Phoenix Asian Cuisine

Reviews 4

SA

Satisfied Customer

Short review: Food is pretty good, service is decent; hostess’ , management, professionalism and communication atrocious, not recommended. Long review: My girlfriend and I frequent Phoenix maybe once or twice a month when we are in the mood for good tasting Chinese food. Though the service is average, at best the food makes up for it. However, after an incident on 3-7-15 we no longer plan on visiting Phoenix. We arrived at Phoenix at 5:53pm and we were told by the hostess that the wait would be 20-25 minutes, so we receive our buzzer and go sit at the bar until we are buzzed. At 6:15pm we see that the couple who walked in right before us get seated, so we are expecting to be next soon, so we continue to wait. At 6:28pm my girlfriend asks the host how much longer it will be and the hostess states that it will be about 10mins, so my girlfriend asks if we can get a booth and the hostess states that it will take a little longer for a booth, so my g/f says whichever is available first is fine. Mind you the hostess had a very unprofessional attitude during this communication with my g/f. After another 20 minutes, a male host finally comes to us and sits us right by the entrance door that was available from the minute we walked in the restaurant. We ask if we can get another table because we don’t want to be by the door with the chill coming in, so the host shows us a table that is barely big enough for two pre-K children to eat at comfortably. We aren’t satisfied with any of the tables offered to us so he says would you like to speak with the manager I say yes. The same host comes back to us and tells us that it may take longer for a better table I explained to the host that I would like to speak to the manager directly. The manager who was in visible distant at the host stand the entire time then comes to us. The manager whose name is Ping comes to us and is extremely unprofessional. I explain to him that not only did we receive horrible placement but that the hostess didn’t communicate to us that we would have to wait longer than the initial 20-25mins. Ping doesn’t apologize Ping doesn’t offer any way to rectify the situation and only says well if you would like to wait for a better table the wait will be longer because booths are for reservations. By now it is already 6:50, so we decline the offer and leave the restaurant. I am not one to get into the whole race matters thing, however, I will say that it struck me and my girlfriend as odd that we are African-American and received this horrible treatment, yet the Caucasian couple that came in right before us was given a 4-person-seater booth within the 20-25 minute timeframe that was also given to us. After this incident, I will say that I will no longer visit Phoenix and I also intend to let others know of the unprofessionalism, and what seems to be discrimination that takes place in this establishment. I do know that this is a family owned establishment, and if they do read this I hope that the will learn a lesson from it and give their staff some training in professional communication.

ZA

Zac Goldstein

If you set the bar higher than “satisfying generic takeout,” then finding good Chinese food in Greensboro is no easy task. To that end, Phoenix Asian Cuisine is a welcome change of pace, both in terms of ambiance and menu selection. It’s also quite a bit costlier than ubiquitous takeout fare, and for the money charged, the food falls a bit short of expectations. Phoenix is nicely appointed with dark woods and a distinctive tapestry-like paint scheme above the bar area. The menu is deep and varied, offering everything from soups and salads to vegetarian, chicken, beef, pork, and seafood dishes to sushi to chef’s signature dishes featuring duck and lamb. Thai curries and Vietnamese noodles hobnob with familiar Chinese favorites like lo mein and sweet and sour chicken. There are also a few dishes not often found elsewhere, such as sweet and spicy walnut chicken. For our first visit, my wife and I went with steamed potstickers, Singapore noodles, and the aforementioned walnut chicken. The potstickers were good: they avoided the gumminess that ruins other versions. The walnut chicken was sweet but not cloyingly so, and the candied walnuts were a nice touch. The Singapore noodles were fragrant and tasty enough though a bit underseasoned. Service was polite albeit a bit harried: an order of sake was initially forgotten though the oversight was quickly remedied when pointed out. Pricing, unfortunately, is very nearly Phoenix’s undoing. The walnut chicken came out to $15.50 and the Singapore noodles ran $13. In the case of the latter, better versions are available elsewhere for several dollars less. Portion sizes were certainly adequate though not large enough to justify the money charged. Were either the food elevated or the prices lowered, Phoenix would be a must for anyone seeking good Chinese cuisine. Instead, it comes across as a more authentic, non-corporate P.F. Changs, offering food that is well above takeout grade in classy digs while still leaving you wondering if it was really worth what you paid.

CH

Christina Overman

Im not sure if it is new management or what, but I usually enjoy this place until recently. For the second time in the last few months my Mother and I had horrible service. We were treated as if we were second class citizens the entire time. We are African American and we observed our waiters on 2 separate occasions neglect our table while catering to the Caucasian tables. On our most recent visit we were so neglected that our food came cold and then we had to eat with empty drinking glasses. When the waiter finally returned to fill our glasses we were served room temp water and warm tea. We asked for a manager and the waiter gave us a nasty attitude. The managers solution to our cold food was to take it to the back and reheat which if Im not mistaken is against the FDA laws for safe handling of food. But wait there is more, upon return home my Mother was going over her bank acct to find out the waiter not only charge her acct for the meal but also an additional $30 which is stealing from a customer, when she addressed the issue the manager got irritate and vulgar. We will be filing complaints with BBB and all others to address the criminal act of stealing from customers. Bottom line we will never go back, the treatment we received is unacceptable and there are other Asian restaurants with food that is just as good if not better!!!!! I really dont want to give them any stars to be honest.

DA

Da Ya

The place of course seems really posh. The service was pretty good. The food, I hate to say, is not. Ive only been here once, so Im not sure if it was a bad night where they needed to pick up low quality ingredients at the last minute, or the chef was just off. If I didnt feel strongly about it, I wouldnt be reviewing the food. Alas, I do. The pineapple chicken tasted like the pineapple and the sauce were dumped from a can. And not a good can of sauce, either. The dipping sauce for the summer rolls was definitely not "freshly made", either. The vegetables were undercooked so that I felt I needed to use a knife to cut them. I would not eat here again unless the prices were dropped down to take-out prices, since the quality is about the same. Take-out food itself is like the Taco Bell of Asian food (then again most Asian food in America is the Taco Bell of traditional Asian food), for the most part. I feel like the psychology of being in a seemingly nice place tends to train the brain into thinking that the food IS actually of high quality, when the exact opposite could be true. There really is no reason for a restaurant with such pricing to operate if the distinctive flavors of the food are not really made in-house, and/or cant even be disguised as if they were made there, let alone be of a higher standard. Better ingredients, better _________.