Restaurant Review: Mark's Duck House

In the entry way to Mark's Duck House is an article from Wine Advocate on best meals. Included is Mark's Duck House and the China Club both great restaurants. This article mainly talked about the best peking duck which is at this place and that it is better then most roast duck in Beijing. This meal had some duck but we didnt have the full affect with the table side carving, the salty plum sauce, and rice crepes that are paper thin but sturdy. I have had duck at three seperate places in beijing and Mr Liu's, where Kissinger ate rules! I have to get the duck meal at Mark's to compare. Anyway....

Mark's Duck House is a chinese restaurant in a strip mall in falls church, va. While the location may not be fashionable this place is premier eating. This restaurant is based on Hong Kong Dim Sum restaurants, Mark's has three signature meals: dim sum, roast duck, cripsy pork. We had a bit of the three signature dishes. Dim sum is a great meal because you can have little bits of everything. small dishes that are shared mainly dumplings but includes mainy other small plate dishes: rice, egg rolls, greens...i think the latter is more to deal with an American palate. This is my like tenth time here and my first review.

Seating is important when getting dim sum. We were at the half way mark...so basically our pickings were slim by the time the carts came around. But John, our waiter, was eager to make sure that if there was something we wanted he got it fro the kitchen for us.

We got there around 11:30AM this sunday, which in my opinion is too late but we were only three so miracles can happen. When we got there it was packed and atleast five big groups 5 plus and 5 small groups. things moved quickly and after 20 minutes we were seated. Our waiter John (the only reason I remember his name was because my mom asked him his Chinese name and the waiter said John) was attentive professional and kept things flowing. We had: crispy pork, roast duck, clams and black bean sauce, 2 order char shui bao, shrimp crepes, shu mai, scallop dumplings, sweet silk tofu, seasame balls. Everything here is fresh and tasty not to be biased.

The duck was good. The skin was crispy, the meat was tender but that fat layer held all the favor and was too rich. Tasty but after two pieces I was done.

The crispy pork was good. Fried skin and huge chunks of pork is awesome. Simply awesome. They walked around with trays of this.

Clams...I usually avoid clams they can make me sick but my mom tore into them.

Shrimp crepes is one of my favorites with the hot soy sauce but man it impossible to pick up. Flat and long it is a crowd favorite.

Shu mai was a little lack luster. Big and clumpy I dumped too much chili sauce on it and made it too hot.

The scallop dumpling reminded me of the Xian 30 course dumpling meal. It was good and associated with good memories.

Sweet silky tofu...gross dont get me started.

seasame balls a dessert dish, sweet rice and seasames fried.

Leaving char shui bao...my favorite dish...steamed pork buns..this must be from god. In interest of full disclosure in the past we have run into a string of bad luck and the shui bao. We had what we thought was pork to be confronted by savory chicken and egg and the next batch was pig ear...I know yuck and double yuck. I know it is a delicacy but growing up when you had sweet pork shui bao getting chicken and worse yet pig ear is a downer. Luckily we had pork and i had two of them and they were awesome.

One thing we didnt get which was a mistake was a giant oyster. How does one eat the giant oyster, it was the size of a baseball...when i eat with my brother and mom we have one rule. If your are intrigued by something just get it....we got burned by not getting the cheese plate at a fancy place and we have regretted it ever since. Now I can add the large oyster to the mix.

This is by far the best dim sum in metro DC. Its a bit of a hike and not metro accessible but go eat and be merry. You will not be let down.