Let us see what Yelpers say
Pretty good reviews--a good number of raves, really-- with a couple of thumbs downer's
Phoenix Garden Restaurant
Category:
Chinese
242 E 40th St(between Tunnel Exit St & 2nd Ave)
New York, NY 10016
Neighborhoods: Midtown East, Murray Hill
(212) 983-6666
- Nearest Transit Station:
-
Grand Central - 42 St. (7, 7X)Grand Central - 42 St. (4, 5, 6, 6X)Grand Central - 42 St. (S)
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- No
- Parking:
- Street
- Attire:
- Casual
- Price Range:
- $$
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- Yes
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Wi-Fi:
- No
- Good For:
- Dinner
- Alcohol:
- No
- Noise Level:
- Average
- Ambience:
- Casual
- Has TV:
- No
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- No
108 reviews for Phoenix Garden Restaurant
Review Highlights What's this?
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"Great duck and salt and pepper shrimp." In 21 reviews -
"Prices are great and best of all, it's BYOB." In 34 reviews -
"pretty good cantonese food at very reasonable prices." In 11 reviews
Rating Distribution | Trend
108 reviews in English
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Review from May L.
Summary: Great for groups and a nice spot if you don't want to trek it to Queens or Chinatown. Mid-range Chinese food alternative. Reasonably priced vs. other non-dive mid-town Chinese food places. Four stars for BYOB sans corkage fee.
Atmosphere: It looks like a Chinese New Years decoration store exploded inside here. The restaurant is located in the downstairs of the building. It's very clean and darkly light without being too dark. While I think most will find the various luck symbols to be a nice touch to Asian-ize an otherwise, green windowless space, for Chinese folks may instead feel like they stepped into year around Chinese New Years. Wow... that's a lot of luck being symbolized on the walls.
Service: I'm going to give it a four, but honestly, there were times when it was a bit confusing to me. We had a party of 6 that arrived over the course of a 1/2 hour and ran up against their closing time. In all fairness, I think that may have been part of the confusion. They classically will want you to order everything all at once, vs. Western tradition of apps first then main course. There were three main oddities which included: pouring water for one person, but not for everyone who had no water, bringing a single hot sauce for 1 person when everyone at the table was requesting, and some very unconventional use of plates. We started with 2 plates each, 1 was cleared then half of us got 2 plates at a time while some only had 1. After the initial oddity, though, things started to normalize. They started to bring more condiments and also just swapped out plates in the normal custom.
Food: The food was good, but surprisingly, it wasn't all of the classically Cantonese dishes.
Salt & Pepper Squid or Shrimp. We had both. The chef really excels at salt pepper dishes. As the name suggests, this is breaded slightly thicker than tempura with salt and pepper. 5 stars.
Beef Chow Fun - This is the Gan Chow Ngow Haw (flat noodles) and is one of the better in the city. Great with the hot sauce. 5 Stars
Soy Garlic Chicken. Surprisingly delicious, this lightly fried chicken dish was a so good we ordered 2. 5 stars
Soft Shell Crab with Soy - Solidly executed. The underbelly is separated for those that like that, thus making the bitterness not permeate into legs. 4.5 stars for execution.
Chicken with salted fish fried rice. Well executed. Worth a try.
Mustard Greens. Surprisingly this was the stalk instead of the leaves. After our initial confusion, we dove in and found it delightful. 5 stars.
Sea Bass with Ginger & Scallions - Fresh enough, but the point of this dish is for the steamed mixture of ginger, scallion and soy to magically infuse a gentle essence of flavor into the fish so that a light pouring of sauce brings it all out. The fish stayed fish and the sauce wasn't enough to bring it home. 3 stars.
Ginger & Scallion Lobster - Fresh and executed, but not an amazing execution. There was an actual sauce on the plate... odd. If you're craving it, go ahead. That said, I'd save this for China town.
For my crustaceans list, 3.5 stars, because it saves me the trek to Chinatown. For general overall 4 stars. Would definitely go back. -
Review from William P.
Elmhurst, NYI've been here on several occasions, most recently for an fundraising dinner for my friends play. Pheonix Garden serves Cantonese style food, somewhat like your neighborhood Chinese food spot, but much higher quality, and greater variety.
