Phoenix Palace

Small and expensive dishes.
Food was below average for a dim sum place. Especially disappointing was the chasu cheong fun which was terribly overcooked. I didn’t even know you could do that.
Very large restaurant that is very ugly inside. Somehow popular and crowded.
Bad service. Waited over 10 minutes to get the bill. Wtf.

Phoenix Palace is one of the few Chinese restaurants in London that delivers top quality Cantonese cuisine, no gimmick, no creativity, just old school Chinese food done properly. The service was also outstanding, very caring and well mannered, which is totally the opposite to most of the Chinese restaurants in China Town. It is a very popular restaurant so booking in advance is highly recommended.

Chose on basis of location for an early Friday night meal. Lovely façade and interiors albeit a bit 80’s.
First contact was greeter on Facebook. Walked into restaurant to find service staff.
Dim Sums were goof especially the wasabi one. Peking duck better than your average effort, duck was moist and perfectly crispy.
Unfortunately I think the kitchen was having a meltdown. Food took ages to create to table and we had to eventually leave missing seasons. Service a little disorganised with several different ladies asking us if we had ordered…
Got the impression this was a bad day in the kitchen rather than the norm.

Been coming here for years for the excellent dim sum and friendly staff. This time I was taken aback by just how expensive it’s got. £3:60 for basic dim sum, so didn’t leave much change out of £100 for a meal for the family. A rare treat from now on.

My new favourite place in London, well for dim sum and authentic Hong Kong style Chinese.
Loved it! Very authentic, very good! It was also very clean and not oily, both of which are important qualities in good dim sum or yum cha. You can also make a reservation here, which is amazing as well.
We got basically everything! The usual suspects include har gow, shu mai, xiao long bao, turnip cake, shar shiu bao, custard buns, black sesame balls, and more! It was all so incredible.
Service was good too and with a smile. I can really see why this place is popular. I’ll be back… And often!

I’ve always wanted to try this place. So many people I know have been here and have really rated it as a go-​to restaurant for slightly more expensive, quality Chinese food in London outside of china town. And dim sum is one of my most favourite foods in all the world. Unfortunately I had to work, so I couldn’t catch the full dim sum selection menu in time. But we went here after work to check out their evening menu.
Firstly, love the décor. The place is huge and feels very cultural. More than that though, for a large place it didn’t feel cavernous and cold or shabby and below par. We sat down and I was pleased to see a reduced dim sum selection, excellent! Unfortunately one of our party wasn’t a seafood fan so we couldn’t get all prawn dim sum, which are my absolute favourite. So we got the pork and prawn instead, she concede at us having one seafood one. Also some vegetable dumplings, some lamb in chilli dressing, crispy aromatic duck pancakes, monk vegetables and shredded chicken soft noodles.
Everything arrived quickly and was hot, good start. The duck was amazing, not dry at all but crispy skin with succulent meat inside. My favourite dumpling (as expected) were the pork and prawn, I just love them! The lamb dumplings were a bit strange, I’ve never had lamb in dumplings before so it was a new experience. The monk vegetables were really nice, aside from the huge lumps of tofu which were a bit much to be honest.
But all in all, not disappointed. With a couple of bottles of wine, I can’t complain at £35 each really

Good quality cantonese style food. And impressively for a Chinese restaurant, the service isn’t horrible but it is pricier than your average Chinese restaurant so that is expected. I don’t think there has been a dish I didn’t like. My only complaint is their non-​Chinese staff lacks a lot of knowledge about what is on the menu.

It was a rainy night and looked like we were all running late for our reservation at Pearl Liang. The service sucks there but at least we know the food is quite good there. So as plan B, a friend recommended this place. It looked quite hopeful. One of the few places where you really feel like you’ve stepped into China.
We ordered a series of dishes ranging from beef with black bean sauce, stir fried noodles, crispy fried chicken, mixed veggies. As I was trying each dish, I started to feel nostalgic… but not in a good way. There was a taste I distinctively remember from chinese restaurants in NY. The taste of food that’s been fried in reused oil. Totally fine if it’s a $ 5 fast food joint but not when you’re paying close to 15 pounds for a main dish. Everything tasted okay but didn’t think it was at all worth the price they were charging — thinking it was the premium for the location. 2*s for the food. Don’t think I would be back when Royal China is just a bit further down the street.
Service was okay — not your usually brisk Chinese restaurant service so earned 1 extra *. all just meh

I went here with 5 girlfriends, 4 of whom were Chinese. They all praised the food — that’s the evidence to support my rating. We had a bunch of different types of dumplings, chicken and mushroom buns, octopus patties, a couple of noodle dishes, and the red bean pancake for dessert. I really enjoyed the food — particularly the seafood noodles, dough wrapped in rice pasta, vegetarian and prawn dim sum, and red bean pancake. Was less enthralled with the octopus patty and shredded duck in rice pasta. I’m not usually a fan of Chinese tea, but really enjoyed the tea that they served — so it was good that it was unlimited :-) Service was friendly and I like the atmosphere of the place. I would definitely go back!

I’ve been here twice now and will be in no hurry to come back. Noon is about as late as you can come on a weekend without a booking without massive waits. When we left, the entrance area was well crowded.
The food was fine. If you’re in the area and need food, you could do worse, but I wouldn’t put it on my dim sum destination list. Nothing really standout except maybe the char siew soh. The first time I came, we had a really good deep fried prawn pastry with spicy mango paste (a totally fusion creation, I know), but I couldn’t find it on the menu this time.
The experience doesn’t feel as high quality as it should for the price. Seemingly little things like taking a while to fetch our dim sum sheet, or multiple people bringing more food and then ignoring the empty plates. For six people at dim sum, it was about £17pp.

