Phoenix Chinese Restaurant

Oh my lord! A coworker of mine, introduced us to this amazing restaurant. I order here all the time & for the 1^st time, their food is just awesome. Totally anyone whoever is craving for Chinese!

The Phoenix has not risen.
Not sure exactly why I originally bookmarked this place, but since I was in the neighborhood, I decided to give it a try.
This no-​frill Chinese restaurant offers a menu that is mostly in Chinese, and the various pictures of dishes adorning the walls also have descriptions only in Chinese. The décor is also pretty bare, with low stools instead of chairs, and a massive flat screen TV that kept the waitstaff hypnotized most of the time we were there.
The noodle soup with egg noodles, beef, and vegetables ($ 6) I had was not a menu item, apparently, but fell pretty flat: bland and lacking flavor, both in the broth and in the meat, and with clumpy noodles.
The foo chow dumplings with soup (item #9; $ 3), on the other hand, were delicious: the slightly sour broth was deliciously tangy, and the dumplings were full of flavor.
In the end this place is ok; perhaps I ordered the wrong noodle soup dish due to me being lost in translation, and the menu seems pretty extensive with quite a lot of dishes. Nevertheless I feel there are better options for similar prices along 8^th Ave.

Phoenix Restaurant had some tasty offerings in its conch with veggies, and fish ball soup, but the pork in sweet sauce and wonton soup was not my cup of tea. Also, tsingtao beer or any beer for that matter was not understood when I ordered. There was also a major family crisis going on in the kitchen, I think the dad chef was disowning his son chef. I also forgot my earplugs, between the only other patrons (party of 6 Chinese dudes) and the staff, this place was incredibly loud on a Sunday Evening.

It was about 10:15PM and I thought we’d be able to squeeze out a score of dumplings from Prosperity Dumpling before heading home. To my chagrin the gates were down and we had to find an alternative. The love of my life suggested we U-​turn to a restaurant she saw a couple of blocks earlier. As is often the case, no one actually spoke english in the restaurant but they were very friendly and we managed to place an order for 20 dumplings, some shrimp fried rice and some pan fried noodles. I added a Heineken to that order and they threw in a free coke and a free sprite and the total tab was $ 17. The dumplings were very good. At 10 for $ 3 they’re not the value that I think Prosperity is, but they’re much better than many other places and unlike Prosperity, Phoenix actually has real entrees that are great.

I can’t tell you too much about what food is on the menu because it was all written in Chinese and I can’t read one little bit of it. Yeah, I admit it. I’m one of those people that can’t read their own language *Hides my head in shame.*
The people that works here could only speak Mandarin (which I can’t speak) and spoke no English at all. Yet despite all this, I heartily recommend that everyone find some way to fight through the language barrier to give their house made Pan Fried Dumplings a try.
This have got to be one of the best dumplings that I’ve tasted anywhere. Just wow. For $ 3.50 you get ten nice sized pieces. Each piece were so juicy inside that it almost reminded me of soup dumplings but were slightly browned on the outside to give it a crispy texture that good pan fried dumplings are known for. The meat was so well marinated with the juice and herbs within that you don’t even need to have any accompanying sauce to dip it in. In fact, if you do use any type of sauce, I think you are doing this dumpling a disservice.
This restaurant is at the far end of Brooklyn’s Chinatown but it’s worth the trouble and travel because of the dumplings. Just make sure you bring a Chinese English dictionary. You might need it.
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This review is for the dumplings only. I don’t know how anything else taste like because I didn’t know how to order them even with my friend there.