Congee Phoenix Cuisine

Years back, this building was a Keg Steak House! Then it was «Last Harry’s Restaurant.» After that it was called «Red Rock» which was a Rock ‘N’ Roll kinda Bar. (That one was my personal favorite!) Times change… and now it’s Congee Phoenix, and I hope it stays Congee Phoenix. Their menu is extensive, with hundreds of dishes to choose from! Their Chicken and/​or Beef with Noodle dishes are delicious. You get a lot of food for the money. The interior décor is really sharp and tasteful. I’m not a Congee expert, and I know ppl love Congee Wong, but my Ex-​GF and I really like this place. We find ourselves going back time and again! Try it, you may love it too!

We went there when they just opened. On average once/​month. Have tried many of their dishes. To be honest, all the similar/​regular dishes for this type of congee/​Cantonese restaurants, Congee Wong is definitely much better in terms of authenticity, flavor and portion.
But we keep coming back for their salted-​egg yolk coated shrimp (without shell, therefore more flavorful), and signature pork ribs. Please give them a try! Their Chinese roast duck and pork are also better than Congee Wong.
Today we ordered our regulars, but the fried rice was rough and bland and lack of that yellow color which I guess from the touch of curry powder. Xia men style fried vermicelli was bland too. The Xia men vermicelli was one of my favorite HK dishes for almost two decades, today it lacked the sweet & sour sauce that also gives the dish their unique red color.
Anyway it’s a 3.5, gave it 4 since the overall review was a bit low (3 stars).

I ordered take-​out for delivery at 4pm in a sunny weekday. however the guy arrived almost an hour later. I lived only 20min local drive from this restaurant. Whats worse, The plastic bag was a mess, full of soybean sauce and oil, one dish box was broken. The delivery guy purposely hide the bag behind him when I paid so I didn’t see such mess and he still got his tip!
Plus, they increased the price.
Will not order from this place again.

I’ve been here a couple of times with my parents for lunch on weekends. The interior is quite nice, except the seats were a bit uncomfortable. The food is reasonably priced, big portions all around, as well they usually came out fast.
The food itself… it was so-​so from what I can recall on my recent visit last weekend. The pad thai barely had any sauce, the shrimp cheung fun broke apart easily as the shrimp fell over to the other side of the plate, the fried Singapore style turnip cakes were dry and had no spice, the big bowl of fish congee was ok (had to put in lots of white pepper in my bowl). The only (close to) decent dish we ordered was this spicy secret/​XO sauce fried shrimps and broccoli.
Overall like that other Unilocalers have said there are plenty of other restaurants similar to this one that you can find all over the GTA that are way better. Other than that, you get 10% your bill if you pay in cash.

We, party of 8, came here for lunch today (Saturday). To park your car at this place can be a little frustrating because this place is shared with Tim Horton’s.
The food arrived very quickly. The congee here is delicious, the clam is not over cooked and the thick consistency so tasty! Fried dough is a lot better than Congee Queen and my party seems to really enjoy the pig liver dish. Salmon fried rice was damn good, the caviar compliments the dish and the garnish they put is so refreshing! Steamed fish was extremely tender therefor it is not over cooked. Their famous spare ribs is the best spare ribs I ever had! Tasty as hell!!!
What I don’t like is that they don’t clear out empty dishes and don’t refill teas. Other than that we really enjoy the experience here and we will definitely come back.
Food: ⁵⁄₅
Ambience: ⁴⁄₅
Service: 3.5÷5
Cleanliness: ⁴⁄₅

Happened up on this restaurant and thought I’d give it a try. I usually go to Congee Queen or Wong so thought this would be good for comparison.
On entering there is the large lobster tank that is an eye sore and needs some upkeep. This was unwelcoming and I hesitated giving the place a second thought. Decided to proceed through.
We were seated immediately and service was attentive.
We had the Shrimp and Scallop congee — shrimp and scallop limited but the flavor was good. Also had the Beef with rice noodle in black bean sauce — Good enough flavor. Ma Po Tofu on rice — good. Overall the taste was good but the servings were smaller than what you receive at the above mentioned restaurants. If you want to pay cash you let them know prior to the bill and there will be a 10% discount.
Overall the place was just OK. I would not go out of my way to return.

