1641 New Garden Road
Greensboro, NC 27410
(336) 855-5158
Exterior View
Interior View
Oolong Hot Tea - $2.50
Hot & Sour Soup (free with special)
Lunch Special Beef Pad Thai with Spring Roll - $9.50
Monsoon Sushi - $15
Have a PEACEful Day!
Exterior View
Interior View
Oolong Hot Tea - $2.50
Hot & Sour Soup (free with special)
Lunch Special Beef Pad Thai with Spring Roll - $9.50
Monsoon Sushi - $15
This is a review of a restaurant called Phoenix Asian Cuisine located in Greensboro, North Carolina. We were planning to go to a different Asian restaurant, but they were closed even though their website said they were open. So I looked up the closest restaurants on the Yelp app and decided on Phoenix Asian Cuisine. We arrived at 1:15 pm last Sunday and we were seated immediately. Their sanitation grade was 96%, which seemed like a good sign. The restaurant was full of large groups and it was very noisy with no music playing. As I looked at the menu it appeared to be Americanized Asian food, so I asked Hubby to go to a different restaurant. I knew it wasn't going to be our cup of tea. Which it literary became when I tried their Oolong tea, more about that later. Hubby said he was too hungry to go somewhere else. In the end it would have been a good idea because it took so long for our food to arrive! We arrived at the table to find rice on the seat. I asked the hostess if she could have it cleaned. I was ignored. I don't appreciate being ignored and this made me upset. Hubby moved out of the way so I could sit on the same side since I didn't want to ruin my dress by sitting on rice on the other side of the booth! About ten minutes later the hostess returned asking if she could clean the seat. Why she didn't say I'll be back to clean the seat instead of ignoring me and why it took her so long to return is a mystery to me. The dining area is in the shape of a rectangle which made it feel very narrow. The raised booths are in the middle instead of being along the wall which is not the ideal setup for private dining. The table was very worn, other than that the decor was attractive.
We asked the waiter about a couple of the items on the menu and he didn't know any of the answers. He said he would ask his manager and later returned. He said his manager gave him brief answers that would be of no help to us. Huh? Yeah, you heard it correctly. I know it's shocking, but that gives you a hint of what to expect for the rest of this review. Maybe he just forgot the answers or didn't bother to ask his manager or maybe the manger really did give him undescriptive answers. Either way, it's very disturbing to say the least. So Hubby decided on one of the lunch specials, Beef Pad Thai, since he loves Pad Thai. I ordered sushi because that's what I was craving and the entrees all looked like they had heavy sugared sauces which my stomach can't handle. I gasped at the sushi prices, but Hubby said to go ahead even though I would normally not pay $15 for one sushi roll. Up to $13 for one sushi roll is usually my limit.
My iron tea pot arrived and it had water dripping all down the sides, on to it's stand and on to the table. The waiter didn't bother to wipe it up. He did not bring me boiling water, it was cool enough to drink right away, which isn't hot enough to make a decent cup of tea. Normally an iron tea pot can keep the water hot a long time, so I know he didn't start with boiling water, not to mention it was dripping on his hands. The tea was extremely cheap, I've seen those tea bags in Asian markets and you can buy 100's for only a couple of dollars. It was extremely bland and horrible especially due to the lack of boiling water. Meanwhile, we waited what seemed like eternity for the food to come out. I knew when the table next to us looked like they were on their way out were actually just being served their food that it wasn't a good sign and that we were in for an especially long wait. Hubby's Hot & Sour soup came out seventeen minutes later. That's a long wait for soup that they should have on hand and ready to go. Hubby said his soup tasted more like Sweet & Sour Soup than Hot & Sour soup and it lacked spice.
After Hubby's soup arrived, it took another eighteen minutes for our entrees to arrive. So after ordering, it took a total of thirty-five minutes for our entrees to arrive! That's way too long of a wait for a lunch order. Thankfully, Hubby's food was hot and so it wasn't waiting around. It wasn't the fault of the waiter, but that of the kitchen staff. Hubby's Pad Thai had too much egg in it, tofu, little beef and very sugary, sweet sauce instead of the traditional spicy Thai version. He didn't even finish it all, he disliked it that much. It was clearly a Chinese version. It tasted like sugary, bland, cheap carry out Chinese food. Which is fine if you live nearby and you are ordering carry. That it to be expected for carry out, but this was a sit down restaurant that appeared to be trying to imitate P.F. Chang's. The only Asian staff I saw was the one sushi chef. They also do carry out and there is even a separate door and cash register for those orders.
My sushi was like nothing I've seen before. Anyone seen a sushi roll cut lengthwise before? Well I have not and it certainly makes it difficult to eat with chopsticks! It was very bland. It was suppose to have jalapeño in it, but I couldn't taste any. I tasted like he substituted cucumber for the jalpeño. The Monsoon roll is suppose to have salmon, crab salad, jalapeño, cream cheese, avocado deep fried and drizzled with spicy aioli sauce. It had way too much cream cheese and avocado and barely any panko crumbs on the outside. It was made even more disappointing due to it's high price tag. While we were eating our entrees there was a terrible smell. Hubby said it smelled like they overcooked some broccoli. To me it's smelled like smells that come out of a restroom, but we weren't near it. It was so horrible, we rushed to finish our meals and pay so we could leave.
Since the majority of the customers were large groups ordering the $9.50 lunch special, I get the impression that the main reason they eat there is due to the low lunch price. I wouldn't recommend going to this restaurant unless you are ordering the special, ok with extremely slow service and ok with low quality, sugary Chinese food. Asian food doesn't have to be high in calories, full of sugar and lacking spices, so it really disappoints me to see restaurants that resort to this practice of americanizing Asian food. You wont see Asians eating this version! What a shame. Needless to say we will not be returning and after posting this blog post I plan to forget this horrible experience.
Well there you have it, my latest restaurant review for the Triad area. Be sure to check out the other reviews I have posted for the Triad area:
Amigos Mexican Grill - King, NC
Atelier on Trade Bakery & Café - Winston Salem, NC
Chef Samir Shaltout - Greensboro, NC
Dairi-O - King, NC
Hakka Chow - Winston Salem, NC
Jolo Winery - Pilot Mountain, NC
Kimono Japanese Restaurant - Winston Salem, NC
Le Kebab - Charlotte, NC
Little Italy - King, NC
Mary's Gourmet Diner - Winston Salem, NC
Mooney's Mediterranean Cafe - Winston Salem, NC
Mizu Japanese Cuisine - Winston Salem, NC
Thai Cafe - King, NC
The Marshall Free House - Greensboro, NC
The Porch Kitchen & Cantina - Winston, NC
The Tavern in Old Salem - Winston Salem, NC
I need restaurant suggestions since we have only lived in Triad about a year. So please comment below! I have several more restaurant reviews in the works, so be sure to stop by again soon. Check out my Restaurant Reviews Pinterest Board which also has restaurants in the Raleigh, Triangle area and Charlotte.
I invite you to follow my blog via Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Google +, Bloglovin' or Networked Blogs. Don't forget to claim your free Graze Box, free Julep nail polish, free air filters and $30 worth of Home Chef meals before you leave! Also, be sure to browse around my blog since I'm sure you'll find something else that interests you.
Have a PEACEful Day!
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