Q By Peter Chang
Sichuan restaurant · Bethesda ·
Peking duck, dim sum, and Sichuan specialties with attentive service
Peking duck, dim sum, and Sichuan specialties with attentive service
"Chinese chef Peter Chang’s flagship operation resides in Bethesda, where fans of his family’s restaurants can find pastry chef Lisa Chang’s famous, puffy scallion bubble pancake on a dim sum menu that includes duck rolls and lacy pan-fried skirt dumplings stuffed with shrimp." - Tierney Plumb
"Q stands for Qijian, which means “flagship” in Chinese. It’s here where legendary chef Peter Chang sends out dim sum on weekends and large-format dishes like Beijing duck prepared through a five-step process and served with soft pancakes and a sweet bean sauce. The elegantly designed, 8,000-square-foot restaurant also specializes in Szechuan favorites like seafood served on crispy noodle and delectable spicy mapo tofu." - Claudia Rosenbaum
"An unforgettable Christmas anecdote opens the portrait of this Bethesda restaurant: on December 25, 2021 the author spent two hours in a queue of cars with hazards flashing, a jam-packed dining room, a throng of masked customers waiting for pickup, and an “ocean of bagged to-go orders,” finally receiving “a giant sack with gong bao chicken, cumin lamb, dry-fried green beans and more” at 8 p.m. The author recalls, “I’d felt God in that Chinese restaurant that night, the God that has sustained my people and brought us prosperity in this country,” and notes a small family ritual of saying a little shehecheyanu before diving into the twice-cooked pork. When the author later told Lydia Chang, Peter’s daughter and CEO, how meaningful that night had been she replied, “Oh, I remember that night. It was my worst nightmare.” Behind the scenes, the kitchen is meticulously organized: a crew of wok cooks, oven/steamer staff, duck carvers and pancake rollers who turn out signature scallion pancakes “which puff up into a glorious crackling spheroid,” and on the night observed a gigantic 14-course, all-crab banquet for 40 was field‑marshaled and plated by Peter Chang himself. The restaurant refuses holiday prix fixe menus and insists on serving the full menu even on the holiday rush; Peter takes over an area and hand‑carves almost every duck himself. Peter’s own take on the season is blunt: he says the only English word he’s used all night is “Crazy!” and adds, “I’m scared of the holiday. It’s very profitable, but it’s too exhausting, too anxious.” The fast service for which the kitchen is known relies on masterful wok technique, staggering heat, and obsessive mise en place so that a dish “may go from pickup to plating in a single minute,” and Fuschia Dunlop’s line captures the motion perfectly: “When I watch an accomplished chef stir-frying... I see a magician, a worker of wonders. A chef may be battle-scarred, chain-smoking, inarticulate — and yet the grace of his movements, his extraordinary mental and physical agility, makes me gasp.” Practical tips from the team: order takeout early (Peter recommends having your order in by 3 p.m. the day you plan to eat), and for ducks place orders a day or two ahead; and, if nothing else, “tip like it’s the most wonderful time of the year.”" - Samuel Ashworth
"As part of his growing portfolio, I note Bethesda's high-end Q by Peter Chang." - Lulu Chang
"There’s a lot of things to love at Peter Chang’s modern Sichuan flagship in Bethesda. Try vegetable or pork dumplings (steamed or fried), a chicken soup dumpling, or spicy wontons." - Vinciane Ngomsi