Monday, May 31, 2010

Rhodes Phoenix (2) - Rhodes

We were eating dinner at Rhodes Phoenix with a purpose. It was a slightly scary moment for both my partner and I. So scary, in fact, that I felt nervous in pulling out my camera and demanding for each dish to be snapped before being touched. And... as such, not every dish was snapped LOL

These are the photos I could manage on the night. More than just these dishes were ordered but I guess, the overall gist was - the food was good.

As we got seated, the big decision of ordering food was placed on us. I knew my partner silently wanted lobster... but... it was pricey and hence, forgone. Instead, we ordered a live fish variety ($98/kg). This was cooked two ways. One was filleted and stir-fried with veges. The other type was deep-fried then sauced over. I have to say - the fish was really really good. It was tasty. It was sweet. It was really tender. I personally prefered the lighter, less sauced-up version as I think that the sweetness of the fish really shines through. My partner preferred the sauced-up version. Whilst it had bones galore, it was really really tasty.

Fish cooked 2-ways

My choice for the night was a prawn and vermicelli hot pot. This didn't turn out as I had expected. I had expected it to come out in a brown sauce and for it to be drier. But - it came out looking white and soupy. It still tasted pretty good though. Just different to my expectations I guess.

Prawn with vermicelli

Another dish I managed to photograph was the soy-sauce chicken. I like my soy sauce chicken completely drenched in soy sauce, but that's not how normal people like it. Most people probably prefer it like this - tender tasty chicken with soy sauced skin.

soy sauced chicken

There was also a tofu vege hotpot. This was pretty normal. The good thing about it was that it wasn't drenched in inch-thick oil nor was it msg-loaded.

tofu hot pot

The last dish I managed to snap was a pork chop dish cooked in a sweet ish sauce. It was actually pretty crunchily nice on the outside and when eaten with crisp deep-fried seaweed, it was actually pretty damn good.

pork-chops

Other dishes we ordered on the night include stir-fried pork neck and wasabi-ish flavoured beef.
These were both pretty decent.

My overall impression of the restaurant was good. The dishes came out hot, tasty and not packed full of MSG. The portion sizes were likewise good. Ambiance is awesome (for a Chinese restaurant) and the service was so so.

Will we be back? I believe so - along with over 300 wedding guests I believe.

Ratings:
Food - 8.5/10
Service - 6.5/10
Ambiance - 8/10
Value for money - 7.5/10
Overall - 30.5/40

Rhodes Phoenix
Level 5, Rhodes Shopping Centre
1 Rider Boulevard
Rhodes
NSW 2138
Tel: (02) 9739 6628

2 comments:

chocolatesuze said...

squee! so exciting! good choice! Anita the manager was awesome and super patient with us! You can do the tea ceremony there too and theres also a change room!

bbsnoopy said...

Yes yes~
I saw your pics at ur reception.
Looks pretty awesome.
Love the atmosphere there - so much nicer than most Chinese restaurants.
We've yet to talk to Anita - we only met with her hsb last time. So I think we need to make another trip there to sort things out :)