Holy mackerel batman! The family styled servings are well cooked and seasoned, satisfying and I absolutely loved the variety.
Had white people safe Chinese dishes, but I am counting the days to return to try the seafood dishes!
On a serious note, the fried rice was a delicacy, the General Tso chicken was outstanding and the dish of greens satisfied the others.

Very close my home. I went there on Tuesday afternoon wasn‘t busy, Food was so so… but service was poor, staff was no kindly and no smile on faces. It was a long wait time to ask staff to come to order.

I always order from them and the food is always delivered fast and hot. The quality of food is great and consistent as well.

Went to this place on a regular weekday night. and i’ve been here for a while. I remember when it first opened it was packed, and with good reason, it was very good place food wise, and the price was good. I believe that it has decreased in quality over time. It is still a decent joint in terms of taste and quality, but with the constant price increase and the availability of other congee places nearby i’m not sure how relevant this place is.
now onto the food. I ordered the bbq meats which is a standard for all congee places. for congee phoenix this is actually relatively new, as they did not offer this before. the two meats were roasted duck, and bbq pork. and i have to say that neither was good. Although the portions were good sized, the falvour just isn’t. The duck was soft skin and fat, it just seemed really salty. and the bbq pork was dry and overcooked. Overall i was very disappointed in it.
We had also ordered the dry beef fried noodle. which is a stape for all congee places, and cantonese cuisine places. The flavour for this was okay. it was not bad, it was not great. it just seemed to be fairly standard fair. and did not wow me. Overall i feel that this restaurant did not have the quality it was known for before. and did not really have the value either it had before.
Although not a bad restaurant, i would not recommend this place to other people, as their are plenty of other congee places a short drive from there, that are better and better priced. Unless they return to form and become back what they used to be, i feel this place is forever on my list of restaurants i only go, if i’m close by or if someone brings me here.

We went on a saturday night around 9pm. The place was relatively quiet. The restaurant was very modern and was quite comfortable. The food (we had the congee and fried tofu) was what is expected of a typical chinese restaurant. It definitely fulfilled our congee cravings and would recommend it if in the area for congee.

Congee Phoenix Cuisine is the typical Cantonese restaurant that you would expect to find in Toronto. But, this restaurant is quite different from the many related restaurants that I have visited in my life.
The ambiance of this restaurant is warm and light with the various color scheme and décor around this restaurant.
The food at this restaurant is exactly the type of flavour you would expect to taste if you went to any restaurant in Hong Kong. The food is quite delicious with its numerous selections ranging from congee, chow mein, fried noodles, and various Cantonese dishes. The prices are quite standard compared to nearby Cantonese restaurants.
The service was all right as the waiters were very friendly and polite. Although they did not know much English, their willingness to satisfy my family was quite admirable.
Congee Phoenix Cuisine is not your ordinary Cantonese style restaurant and I do recommend to anyone looking for some good Cantonese food to check out this place.

This is a lovely restaurant that offers Chinese fusion food. I definitely would recommend the fried squid, spicy turnip cake and a very authentic Cantonese chow mein dish. These were our groups favourite when we went earlier this month!
Definitely will go back to enjoy the cuisine. On top of that, it is very competitively priced in the Chinese food restaurant list. Though, they do have a hard time understanding English.

The décor is nice and the restaurant seems clean. It certainly has potential to have higher stars. However, the food was a little disappointing! Everytime a dish came, I would compare it with Congee Queen or Congee Wong’s food. Nothing was impressive nor memorable.
Most of the dishes were quite bland. We ordered a vermicelli singapore noodles dish but it was so dry. The congee was bland but at least it had an acceptable amount of ingredients in it. The Unagi fried rice only had small bits of Unagi in it and was also bland. Maybe I should have stayed home… Maybe the restaurant should be renamed Congee Bland?
It took a while to get the bill as they were a bit busy.

