Li Qun Roast Duck Restaurant, Beijing

Beijing expatriates love the setting of this Peking Duck restaurant -- an old courtyard house hidden away down a maze of hutong (alleys dating back to dynastic times). Locals are less impressed, interpreting as grubby and disheveled what many Westerners see as rustic and quaint. They shouldn't complain though, if you can read Chinese the price of a roast duck is only half of that on the English menu -- CNY55 verses CNY98. The staff however are far more egalitarian, their spirit of surly uncooperativeness extending to all, regardless of nationality. Follow the English signs from Zheng Yi Road.