Phoenix Kitchen + Lounge - Calgary, Alberta

Really great restaurant. We joined friends here today. Not too loud even though it was full. Friendly service and the food was good too. The service was fast. I would definitely return to experience it more.

The staff are quick and efficient but still very friendly. The prices for each dish in dim sum seems higher, but the portion size makes it worth it. Everything came out nice and hot and didn't taste overly salty. The tables are spaced out nicely so you're not running into ... someone elses chair. Good place for dimsum :) Read more

This was my first visit to this restaurant, and I had high hopes for it. We were seated quite quickly, and the restaurant was fairly busy at the time. At pretty much every restaurant I've ever been to, within a few minutes of being seated, the waiter or waitress would ... come over with water, and then take a drink order. We waited quite a while for our waitress to come back to our table; we ordered some green tea when she finally did. We expected water to be delivered with the green tea, or shortly thereafter, but they never offered us any water. It was rather peculiar! We had to wait quite a while for our waitress to come back to take our order, and when she did, she misunderstood what we wanted and we had to correct her. One would expect that when ordering fried dumplings they would come out first. That did not happen. Our fried rice with tomato and shrimp came out first, and then I asked about the dumplings. The server who brought our food looked confused, and that's when I realized that even though we clarified with our waitress that we wanted the fried dumplings, she didn't actually add them to our order. Within a few minutes, our order of Ginger Beef and rice came out, followed shortly thereafter by the fried dumplings. The food itself was fairly good, but not exceptional. The sizzling rice with tomato and shrimp did not sizzle! At every other place I've ever had this dish, the entire point of it is to for the tomato sauce over the rice and you hear it crackling and popping. Instead it did nothing. It was still quite tasty though, and I enjoyed it. It was not overly flavorful though, as most dishes of this type that I've had elsewhere have a very strong tomato flavor. This one was quite mild in comparison. The ginger beef was quite good, though it was very sweet and lacked any sort of zip or spice that I would normally associate with this dish. The ginger beef from nearby Hawkwood Palace is far superior. Lastly, our poor forlorn dumplings were the biggest disappointment of the evening (other than the service). I'm used to them being fried, hence the name fried dumplings, and being at least a little bit crisp on the outside. Instead, these dumplings were practically soggy and the dough was falling off of them. They tasted pretty good, but I had a hard time getting past the texture. Throughout the meal, our server never came back to check on us even once. She never offered us water until we flagged her down and asked for it. We drank the first pot of green tea, and put the empty pot near the edge of the table with the lid flipped up, the universal symbol for "please bring us more tea". Instead, our server came over looked at our teapot, flipped the lid back over and walked away. All of our mouths were full of food at the time, so we couldn't clarify for her that we wanted fresh tea. It was very curious. We had to flag her down to get our bill after being done eating for 20 minutes, and we just generally felt ignored the entire night. I couldn't help but notice that the other tables in other parts of the restaurant seem to be getting much more hands-on service. Our section was largely ignored by everyone. We arrived at this restaurant at around 7:15pm, and we didn't get our food until at least 8pm. It was close to 9pm before we were able to leave. I would have given this restaurant 3 out of 5 stars based on the food, but the poor service just made it a frustrating experience and I will not go back to this restaurant again. The food is pretty good, so maybe if you're looking for take out this would be a good choice, but the service is just really quite poor. Read more

We went with a party of 6 and was told they had a special of lobster for $31. So we ordered it. They asked how we wanted it prepared and we said the ginger sauce instead of the creamy sauce. The lobster came on a bed of noodles. We also ... ordered the Peking duck. As compared to other restaurants we found that the amount of cucumber and green onions was scarce. So we asked for another dish of them. The food was good but smaller portions but it might just appear that way because the dishes they put the food on are so large. The reason for the 3 star rating is because when we got the bill they charged $5 for the noodles that the lobster came on. We were like surprised because if you tell us that the lobster is on special you’d think it’s the whole dish. Also, we were charged $3.50 for the extra dish of cucumber and green onions for the Peking duck. We felt that we were being nickle and dimed. Oh well lesson learned I guess. When they tell you the special ask what exactly it entails. Ginger beef bistro is preferred. They also have a lobster special for $29.95 and it includes the noodles lol. Read more

Visited at lunch hour for dim sum. The service was prompt and food served in a reasonable amount of time. Waiter recommended their pan fried chicken buns and flash fried shrimp dumplings. Chicken buns were good and had lots of mushrooms inside. Flash fried shrimp dumplings were crispy and paired ... well with a dipping sauce. Their shrimp rice crepe was presented on a large long plate as one long roll. It was done well with large shrimp. Would definitely return for dim sum or to try out their dinner menu next time. Read more