Phoenix Restaurant — Restaurant in Chicago

I’m a Chicago local. Upon arriving to Phoenix we were not greeted by anyone and additionally there were other customers that looked confused as to who was going to seat them. We had placed a reservation on the phone prior to our arrival and requested a private room to celebrate my grandfathers birthday. The gentleman greeted us rudely and told us that there were no rooms and that they had to seat us wherever they decided. The table was too small for a party of 13. Afterwards, we were presented dishes that were too oily, lacking flavor, and overall unappealing to eat. The service workers took a very long time to attend to us despite us having the 2nd biggest party in the whole restaurant. The atmosphere was non existent and was very awkward as they placed another big group in the main area and they were being very disruptive. Seems to me, they wanted to place all the customers in one area to avoid moving around the restaurant, laziness. Then while expressing our dissatisfaction with multiple workers, no one took accountability and in return gave attitude. This was a major disappointment as I have heard from friends that Phoenix was a decent enough place to dine in. Aside from the horrible service we experienced, the food was overall not appealing and it tasted exactly how it looked. Awful. It was bland and seemed to be covered in oil/MSG. We spent over $600 including tip, just for a lousy service with attitude and food that was mediocre. It was even more disappointing to learn that the gentleman that took care of us was a partial owner of the Phoenix restaurant and he made us feel unwelcome and was primarily the one giving attitude. This is not the service we wanted especially for a birthday celebration. I do not recommend visiting Phoenix restaurant again. But if you do, prepare yourself for anything because the workers lack class and...

love Chinese food and this place just made my Top 5 list for the country. The food was delicious, the venue was very scenic and the experience was pretty cool! I would highly recommend this place to others. I dined here with my wife and a relative who lives in the area. My wife and I ordered off the menu and my relative ordered Dim Sum. A lot of food was ordered, however I'm only going to review the items I tried.

Appetizers Egg Drop Soup The egg drop soup was good. I prefer broth and a light egg mixture only. They had mushroom in theirs.

Deep Fried Taro (Dim Sum) This dish was very interesting. It had a pasty-like texture to it. The flavor was good and the tempura flakes made it more desirable.

Pork Steamed Dumplings The second appetizer was pork steamed dumplings. Now in the south, dumplings and potstickers are one the same thing, shaped like gyoza's. However, I got something slightly different here. It was too meaty for my taste, however it was still good. I would have to try another type of dumpling the next time.

Crispy Shrimp Rolls (Dim Sum) The shrimp rolls were just okay. I'm not too fund of meaty rolls.

Shrimp Dumplings (Dim Sum) The shrimp dumping were just okay. The flavor was good, but I just prefer pork in dumplings over shrimp.

Entrees We ordered Beef w/ American Broccoli and Shrimp in Lobster Sauce. Both were fantastic. The sauces for both entrees were flavorful, plentiful and balanced the meal perfectly. Shrimp were large and deveined. The Shrimp in Lobster sauce reminded me of the recipe from a small take-out restaurant in Little Rock, AR named Chinese Kitchen. See my review of their restaurant on here as well. We also ordered a combination fried rice, which was just okay. It was not as flavorful as other restaurants I've dined at. I would definitely order the same...

Located on the street directly across the main Chinatown square, Phoenix is a popular spot— expect a wait especially for weekend dimsum, which is what my friends and I came for. The interior is large, spacious, and decorated simply. Our orders came out pretty fast and the servers were kind. They were attentive in refilling our tea kettles, but never refilled our waters unfortunately.

I felt that while all the dimsum dishes were good, the menu selection was a little limited in terms of meats and vegetables, compared to other dim sum places I’ve tried in the area. There didn’t seem to be as many meat options and there were basically no vegetable options besides a stuffed eggplant dish, which wasn’t that good in my opinion.

Despite that, they made all the other dishes really well—from custard buns to egg tarts (and taro egg tarts) to shumai to crepes. Everything tasted super fresh. We ordered a lot of things (most of them are pictured), but a couple of the standout ones were:

Taro Egg Tarts: delicious and unique; I’ve never seen this offered at any other dimsum spot I’ve been to and I lowkey liked it even more than the traditional egg tart.

-Steamed Malay Sponge Cake: this is also a pretty unique menu item that I don’t commonly see at other dimsum spots, and it was really good, spongey, and flavorful!

Chicken Feet with Homemade Sauce: A dimsum staple, the homemade sauce addition was really good.

Short ribs with pepper: Tasty and well marinated, nicely textured meat.

Beef crepes: I normally don’t love crepes, but the beef crepes here were really good in my opinon.

It was also a bit more expensive than the other dimsum spots in Chinatown that we’ve been to—for our group of 10, it came out to...