The Golden Phoenix has been a staple in the city for over 25 years. Located at 2421 W Main St (what was once Randy’s Pizza Barrel for us old timers, well, I was about 10 or so when Randy Barnett owned the best pizza joint in town). Flash forward to 2022 and Golden Phoenix is still going strong. I can recall when my parents would take us to Golden Phoenix as a kid. My first taste of Sake, have to say as a youngster, it was nasty, as an adult, not so bad.
They have everything you could ever want on their super large menu and if they don’t have it it’s probably not worth having. I have to say it has been several years since I have dined at Golden Phoenix and nothing has changed. Clean cozy dining room, cloth napkins, and the art work on the walls come alive with color. The carpet looks as new as the day they put it in. One little ding on the décor I would have to say is the table numbers written a piece of paper and taped to the wall, such a beautiful dining room I think they could of done a bit better than that.
Golden Phoenix is open seven days a week, however after 3 PM the dining room is closed and it is take out only. In my opinion that is a miss step on their part, dinner is when the family has time to gather and spend time with each other. And I know when my kids were younger, as a working single mom, we would look forward to going out and letting someone else cook and clean up.
Grouchy stopped in Saturday afternoon to have some good old-school Chinese cuisine. After looking over the menu and so many choices I settled on the Garlic Shrimp dinner, that came with soup, egg roll, crab angle and fried rice for $9.95—what a deal, with prices all over town going up and with Sturgis Bike Week in town, a lot of places raise their prices, but Golden Phoenix has stayed true to themselves and the community
Grouchy ordered the Hot and Sour soup. This is my favorite, it is my go to soup when I am sick or just want a pick me up, and theirs packs quite a punch. It was heavy on the spice, and they are not shy about the serving portion. It was not bad, but I have to say, someone at the top of East North Street takes the cake when it comes to Hot and Sour soup, I have tried all of them in the city and GF has the best.
The Garlic Shrimp arrived and you could smell the garlic, but there was just a slight hint of garlic. Not sure how that is possible since I could see and smell all the garlic but barely taste it, not that it was not good, because it was very good, just wanted more garlic flavor. The crab angle (crab Rangoon) was good, but the egg roll I did not care for, and I love me some egg rolls but theirs was mushy and if they put meat in them I did not see or taste any, all I got was very mushy cabbage and carrots. They could have left the egg roll off.
Over all Golden Phoenix is getting a solid 4 stars. Food was not the best I have ever had nor was it the worst and service was good. Had that soup not been so spicy and the egg roll been better they would have have 5 stars. Golden Phoenix is open for lunch starting at 11 AM and run’s daily lunch specials as well as the everyday lunch special.
Until next week be patient with the bikers out and about for the 82nd Sturgis Bike week. Good Eats
Leave a Reply