Rob H.
Yelp
Phoenix Palace is somewhere I go fairly often as it's a convenient place to meet my parents before we go home via Marylebone, and I've had my fair share of both dim sum and evening meals here. It's a hard one to review for me though - when I recall the food, I usually think very favourably about it, yet I can't quite shake a feeling of slight disappointment straight after eating there. It's a weird one.
Phoenix Palace very much prides itself on being a classy eating establishment. Whilst places such as Royal China may look glossy on the outside with its faux lacquer walls, there are certain noticeable things which come from corner-cutting (such as chipped teapots). Not Phoenix - head to tail, it's pretty prim, with a wide open central dining bit, as well as some tables tucked in a separate room at the back.
So, after sitting down, you get the menu. This is my first gripe - the menu is colossal. It goes on forever. And just when you think it's finished, ooh, look, 4 more pages of Chef's Specials! Oh, and there's usually another specials card on the table too, just for funsies (currently featuring Chinese tapas dishes, or something like that). I know this is not a problem exclusive to Phoenix Palace, but the length of the menu combined with the vagueness of description makes it very very hard to choose what you want to eat. The staff also aren't always so hot at elaborating on what a dish is, so asking for recommendations kind of goes out of the window too.
Maybe I'm being too harsh on a place which tries hard to do a lot of things well and has a diverse range of dishes (from standard Hong Kong fare to Szechaun-tinged dishes, and even Singapore-style chilli crab), but I find it very difficult to really get the best out of the menu. That and I can never remember what I've eaten there, especially not by the exact menu name. In spite of this, we usually have decent meals there, but even after 10 or so meals here as a family, we still have no definite go-to dishes (save for hot and sour soup), and - as a highly indecisive family - we're often left scrambling trying to put our order together.
Generally - for both dinner and dim sum - the food is well prepared and quite fresh. The dim sum is good (the fried ones don't taste like the oil is constantly reused which is always a big plus in my book), and this is currently our go-to dim sum branch, especially as it means we don't have to brave Piccadilly Circus at the weekends.
I will say that it's fairly pricey, and the bill usually turns out to be more than you'd expect albeit not outrageous - around £30 a head for food at dinner. In the end, I really want to love this place (especially given its convenience)...I just don't think I'll ever get to that point. However, it's still a solid place for both dim sum and dinner. And hey, if you guys go and have some really tasty dishes, please send some recommendations my way.