Phoenix Dessert - San Diego — Restaurant in San Diego

This is a late post. We went to Phoenix Dessert in San Diego on grand opening day on July 8, 2023. Finally, this LA chain dessert shop has landed in San Diego. We used to drive up to LA just to get their coconut mixed fruit drink and black sesame soup and small desserts. This new shop has ample parking located in a stripe mall. There was a small line going into the shop. Employees were friendly, helpful and welcoming. They gave us sample desserts to try. The shop is clean, bright ambiance and much smaller than the ones in LA areas. There are limited seatings inside, but also have outdoor seatings as well. Not a place to accommodate large groups. We ordered the mixed fruit delight drinks, mango rolls, herbal tea, black sesame dessert soup, various mochi balls, curry chicken and stewed pork belly and rice. The drinks have chopped up mixed fruits and coconut milk and were good as expected. Black sesame soup was barely warm enough so it’s disappointing but we did like the taste and smooth texture. Mochi balls were soft and stretchy and delightful to eat. Curry chicken was ordinary. Herbal drink was very refreshing, clean tasting and light but this drink was an acquired taste for sure. The stewed pork belly was surprisingly delicious, savory, not greasy and paired well with rice. However, we didn’t like to pay $2 for a small bowl of rice. Rice should accompany an entree dish in our opinion. We wanted to try the chicken wings but they were already sold out three hours after the opening. This location offers only a handful of hot entrees and not like their LA locations. They have packaged cold cuts and side dishes. We will come back to try other desserts and dishes. and hope they will add more hot dishes and specialty Hong Kong style dishes/food to their menu and bring the true Hong Kong street food experience...

We have mainly had desserts here. There are a variety of panna cottas, (some dairy-free) including passion fruit, green tea, red bean, black sesame, mango, coconut and more! Our date night usual is now the Mango Lovers’ Dessert which has chunks of mango, tapioca noodles, sage, coconut milk, mango ice cream and maybe something else? It’s so good! This last time we said to each other “we might have to get our own next time!” My daughter liked her sago, mango, coconut milk drink and my teenage son polished off one of the mango lovers’ desserts himself!

We tried a cold appetizer dish that had a what appeared to be diced beef hearts, pig ears, marinated firm tofu and stewed beef slices on a bed of sweet-briny marinated veggies (cabbage and carrots). It’s meant to be be eaten cold and we enjoyed eating that between bites of dessert.

They do have bubble waffles and other typical Hong Kong street food, most of which is deep fried.

A few small tables inside and outside invite you to stay for a bit to enjoy your yummies but plenty of patrons take...

I’ve always loved the durian rolls here and used to be a big fan of this place. I’ve been here over 5 times, and while the dessert was great during my first visit, the quality has gone downhill each time since.

The durian rolls have become inconsistent — sometimes they’re rock hard, other times they’re overly watery. I used to give it the benefit of the doubt, thinking maybe it was just an off day.

But yesterday was unacceptable. I ordered a red bean mochi dessert, and it tasted slightly sour, which was odd but I didn’t think much of it. However, shortly after eating it, I started having severe stomach pain and diarrhea. As I’m writing this review, I’m still experiencing sharp stomach aches and discomfort.

I’m really disappointed, not just with the declining quality, but also with the possible food safety issue. I hope the restaurant takes this seriously and improves both the consistency and hygiene of...