What we had were a litany of courses that consisted of about 12 different dishes. I had several favorites, first the salt and pepper shrimp, in the shell but split in two for easy access. Second I really liked the lobster, cut in pieces and sauteed in the shell, hard not to like lobster though, I know. Another favorite was the pork, almost like a sesame or general tso style, delicious.
Beyond this the fried rice and noodles served were outstanding. I'd imagine you probably won't go here for a dinner like this, but this should serve as a general guide, bon appetit. -
Review from Marc F.
New York, NYThe clam dish served in lettuce wraps was divine... -
Review from Ari A.
What a little hidden gem. As my friend and I were stumbling to find this place, located between TUNNEL street, all I could think about was how close we were to our friends old place... and how I just thought nothing was there, besides the tunnel entrance.
Phoenix was a great place to go family style as some portions were big and others were small. We started with the crab and corn soup, shrimp dumplings, and the salt & pepper Shrimp. We thought this would be enough food, but alas, we needed to order something else, and had no idea what...After all our seafood, our waitress recommended the sizzling ginger Chicken, and she did not disappoint!
The food was really good, and the wait staff was very friendly, but our meal didn't end up being as cheap as I thought. I'd still come back in the neighborhood.
Cash Only and BYOB. -
Review from Monica H.
New York, NYThis place is a hidden gem for sure. Authentic cantonese cuisine and a really friendly staff. The salt and pepper shrimp was actually AMAZING, we ordered more because we couldn't get enough. The fried rice with seafood sauce wasn't what i was expecting, but it was soooo good. I can't' wait to go back! ps CASH only ! -
Review from Shintaro H.
Manhattan, NYCrispy duck and chicken. Incredible. Byob. I had some great times there. My buddy snuck in a bottle of vodka. Im sure they knew. We were not slick at all. Esp after drinking for hours. But they were cool about it. -
Review from Joy P.
Manhattan, NYThis will be a quick review.
Good:
A) Awesome to unrealistically delcious food. We ordered family style for a group of 8. Ordered almost 12 dishes and each one was better than the previous one. My favorite was lamb chops, baby boc choi and shredded pork.
B) The non corkage fee BYOB wine was great option. We had around 6-7 bottles of wine between us.
C) The service was really good.
Bad:
A) The ambience is like any other chinese restaurant. Nothing special. If they put in some money on making the restaurant look better it could get really popular.
B) I had brought a bottle of scotch for a friend as a birthday gift and the waiter took our bottle away not trusting us with it.
Definitely worth going if you love good chinese/cantonese food and the BYOB is a good touch. Probably one of the best asian restaurants in its price/class range outside of chinatown. -
Review from Janet T.
Manhattan, NYThe good:
- BYOB
- Salt and pepper shrimp
- pea shoots
The mediocre:
- $3 charge if you want an ice bucket
- pork fried rice lacked flavour
- black bean chicken was overly salty
- duck was exceptionally greasy
The bad:
Waiter bought over a dish and we ate it. In the middle of the meal we were told that the dish we had been given was a "similar dish" and not the one that we ordered - no apology given for the mistake. Soon after, our dish came and we had to box it up because there was too much food. The check came and we had been charged for both dishes and I find that incredibly rude. Don't think I didn't notice - I'm Chinese and I could read that the hand written order slips did not match the receipt. Not only did you not apologize for making the mistake in the first place, but took the liberty of not even telling us that you were charging us for both. I couldn't care less about the money, but your attitude stinks.
I paid the bill and left a small tip.
No amount of good salt and pepper shrimp will bring me back. I'll make sure I travel the extra 20 minutes to get to Chinatown. -
Review from brad d.
Philadelphia, PAI live across the street but I will never come back. I had a great meal my first trip (chow fun - I believe) and ordered the same thing for takeout the next week. It didn't taste right and I felt horrible afterwards. That never happens to me. I think the "B" health rating may be deserved! -
Review from Andrew B.
Manhattan, NYYou're an idiot if you've lived in New York, and have not had the salt & pepper shrimp at Phoenix Garden. It's a game changer. Also, it serves the best hot and sour soup I've ever had.
It doesn't hurt that it's BYOB either. -
Review from Tammy L.
