Phoenix Asian Restaurant

The delivery was a little bit slow but other then that everything else was great

Yes, it’s totally like fast food Asian style for the student or young resident!
Fast and gets the job done as a staple to your existence but its not all that good and it’s clearly not too authentic as well! Like i noted however it will fill you up and get the hunger gone. You will merely wish later you looked around a little more for a Chinese food restaurant that has better quality and less bland food to offer!

Please close this place down. I ordered from here two weeks ago. Boy I should have listened to those one– two stars Unilocal reviews. I was desperate to order some takeout food and I stumble upon this business. They deliver to UCSC students if you spend 20 bucks which isn’t that bad considering that most places charge 25 – 30 bucks for delivery but their a reason why it’s dirt cheap. Whatever you DO NOT get the orange chicken from here. It’s practically just frozen fried chicken nuggets with a side of gooey sweet sauce. Their taro and thai tea boba were over sweetened. I felt like I was gonna get diabetes. As for the chow mien it was bland and disgusting. I ended up throwing away my food after a few bites. I was really disappointed that they serve me this type of food. I’m not Chinese but I know good Chinese food and this is far from it. This restaurant doesn’t even serve authentic food it’s a pure joke. Trust me you’re better off going to Panda Express. That being said I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone.

For their boba only: I haven’t really eaten here yet but their boba is soooo good. I don’t really like quickly and after boba Cruz closed I started coming here for my fix. My favorite is the Jasmine milk with boba.
Tip: get a stamp card, every 10^th boba is free.

Stoked to find a Chinese restaurant that is on my side of town and a LOT better than the other. The pork fried rice, which can be blah most places, was very flavorful and actually FRIED! The General chicken was all white meat and quite spicy! All of us were happy with the Kung Pao Chicken, beef & snow peas too. The place itself is a mess with boxes stacked up around. but the service was nice. Ordered online and even though I put a time when I would pick up the order they waited to make the general chicken right when I got there so it would be crispy! Nice.

Honestly, I love this place. I come in at the lunch/​afternoon hours and the place is a little empty but that doesn’t reflect the food. I usually get my food real fast, like REAL fast. It is always large portions and not just «watered down» with the rice and the food is delicious. I have been ordering a new entrée every time I go and each time I am pleasantly surprised. To those expecting a 5 star authentic Chinese meal, you have your standards set way too high. For those wanting a great lunch that’s affordable and filling, definitely try this place.
5 stars for all around service price and quality of food.

This is a Chinese Restaurant in Santa Cruz… Chinese Restaurants in Santa Cruz don’t make Chinese food.
If the owner or workers of Phoenix are reading this review. please know who your customers are. I understand Santa Cruz is mostly white, but if you are serving a Chinese person, they most likely want Chinese food.

I ordered takeout from here because it was on the way home and had some respectable reviews– there was a huge disconnect from the reviews I read and the experience we had. We ordered a pretty fair amount of food– we had orange chicken (well, we ordered orange chicken, more on that), shrimps lobster sauce, shrimp and snow peas, chicken and snow peas, pot stickers, egg rolls, beff with garlic and ginger, white rice, and fried vegetable noodles. Meh… we were all ready for some good food as it was late (8PM-​ish) and we just needed to get some food to go. I am very sorry to say there was nothing remarkable about this at all– I could have opened several cans of store bought chinese food with some frozen egg rolls and done about as well. The shrimp are small, frozen I am sure, there was no discernible difference between chicken and snow peas and shrimp and snow peas except for some small shrimp in one and a few pieces of chicken in the other. The snow peas were limp, soft, and unappealing– how do you get away with selling this food and staying in business?! Egg rolls were pre frozen then fried, nothing unusual or exceptional there. The pot stickers were decent, best thing about the meal. I have certainly had better but they were edible. The orange chicken was a carton of fried chicken pieces with a tub of artificially-​orange colored gooey sauce-​yuch! Nothing else– friend chicken pieces and tub of gooey sauce, totally unappetizing. The entrees I ordered did not come with rice, egg rolls or anything else– that was all extra $$ even though each entrée was $ 9-​$ 12. I could go on but you get the drift… first time=last time for our dollars.
Caveat emptor. You have been warned.

A chinese restaurant that gets that their audience is only 1% chinese. Very smart. Don’t really have anything to say about the food other than that I’d rather go to Panda Express.

