One of your reviewer’s fondest culinary memories was travelling to China for the first time just over a decade ago. Almost all the food eaten there was great – as much as anything for the novelty – but one particular highlight was lunchtime dim sum. Both the range and the quality were a delight, especially for your reviewer’s long-suffering vegetarian comrade. Many London venues serving Chinese food seem to be missing a trick. Nowhere does it say that steamed or fried savoury dumplings should only contain meat or fish. Even omnivores like vegetable-only offerings too. Fortunately, Phoenix Palace got the message. Plaudits to the venue for not just its food, but also the décor and overall experience.
Located on a side-street one block away from Baker Street station, the venue had received high praise from a friend of mine with Chinese roots. On the Friday lunchtime when my comrade (the vegetarian one rather than the Chinese one) and I visited, Phoenix Palace was busy despite being only a quarter full. The clue is in the name: the venue is truly palatial, offering 300 covers. Diners can enjoy an intimate meal, but Phoenix Palace is also superbly well-equipped for larger groups too. Everyone gets a chance to revel in the ornate furnishings (from our well-located table towards the edge we has a particularly good chance to survey much of the restaurant). Red and dragons – an auspicious colour in Chinese culture and a symbol of luck, respectively – feature heavily.
Onto the food and since it was lunchtime we stuck to the dim sum menu. A much broader offering is also available and Phoenix Palace prides itself not just on how many people it can seat, but also on a menu that spans more than 100 options. Within the dim sum space we were not short of choice, either as an omnivore or as a vegetarian. Beyond the standard menu, there are also a series of daily specials. Per the suggestion of our server, we shared six dishes between us initially, but then followed these up with a further two. There were no disappointments, with Shanghai pork (mine) and onion pancake (my comrade’s) being stand-outs – even if the latter did not resemble anything close to the traditional British conception of a pancake. With three pots of tea and service, our bill totalled less than £30 a head – which constitutes great value for money given the experience. Certainly worth a revisit, and an evening trip deserves consideration too – for a chance to set the venue come more alive and to choose from an even wider range of dishes.