I can’t remember who recommended Phoenix Palace to me but this Chinese restaurant on Baker Street was definitely not what I was expecting. Opening up the menu it looked fairly typical .. until I got to the game section. Game is not something that is typical in a Chinese Restaurant anyway but the game on offer wasn’t also that typical. Aside from Venison, Veal and Ostrich the menu also features Kangaroo, Wild Boar, Springbok, Hare, and Frog!

We came to Phoenix Palace mainly to sample their dim sum so my brother and I decided to try some of our usual dim-sum dishes and sample one of the game dishes. At the prices of the yum-cha dishes (surprisingly pricey) we didn’t think we’d be back again unless we ate something spectacular.

Firstly on the dim sum. Honestly? I was disappointed. The Steam Pork Buns, whilst tasty, were miniscule, the Pork in Yam Croquette and Prawn Croquettes were seriously over-fried (so over-fried that when I went to stab my Yam Croquette it bounced from the plate and all over the table), the Garlic Spare Ribs Cheung Fung were in essence the steamed spare ribs dish served over three small noodles (for this pleasure the dish cost an extra pound or two!) and though the Steamed Prawn Dumpling with Wasabi was a good effort – it wasn’t anywhere near as moist or delicious or hot even as the one at Pearl Liang.

Secondly on the game dish. We went with the Pan Fried Kangaroo in Black Pepper & Honey Sauce. This was perfect. Served with small balls of honey dew melon it even caused a few pepole walking by to comment on how good it looked. The only minor point I would say is that the kangaroo didn’t taste gamey at all but it was extremely tender and went well with the sauce.

Finally, we decided to finish our meal with “Liquid Gold Custard Buns.” At £3.80 we were expecting a little something more exciting than this:

The little (and by little I mean about 5-6cm in diameter) steamed parcels were tasty but nothing too spectacular.

Overall I would say Phoenix Palace delivered satisfactory dim sum. I, however, wouldn’t go back there simply for that. I might, however, be happy to go back to try the restaurant on its main dishes. Maybe try out the chef specials.