East Phoenix — Restaurant in Sydney

Service was bad. Held a small lunch function on sunday, booked 2 large tables even went twice to check menu and to arrange number of seats per table and discussed this with the one incharge a few days before sunday. When we came, we we're given smaller tables with less number of chairs. When I speciafically told them how many people are coming. They didnt want me to preorder ahead as they claim "they cook fast" needless to say, we had to rearrange and figure out our seating arrangement as they didnt bother helping when we told them the problem. No one came to check in on us, they just showed us our table and took the order. I had to keep asking where the food was as service was so slow. Guests are left with no food, had to order from their yumcha carts just so my guest wouldnt feel so hungry. When I asked one service manager, he just brushed me off saying the kitchen knows your order and rudely told me to move as I might block the carts on the floor when I was just on the side. My husband and family find their food a bit bland and ala carte's a pit pricey for such small serving portion. They even didn't bother with my fruit platter order which was for dessert. Guests left and it never came. Lucky we brought our own cake so they had dessert. I wanted to order more from their ala carte when I saw how small the portion size was but I was afraid that it would take ages before it arrives. Had a function before with also 25-30 guests at Kamfook Bondi (closed now) and their service was very good, the one incharge paid really good attention to us from start to finish and even gave complimentary fruit platter. Here at East Phoenix they even placed teas on the tables even when me nor my husband didnt order it and was charged $50 for that! Not impressed at all! Wouldn't be...

A constant stream of yumcha classics done without much finesse. We arrived shortly after opening at 10.45am on Sunday, but the battered white bait was already tasting oily and limp, the egg tart pastry was stodgy with an obvious taste of flour. The prawns in the steamed rice rolls were stale. Disappointing brunch for (2017) Father's Day :( 2 stars.

———————————

Revisited in May 2018 for Mother’s Day Eve dinner - 3 stars:

The servings were large with some nice highlights, namely the salt and pepper whole flounder, the just-cooked briney sweet scallops in the seafood nest, the moist and tasty fried chicken served with juicy junks of fresh pineapple, the honeyed prawns were fresh and not overpowered by the soy-honey sauce. The tender wasabi braised beef chunks looked dark and mellow but hid a herby kick.

A few other dishes were frustratingly nearly there! The crab vermicelli hot pot was pretty ok - the mud crab was sweet and meaty but the vermicelli was dry and indifferent when it could be bursting with beautiful crabby flavours(a shame as they were expensive crabs). The Peking beef strips were crunchy and tasty but the batter was too thick and the beef strips too skinny. The braised pork belly with preserved vegetable was on its way to melting softness but didn’t get the chance to arrive.

The rest of the dishes were ok average. Overall nothing was gluggy or oily, and I don’t think there was MSG. Given the portion sizes, it’s best to come with a group of people. Parking in the underground East Village car park is...

I recently went for the last time EVER. The food and experience was NOT GOOD, I only gave it another go because it was convenient, I learnt my lesson. Ordered; Duck pancakes - hands down the worst I’ve had, they premade them out back and the duck was nothing special, no crisp. Calamari - rubbery and looked like someone butchered it with a chainsaw, basically eating a hacked up tyre Hot and Sour Soup - oh god it was literally a bowl of sweet and sour sauce turned into jelly, I never want to experience that again. Cart Dimsum - nothing special, you could have the same experience with the Cole’s dimsum selection. Service; It’s terrible at best but this day particularly bad, flagging down people for every single thing needed (ordering, soup spoon… the basics!) I generally come in with an expectation of below average service being a restaurant like this but at their prices I’ve had enough of bad service. I won’t be going back ever again or recommending anyone to go back unless you enjoy all of the above. I was there with Chinese friends from China and Taiwan and I’ve been to China countless times, I’m actually embarrassed for Phoenix, I wish I could turn back time and taken my...