Savor Scout › Food guides › Peking duck
How to find good Peking duck
Peking duck is roasted until the skin is lacquered and crackling, then carved at the table and wrapped in thin pancakes. It takes a day to prepare properly, and many of the best restaurants ask you to order ahead.
What separates a good one from a bad one
- Crisp, glassy skin — The point of the dish. It should crackle and almost melt, with very little fat underneath.
- Carved at the table — A chef slicing skin and meat in front of you is a sign of a proper duck house.
- Thin, soft pancakes — Steamed, nearly translucent, served warm.
- Hoisin, scallion and cucumber — Fine-cut and fresh.
- Order ahead — Restaurants that ask for advance orders are usually making it the slow way.
What to order
- Whole Peking duck — For a group of three or four.
- Second course — Many places use the carcass for a soup or stir-fry.
- Pancakes and buns — Some offer both.
- Stir-fried greens — To balance the richness.
- Order a day ahead — If asked.
Where to find Peking duck
Peking duck is mostly found at Chinese restaurants, so that is where to look. Open listings put 30,324 of them across the US, and these are the cities and campuses with the most.
Cities with the most
New York, NY 855 Philadelphia, PA 364 Chicago, IL 339 San Francisco, CA 293 Los Angeles, CA 258 Houston, TX 215 Las Vegas, NV 195 Orlando, FL 133
Campuses with the most within a mile
NYU 178 Pace University 160 BMCC 148 Touro University 135 Baruch 132 The Graduate Center 131
A few to start with
- 8A Sakura Sushi — New York, NY
8 Murray St, New York - China Fast Wok — Philadelphia, PA
1500 John F Kennedy Blvd, Philadelphia - Silk Road & Cafe Juice — Chicago, IL
19 S LaSalle St, Chicago - Shanghai China Restaurant — San Francisco, CA
1559 Mission St, San Francisco - Peking Tavern — Los Angeles, CA
236 S Los Angeles St suite g, Los Angeles - Hunan River Express — Houston, TX
1200 Smith St, Houston
Counts are listings in Overture Maps open data (September 2026), counted by the town in each address. Independent places only in the examples above, and they are a starting point rather than a ranking.
How Savor Scout looks for it
The search reads for Peking duck, carved tableside and crisp skin, and favours restaurants where reviewers mention ordering ahead — a reliable signal of the traditional method.
Looking in a particular city?
Each of these opens Savor Scout with the location already set, so you can say what you want and it searches from there. It covers 1,000 US cities in total — these are simply the largest.
- New York, NY
- Los Angeles, CA
- Chicago, IL
- Houston, TX
- Philadelphia, PA
- Phoenix, AZ
- San Antonio, TX
- San Diego, CA
- Dallas, TX
- San Jose, CA
- Austin, TX
- Indianapolis, IN
- Jacksonville, FL
- San Francisco, CA
- Columbus, OH
- Charlotte, NC
- Fort Worth, TX
- Detroit, MI
- El Paso, TX
- Memphis, TN
- Seattle, WA
- Denver, CO
- Washington, DC
- Boston, MA
- Nashville, TN
- Baltimore, MD
- Oklahoma City, OK
- Louisville, KY
- Portland, OR
- Las Vegas, NV
- Milwaukee, WI
- Albuquerque, NM
- Tucson, AZ
- Fresno, CA
- Sacramento, CA
- Long Beach, CA
- Kansas City, MO
- Mesa, AZ
- Virginia Beach, VA
- Atlanta, GA
- Colorado Springs, CO
- Omaha, NE
- Raleigh, NC
- Miami, FL
- Oakland, CA
- Minneapolis, MN
- Tulsa, OK
- Cleveland, OH
- Wichita, KS
- Arlington, TX
- New Orleans, LA
- Bakersfield, CA
- Tampa, FL
- Honolulu, HI
- Aurora, CO
- Anaheim, CA
- Santa Ana, CA
- St. Louis, MO
- Riverside, CA
- Corpus Christi, TX
Related food guides
Chinese food, Chinese BBQ, Cantonese food
When you might want this
- Where to eat when you're celebrating something
- Where to eat with a big group
- Where to eat when you're meeting the parents