, I wished they offered a prixe fixe that was smaller and cheaper. Let's be honest, you can get a whole duck in Chinatown for half the price and it'll be just as good. If you order a la carte, it's way more expensive ($85 for just the duck and main dishes are $32+) so technically you are getting a great deal - it's just unnecessary. If they offered a prixe fixe "light" version, I could definitely see myself coming here more but at the current price point, I probably won't come back often unless someone is visiting from out of town because it is quite the experience. Total bill with lots of wine: $133/pp with tax and tip
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