At first glance, Full House Seafood Restaurant looks pretty unimpressive sitting in the middle of a small strip mall. My parents heard different and took us there for a nice dinner crowned by a Peking Duck platter. Full House Seafood Restaurant is located in the 99 Ranch strip mall in Arcadia off of Duarte and Goldenwest Ave.

Upon entering, there was actually a short wait, as plenty of hungry Chinese customers were waiting for a table. The restaurant decor isn’t particularly eye catching, some token Chinese paintings hanging on the wall, live lobster and crab tanks near the front. Even more obvious are the banners for various dinner specials hanging among the paintings. We were seated and given the customary pots of hot tea.

We browsed the menu and ordered the Peking Duck platter, a half platter of traditional Chinese appetizers of roast pork and sea cucumber, Chinese green beans, pork with fresh lettuce, Chinese spinach, garlic beef with green onions, and beef chow mein.

A few minutes later, our server brought out the Chinese appetizers. Spices are rubbed into the skin prior to roasting, resulting in a nice crispy and tasty rind. This was no exception as the skin was quite tasty and had that characteristic crispiness.

Our other dishes followed, the Chinese green beans, pork with fresh lettuce, and Chinese spinach arrived. I typically don’t care much for the Chinese green beans, but they were actually pretty good. The green beans were sautéed in oil and topped with little bits of dried miniature shrimp and spices. The Chinese spinach isn’t actually spinach, but some other sort of leafy green, kale, I believe. I loved the pork with fresh lettuce. It's pork mixed with spices and some veggies and fried up in a wok. They serve it up with circles of fresh crispy iceberg lettuce. You put the pork in a lettuce circle and eat it similar to a fajita.

Our garlic beef with green onions came, accompanied with a container of hot white rice. The beef has some nice carmelization to it, making it quite sweet and savory. The beef chow mein came next. The flavor of the beef wasn’t as nice as the garlic beef, but the nice sauce made up for it.

Finally the main dish came, the Peking Duck platter. It basically the skin of the roast duck, shaved thin with a little meat underneath. It’s served with steamed buns (in China and Hong Kong, they are served with tortilla-like flour wrappers). You put a piece of duck skin on the bun and top it with green onion slivers and a dab of brown sauce, very nice. The Peking Duck platter isn’t just the skin, but a second platter of the duck meat. I love the duck meat, it has a rich, yet slightly gamey taste to it.

All of us enjoyed ourselves and had a good, filling dinner. The total damage was $112 for all these dishes plus drinks.