The Phoenix — Restaurant in Kansas City

This is hands down, pound for pound without a doubt the single quickest downfall for a establishment I have ever seen. A place I once loved that has allowed a cancer (awkward management) to spread and infect the entire culture of this establishment. It's fully known by patrons that frequent here, employees who won't speak up outta fear (legit) and random observers that the management here is ... Well it has a real strange dynamic.

Since the new GM and his for now wife have began running the establishment, there has been many strange incidents. One of those incidents involved a patron physically getting into an altercation with the wife. This was a giant scene and incident that I'm sure scared many patrons especially when employees got involved... Which I think lead to the not allowing employees to drink while working. But because the two main people in charge are also married (for now) I highly doubt this was ever reported to the owner of the Phoenix, as I'm sure he would have never elected to hire a husband and wife team and promote them a week after this incident happened.

I personally feel persecuted and attacked for bringing my dog to the establishment and was rudely reprimanded and embarrassed in front of Business associates for my dog being off leash on a private elevated patio Even though she was sitting and curled up in a ball under my chair. I suspect that the actual general manager, the husband is just used to being on a very short leash by his wife and expects all dogs to be on one as well.. unfortunately not all dogs are trained as well as he is and not nearly as obedient and submissive.

I have also seen employees roll blunts of marijuana on the back deck prior to things picking up right when opening. HIGHLY alarming stuff indeed. I understand sometimes we all need to smoke from time to time, but it has made me highly uncomfortable (pun intended)

Patrons are also subjected to odd and uncomfortable marital bickering and talk amongst themselves that really should be kept at home at away from the business. I've had random people sitting next to me ask what the deal was, that as an out of towner or first timer they were uncomfortable.

Overall I have just found the whole experience to be unprofessional and unsavory and has just really suffered from management changes and egos to ruin such a fine establishment.

Oh... but The Phoenix Mac is easily one of my favorite dishes of all time here...

It must be the lunch service or something because I’ve been here many times on lunch break and service is consistently shoddy. Even if you’re the only people in there- it takes forever for the servers to get to you. One time the server dropped our plates off and didn’t return for another 20 minutes. Well after we were done eating and needed to pay because we were already looking at returning late. Ordering and eating a soup and a salad should never take more than an hour.

This last experience takes the cake though. I ordered a bowl of soup and a side salad. Soup was brought me to cold- however that’s forgiveable. I also asked for vinegar and oil and what was brought to me was…oil. It was supposed to be a vinaigrette but there was no vinegar to it. I sent the soup back and asked for vinegar and the server brought me easily 1/3rd less than the original amount of soup back and then another container of the same dressing aka oil. It looked like oil, tasted like oil, it was nothing but oil. I asked for vinegar and she said sure and instead brings me another house vinaigrette and this one tastes like lemon oil. She states that perhaps it’s just too oily for my preference. I asked about vinegar again and she admitted she had no idea where it was kept. I was getting frustrated and asked for a different dressing altogether. I’m not sure if their vinaigrettes are just really gross or if my server didn’t pay attention in science class and doesn’t know that vinegar and oil separate therefore you need to shake them up before serving…..Either way, I hope their dinner service is better because lunch...

They had a $5 cover which I didn’t like but if it went to pay for the performer then I’d gladly pay for it. We were there for a going away party for a friend, our service was terrible. As soon as we said one thing to the server he ran away, I know it was busy there but he was just not really attentive or patient. This place also nickel and dimed me on my bill, I asked for extra Parmesan and Caesar dressing and they charged me .25 cent for Parmesan and .50 cent for Caesar lol. Is this place really that broke that they can’t afford an extra sprinkle of Parmesan and a 2 ounce ramekin of Caesar dressing? We also ordered a drink and asked for a double shot, they charged me $10 for this “shot” which was the smallest shot I’ve ever seen, it was definitely less than an ounce. The best part of my experience was the performer she was amazing and had so much pure and light energy. I don’t think I’m in a rush to come back to this place. The service left a bad taste in my mouth, and the warm expired lettuce they put in my wrap LITERALLY left a bad taste in my mouth. Who the hell puts lettuce in a Philly cheesesteak...