The Phoenix Restaurant

04/18/2008 Posted by Coda95

Shark fin is tasteless. The soup is flavored with chicken or beef broth to get flavor. Chinese view sharks as having medicinal qualities, but sharks get tumors, cancer and other diseases as well and no scientific evidence has shown shark fin soup to have ever provided health benefits. Shark Fin Soup has led to the decline of the world's shark populations by up to 90%. Annually millions upon millions of sharks are slaughtered exclusively for their fins. The sharks entire body is then dumped back into the ocean, therefore wasting the entire shark. DON'T EAT HERE!!!

11/26/2007 Posted by s4iscool

Used to go for the past 10 years, and I will no longer after my last visit. I was seated in the middle of 15 other tables, so as you can imagine in a DIM SUM place WITH CARTS, you are not going to get any attention. We waited 10 minutes while watching everyone around us getting serviced by the cart servers. Either they are blind or really dumb in not asking the people at the inner tables what they want. It took one of their managers to eventually come and take our order...whats the point of carts and DIM SUM then?!? Even after taking our order, it came out incomplete and when we asked where the rest of our order was, they said its coming. 10 minutes later, and no food, we paid the bill and walked out.

Pros: Food tastes good, when you can get service!

Cons: Terrible service, seating in the middle of other tables!

07/02/2007 Posted by pink75

take a pass on their fried calamari, too greasy and they do not give you a dipping sauce. i had to ask for lemons. kung pao chicken is good. shrimp fried rice not too greasy, we also had their shrimp it was good. huge portions we had to take some home. overall food is allright. no harm in trying this place out. the food arrived fast even on a saturday night. fast service.

Pros: fast service

06/28/2007 Posted by northsidebear

I had to write after the terrible and somewhat misinformed review before this one. My point: If you go during peak hours for dim sum don't complain when you have to wait 'heaven forbid' 30 minutes for a seat. Bad points: lines and waits can be long (go on off hours), the staff though friendly don't seem to know much english, slightly over-priced. Good points: AWESOME dim sum with an incredible variety. Great location right off the red line. To me the food mades up for any bad points. If you want a waiter filling your glass every minute, english, no waits, plain food go somewhere else. If you want something authentic and good your at the right place.

02/25/2007 Posted by ilikefoodnu

Want a clean, nice-looking place to sit? This is the place. Want food? DON'T GO HERE!!!! Terrible service, LONG lines, mediocre food, overpriced for dim sum. I went here twice and left both times after waiting patiently for about 30 min (on top of the 30 min spent on waiting to get seated) without any decent food. The only food that came around was the same 2 or 3 carts that we had already sent off because we didn't want any of it. Yet the same carts come around asking you the same questions over and over, and when you ask for some other food, they'll just send back the same carts and look at you like they don't understand what you want. When I complained as i was leaving to the manager up front (or the owner?) about a server who was particularly disgruntled and ruined our dining experience, he told us "Don't worry. She's a cart-pusher. No education. They're st---d. Next time come up here and tell me what you want" Aside from the fact that it's completely not-PC, who said I was worried? I was just angry I couldn't pay to eat there. He's the one who should be worrying about the way they run business. I also didn't realize I have to get up and go up to the front desk every time I wanted some food at a dim sum. I'm convince the owner to this place doesn't care much for your business, which is understandable when you see the size of their lines. My advice, do what I did and go to any of the several other dim sum places nearby. You'll probably see better service, cheaper prices, and same food if not better.

Pros: Relatively clean and appealing atmosphere for the area

Cons: Terrible Service, Takes too long

12/22/2006 Posted by chefmk

Clean restaurant, consistent and attentive service even at peak hours. But the food: It's all about the food. Top notch.

Pros: Great food, quick service, great price, child friendly, accepts resos.

Cons: Loud, crowded.

10/29/2006 Posted by mekktekk

Coming from a very traditional Chinese family, Phoenix is where I always take my visiting relatives since it is one of the best spots for an authentic Cantonese Dim Sum or Dinner. Food is great, service is quick, there is a great 2nd floor view of downtown and the price is very reasonable.

Pros: Authentic Chinese, Huge Dinner Menu, Good Prices

Cons: Ambiance is not upscale (need to look downtown for that)

10/25/2006 Posted by sdollx

It's clean. It's good. It's going to be a long wait on Saturday or Sunday. Another authentic place for dim sum.

Pros: Dim sum is very good

Cons: Wait is very long

05/12/2006 Posted by jsp8878

The restaurant is very clean unlike many other restaurants in Chinatown. The service was quick -- just make it clear you are there for dim sum. Their dim sum menu includes an 8x10 card with photos of all of the items. The waiters and hosts were attentive. For two people eating dim sum, it cost $25 w/out tip. Keep in mind most of the items on their dim sum menu contain shrimp. We went after lunch, around 2 p.m., and it wasn't crowded.

Pros: Cost, Location, Fast/friendly service

Cons: Dim sum only until 3

06/10/2005 Posted by radiokillplay

Dont bother with Dim Sum if youre going to show up late or just order fried rice; youll be better off getting take out and pretending that you know Chinese food. Ive had Dim Sum all over this country, from San Francisco to NYC and the biggest commonality is usually the poor service and cramped dining area of which the Phoenix possesses none. The whole point to Dim Sum is to experiment. Your experience would be incomplete without half of your dishes being something youve never had. The jellyfish is excellent, by the way as well as the squid. This is definitely the stall-style seafood Ive been looking for in a city thats notorious for peanut butter in their egg rolls.

Pros: authenticity, food, variety

Cons: crowded, wait