This place is always busy and the ambience combined with the hustle and bustle make it an inviting try. Having eaten here now a few times, I must say the food is quite good but a lot of dishes are hit or miss. Not quite sure how else to put it. The chicken corn soup is nice and most dishes are fine but nothing is extraordinary or makes me want to crave this place. Location is great but prices are steeper than most Chinese restaurants.

The dim sum is erratic. The first time I went I thought it was great. The last time very average even compared to many spots in Chinatown. The wasabi prawn dumplings were rubbery. The briny pork croquettes were soggy and greasy. The shu mei and har gou were fine. The doughnut Chung fun was soggy. The spareribs in black bean were good. Very mixed bag. The suckling pig and roast duck were good as were the vegetables. I liked the décor if you don’t mind a little bit cheesy. Teakwood and lacquered chairs, lit by rows of little red paper lanterns. It feels quaint and amusingly stereotypical Chinese down to the wall with pictures of famous people. One guy on the wall didn’t have a name, just labelled Richest man in Nanjing Province. I would go back for lunch or dinner with friends but would go elsewhere for dim sum.

As another reviewer has mentioned, the quality of the courses here has fallen. First started going here around 2005, it was Tony Blair’s go to apparently. The food was remarkable and the atmosphere pleasant and now neither is true. A victim of its own success as my contemporary stated. Hope it gets its mojo back someday.
I won’t bother listing the various plates and dim sum we had. All middling to less than. The third star is in deference to its pedigree.

Professional and slick service but the location is a bit meh
As you walk in, you notice that this is certainly a celebrity hotspot. I don’t think there is a prime minister that hasn’t eaten here, and they even get christmas cards from Tony Blair!
If your party hasn’t arrived yet, you are sat in an area with really nice thai prawn crackers. To be honest I don’t mind people arriving late when I can be left alone with those bad boys for a good 20 minutes. They also do takeaway in which case you’re also left with this dangerously addictive prawn crackers. Score.
The venue looks extremely nice, with lots of traditional design cues, think traditional chinese fancy restaurant. Lots of wooden panelling and mystic meg orbs :)
Service is super efficient and prompt. Despite the size of the place, you never feel watched, nor are you waiting long to get the attention of a member of staff.
The food is nothing spectacular but the ingredients are good but then for the price you hope so! The scallops were the biggest I’d ever laid eyes on and were cooked perfectly. Nice and charred on the outside, but soft in the centre flesh without tasting raw. Portions were also decent. My favourite item being the yam cake which is done close to what you’d get in asia, if a little lacking in flavour. It’s cantonese style so expect a LOT of cornstarch in your dishes and plenty of shiny thick sauces. Taste wise, nothing was very salty, a positive in my mind.
When the bill came, it was about as expected about £30 per head. It would have been slightly cheaper in Chinatown, but this restaurant is much nicer than any of those, it’s just a shame the location in quite out the way.
In all, worth a try if you’re in the area, or looking to impress somebody with the décor. Oh and the prawn crackers. YUM

I used to love this place, and it used to be my go to place for Dim Sum. I’ve been there with family, and with friends. But after yesterday, I might start looking elsewhere.
The Dim Sum yesterday was decent, it’s okay for London, but you have to understand that it used to be so much better. The dough stick Cheung fan tasted like it’d sat around for a while, what should be crunchy dough with a fluffy exterior was chewy and dense. Xiao Long Bao dough was thick compared to previous occasions when it barely held back the soup and meat inside. Octopus patty was chewy but had good flavour. Thankfully other items we ordered were good, beef ho fun was well cooked and tasty, the congee was similarly well prepared. Turnip cake — good as ever, a beacon in our meal.
Also the place was NOISY! Not sure what’s happened but we could barely talk to each other, where we used to have good catch ups. Probably a victim of its own success. Service was good.
Hopefully it’s just an off day, we shall see, but I’m going to one of my alternate dim sum restaurants next time.

Went back recently and wow, so shocked. I believe the chef changed and every dish is slightly nicer… I was there for dimsum and tried:
Hargow: It is juicier and bigger
Turnip cake: okay, it was good to begin with
Charsiu soh (bbq pork puff pastry): it is no longer puff pastriy but rather an authentic chinese puff pastry
Chong fun: Indeed, much better and texture
overall — very positive experience and also service? wow, it got so much better. It is very attentive and also nice, classy. Everything is all around so much better!!!

Since Chinese is quite popular and readily available in london you to expect a certain standard when having Chinese ate here twice both take away. The food was okay nothing wrong with it but far from acceptable price wise. This place really makes me feel like a money laundering joint if you go eat there you will see what I mean.

It was a nice fancy Chinese restaurant. The food was good but the service was so-​so. It was difficult to understand the server. She never asked if we were fine. When we needed something, we asked another server but we found out he was a busboy that’s why we never got what we needed. The busboy never told our server what we needed. Oh well. It was a nice meal.

Great place for Chinese food, it is well managed, the bathrooms are clean always and more importantly the food and service are very good.

This Chinese restaurant serves good-​old Cantonese-​style food… with a Marylebone price tag, of course. I’ve been here a few times now — both for Dim Sum and for dinner, and every time it was pretty good.
On my last visit, we ordered the spicy chicken, which from a taste-​point-​of-​view was really nice. What I didn’t love as much, was that it was relatively small pieces of chicken, with even smaller bones still in them. The other dish, also excellent, was a kind of stew of aubergine & pork in a sauce flavoured with Chinese sweet olives.
The Phoenix Palace is a traditional banquet-​style restaurant, so don’t be surprised if there’s a big birthday party going on or if it seems like you’re crashing someone’s wedding… just enjoy the buzz and the cultural experience!