Leading up to our annual Best of Dallas® issue, we're counting down the 50 most interesting restaurants in Dallas. These spots bring something unique or compelling to the city's dining scene, feeding both your appetite and soul.
Peking duck has a pretty bad reputation. Chinese restaurants have done the dish a disservice, treating it like its another one of the 150 items on the menu. Sure, the menu at Mr. Wok in Plano is still large, but if you look around the dining room you'll find the customers are quite focused here. Everyone is eating the duck, and that's because it's exceptional.
Owner Jack Kang presents the roasted bird in the dining room. Its skin glistens and the smell of rendered duck fat envelops your table, and that's before Kang breaks out his knife. It's mesmerizing, watching velvety folds of duck cascade onto a serving plate, but Kang's assurance that your duck is ready is enough to break your gaze.
That's when you grab a pancake from the stack and paint the cream-white canvas with a dark stroke of hoisin sauce. Layers of duck meat come next, followed by a few slices of skin that look like golden stained glass. Finish your masterpiece off with a few scallions, not just for the color but for the grassy freshness they lend. Rolled up in a package this is one of the best bites you could happen upon.
The Peking duck will likely strip you of your taste for sesame chicken, but the workhorse dishes at Mr. Wok are nothing to snub your chopsticks at. If you're not up for duck, simply conjure up a memory of one of your favorite long-time dishes. No matter what it is, Mr. Wok has you covered.
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