My boyfriend and his friends had gone here a couple New Years Eves in a row to get a cheap buzz (BYOB) and also some cheap chinese food. There were about 20+ of us, and we had the small room in the back with two tables. I was lucky that I was at one of the tables and not the other, because the other table was served RAW pork. Someone bit into something and noticed that it was cold and didn't taste right, and then realized that it was uncooked. Others had also eaten this. Needless to say, they didn't have a very pleasant New Years Day. The food was greasy, tasteless, and just plain gross. There are enough BYOB places in the city to avoid this one! -
Review from Holly C.
2.5 stars
BYOB. I felt that the staff pressures you a lot - pressured to order drinks other than water, order more food, and even at the end of the night, felt rushed to leave by 10:30 PM on that Friday night.
The portions are on the smaller side. The fried soft shell crabs were pretty good. We also ordered the salty & pepper shrimp in shell, shrimp in snow peas, and another beef dish. The food was average. -
Review from Jennifer Z.
San Francisco, CAIt definitely is as good as it gets if you want relatively cheap prices (it's BYOB!! no corkage fees, nothing), delicious Chinese food, and a good time with friends.
My friends and I came here the other day to celebrate a reunion. We were 45 mins late (whoops) and the waiters and owners were still nice and not pushy. We ordered family style and shares several dishes. We devoured EVERY morsel.
So in summary:
Location: easily accessible, however, not surrounded by cute shops or anything special
Price: great given that it's BYOB. In order to BYOB, you must order $15 worth of food per person, which is still cheap.
Service: attentive! and nice
Atmosphere: don't expect luxury... haha by any means, but great for recent grads trying to save $$ and have good time. Good for big groups
Food: yummy! but again, it's more like Chinese take-out, so don't expect gourmet -
Review from Bob B.
Maricopa, AZWe arrived at our Son's apartment on April 24th and wanted to dine nearby. We've dined at the Phoenix Garden several times in the past, so we figured it would be great--MISTAKE!
We arrived around 9:30 PM and were seated right away. There were two large groups in the back talking VERY LOUDLY! How loud did they speak? We couldn't hear each other at our own table towards the front. The servers had to yell at us so that we could hear them. The next table towards the door didn't look happy because of the nosie level. WHAT TO DO?
Only one thing-LEAVE- and go somewhere else!.I understand why a restaurant can't keep people quiet. The servers did speak to the two groups but maybe they couldn't hear them as the nosie level continued.
TIP: If it's too loud for you to hear your wife, date or others sitting with you, LEAVE!1 Previous Review: Show all »
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11/30/2012
I've read some of the reviews on Yelp about the Phoenix Garden which is located very near our Son's… Read more »
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11/30/2012
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Review from Julie C.
New York, NYThis used to be a good place to get authentic Cantonese food. However, recently I have been disappointed again and again.
I ordered the Honey Baby Pork's Ribs hoping to get the authentic braised Cantonese style ribs. Once I opened the container, there was this smell that hit me - something smelt old. At my first bite, I realized that the ribs had been re-fried, this confirmed that they deep-fried the old ribs and sell them.
This is really not an ethical restaurant business practice,
Regardless how tasty other dishes are; regardless how authentic the style is, the fact that they sell food that's not fresh, is NOT COOL.
I ordered the take-out and I threw it away without finishing it. Thought about going back to find out what happened, but it's easier to just share my experience on yelp.
Sure, you can go back and try it yourself. -
Review from Michael G.
FOREST HILLS, NYI'm old enough to remember when Phoenix Garden was in an arcade in Chinatown that ran from Elizabeth Street to The Bowery between Bayard and Canal Streets.
They had to leave this location when a contractor working in the underground garage (one of the few really substantial residential buildings in Chinatown built after WWII) literally ripped out the floor from most of the merchants in the arcade.
(I can't remember the name of the famous dim-sum place on The Bowery side of the arcade; it's mentioned in, I think, a Woody Allen movie where some of the characters ooh & aah over the "paper shrimp.")
Anyway, the thing that's so great about Phoenix Garden is that literally everything I've ever tried on the menu, and I do mean EVERYTHING is delicious.
"Salt and Pepper Shrimp" is their signature dish and while it is not necessarily my own personal favorite, it's very well done.
The staff is generally helpful and professional and BYOB is never an issue here and they'll even help you with basic set-ups at no extra charge.
I've come here with both large parties and just dinner for two and in each case we were well accommodated with fine service.
Cash only and no brown rice.
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