Phoenix

By Jess Monday October 31, 2011

After having a craving for some HK-style café food, Mike and I ended up at Phoenix, an HK-style café with three locations. The location we visited was the one on Bayview, just south of Highway 7, in the random plaza with the Dollarama.

Baked pork chops on rice

There’s abundant parking in the plaza and the restaurant itself is quite clean and spacious. They have an enormous menu at reasonable prices, like most other HK-style cafes. And, like most other HK-style cafes, the service wasn’t the greatest.

On our first visit, we tried the baked pork chop on rice ($7.95), one of my favourite HK-style café dishes. You have the option of ordering this on spaghetti or macaroni here, but I prefer rice, which soaks up the sauce the best. This came with two large pork chops and taste-wise, it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. I prefer the one at Goldsor, which has the best one in the GTA I’ve tried so far. The sauce at Phoenix kind of tasted like canned Campbell’s tomato soup. Although I didn’t love it at the restaurant, it actually tasted pretty good the day after when I ate the leftovers.

Crab roe with seafood fried rice

On both visits, Mike ordered the crab roe with seafood fried rice – Japanese style ($11.85). The fried rice came with an assortment of seafood such as scallops, shrimp, and imitation crab meat, topped with seaweed strips. Since we ordered it twice, I think it’s safe to assume we both really like this dish. I think what makes it so tasty is the sauce – similar to the sweet sauce you find served with unagi.

On my most recent visit, I ordered the steamed chicken on rice with ginger sauce ($8.35) – aka the Hainanese chicken, after a friend recommended it. What a great recommendation! The chicken was tender, juicy and flavourful. It tasted great on its own so I didn’t use very much of the ginger sauce or the sour garlic sauce it was served with.

Steamed chicken on rice

Definitely one of the best Hainanese chicken dishes I’ve had! The chicken also came with chicken oil rice, which although was tasty, wasn’t one of the best I’ve had. It also came with a small bowl of soup, which wasn’t anything special. The chicken was certainly the star.

Phoenix also serves up some of the best cold Hong Kong style tea’s I’ve had. It’s got a great flavour and the best part is, it doesn’t come with any ice. Delicious!

Overall, a solid HK-style café. Although the prices might be a tad higher, the food is great and most importantly, the place is clean!