The lunch special was pretty cheap, you get an entrée, side of rice, soup of the day for 6 bucks. You get a large portion but the quality is just meh. It fills you up, but doesn’t taste as authentic or well made as good Chinese food. The sauces from the Orange chicken and sesame chicken was very goopy, and the tofu clay pot had undercooked vegetables and not as much flavor.

Great Chinese Food! Have had delivery many times with no disappointments. Their Cashew Broccoli is Incredible!

Fast, friendly, cheap and good American Chinese food. I picked up Generals chicken with rice and it was very tasty and not oily. Sauce comes on the side so you still have that nice crunch on the chicken.

Horrible customer service. Cold food. Would not recommend this place to anybody. The guy flagged me down as I was leaving the place and asked me why I didn’t tip on the pick up order

Ok, let be honest here. The Chinese food scene in Santa Cruz is… lacking to say the least. That being said, this is probably the best/​one of the best options possible. ⁹⁄₁₀ times, they had amazing food delivered, and for a very good price.
They deliver very quickly, even up to UCSC. Thanks for helping me get my Chinese food fix! :)

Great food. Even faster service.
Ordered for delivery got here in half an hour. On a Saturday night you wouldn’t expect that

Phoenix is so good they opened without much publicity and have done well on word of mouth recommendations. The staff is always helpful and the orders somehow always get sorted correctly.
I remember the old Chinese restaurant on the same location, old sticky naugahyde booths and very tired over soy sauced.salty.
Phoenix has risen from that
Best wishes. You are in the best Chinese Santa Cruz.

Hungry sc student. Ordered delivery, the delivery time took about an hour and a half so be prepared to wait! But the food is pretty good tho!

Timely correct delivery on a rainy night ! Just terrific. Really liked the dumplings in hot sauce (good value too) large portions, fair prices (thought the soups pricy$ though), egg rolls had a perfume like herb we did not care for. Dan Dan noodles promised a «peanut sauce «that was not like any I’ve ever had. Just peanuts on noodles with a thin soy sauce. Not terrible, just not the «peanut sauce «we hoped for/expected.But we enjoyed overall, and will try again. The fried rice & PanFriedDumplings were remarkably NOT GREASY. CreamCheese wontons were FAT.

I hope this comes across as constructive criticism. I love independent, family-​owned restaurants and I want to see these folks flourish. The people here are genuinely nice and, ultimately, they can run the business how they like. There are some things happening at Phoenix currently that are going to put off locals like me. I walk by this place regularly and I would patronize the restaurant weekly if it wasn’t for the issues outlined below. Here’s are my objectives observations:
The sign out front is our first impression of the restaurant and it is none too inviting. It used to read «Chinese and Japanese cuisine» underneath Phoenix. For whatever reason, someone has crossed out «Japanese» in spray paint. Unless Phoenix Asian restaurant has a gang rivalry with another restaurant I don’t think this type of tagging is appropriate.
On first entry into the building there are boxes stacked up on the left and… this is true, a «Man Cave» on the right. Yes, there’s a worn leather couch, scattered newspapers and an old-​timey cathode-​ray tube television. What’s going on? Have we just walked onto the set of a David Lynch film?
When we enter the dining room we see a hideous heater from the 1950’s hanging from the ceiling. When this contraption gets used I can’t imagine. It’s really an eye sore. Next, one notices that the dozen tables there are numbered with cheesy taped up plastic identifiers. Is it that tricky to memorize the table numbers? Even still, wouldn’t it be better to place the numbers out of sight?
So you may be thinking all of the above is superficial. Maybe it is. Important things like service are mostly on target. the staff are attentive and quick to come seat us. Drinks and food is served promptly and everything is pretty warm. Spicy hot chili paste is found on every table and for that they deserve credit.
The next could go for any restaurant in the area: Santa Cruz is lousy with vegetarians and vegans. I really wish restaurants would make it a little easier to tell what is specifically vegan. The next is a pipe dream but I sincerely wish these places would start including faux meats on their menu too.
and many others listed in the asterisked’ PDF* at bottom supply vegi protein to restaurants. It’s inexpensive, easy to work with, doesn’t spoil, and will pull a whole new group of eaters into the restaurant.
Change is good and this place could use a little. I do plan to go back and give it another spin sometime. I’ll update my review if things are shaping up. For now, I can’t give more than two stars.
p. s. previous reviews have not mentioned this to date: Lunch special is only on weekdays unless you’re a student with valid UCsC identification.
* Bulk veg protein for restaurants as promised above:

They took two hours to deliver my food. Terrible customer service, the lady didn’t even try to make the situation better. No discount or apology.
Rude, rude, rude.