The food was really good and was largely portioned. The service was «ok». They were quick getting the food out and taking my order and then I don’t know what happened to my waitress. One of the guys cleaning up the tables noticed I wanted to get going. He got me a carry out box for my leftovers and then he was the one who brought my bill when I asked him.

Not bad, the food was meh and pretty largely portioned.
We ordered an eel fried rice and although it certainly had the eel fried rice taste, I could not find any big enough piece of eel to even recognize. looked like all meager tiny unrecognizable scraps of eel mixed in there.
Also, the parking kind of sucks here. Probably wouldn’t come unless I was stranded at Fairview and REALLY wanted some congee-​type food within walking distance.

Came here for lunch today. The place was quite full. We ordered a big bowl of seafood congee, eel fried rice, singapore style turnip patties and 1 fried dough stick. The congee was flavourful with a decent amount of seafood. The eel rice was ok, decent flavour and size. Dough stick was re-​fried ok. The turnip patties were a huge disappointment. They just added some shredded chicken and green onion. There was no extra curry flavour or colour, just tasted like regular turnip patties.
Overall, not bad, but I don’t think I’d return. Rather drive back to Markham to eat.
Bad parking situation here.

So after a series of bad restaurants that have inhabited this very spot, I’ve been very reluctant to give Congee Phoenix a try. However, I’ve recently decided to put my big girl pants on and go and try it out… andddddd…I’m sort of sad I put all that effort into it.
I tried the preserved egg & pork congee, chinese donut, and a chicken flat noodle (ho fun) dish. Everything was just very bleh and bland. I feel like their sole type of spice they used was really, just salt. I’ve had way better congee than and even if the price were right, I really don’t think I’d be going back again.

I have seriously experienced better.
Had:
Baked pork chop rice ($ 7.50) — Cheese is an extra $ 0.50. I didn’t add it. Portion was decent. Pork chop was tender and juicy. Fried rice base was good. Moist for a fried rice though. Sauce… wow…I’ve never had tomato sauce on a baked pork chop rice like this. It was wow, but not in a good way. It was super sweet (in a cloying way), and sour too. Most Chinese tomato sauces taste like ketchup that’s been thinned out, then thickened with cornstarch and water. This one tasted like they had super concentrated ketchup. I wanted another entire plate of just plain fried rice so that I could make that sauce less concentrated.
Shredded pork chow mein ($ 8.25) — Not particularly appetizing looking. We asked for our noodles extra crispy. There was very little of it that was extra crispy. The rest was soggy because of the sauce. I expect this from my $ 3.99 Chinese food court chow mein. I expect more if I’m being charged double that.
Fried vermicelli in home style ($ 8.25) — Decent amount of topping/​filling/​non-​noodle stuff. Liked how they used red onion instead of regular onion. Lots of green onions. Decent amount of shrimp. Noodle base wasn’t that great. Didn’t have that lovely chew I’m accustomed to. Vermicelli usually has a springy texture. This was kinda limp. Also lacked that slightly toasty noodle feeling (I’ll explain in overall comment).
Overall Comment:
Not enough wok heat. Nothing was hot enough. This is very important for Chinese food. If they had had enough wok heat, their fried rice would have been less moist, their chow mein would have been crispier and their vermicelli would have had more slightly darker, almost toasty burnt marks on it.
Interesting thing to note:
They have tables with seating on three sides. Interesting concept. Not sure how well it works with the condiments on the table.
Caution:
Winter. Mats outside of the main entrance don’t have salt on them. Slippery. BAD.
Final remark:
This place made me appreciate much more how I have a Congee Queen close to home.

Out of all the Congee XYZ brands, this one is my favourite. The location is on Sheppard right by Fairview mall, next door to Tim Hortons. It used to be an old Red Lobster and Jap/​Korean AYCE restaurant called Momiji. The restaurant is very clean and modern looking.
The prices are fair like any other congee restaurant except you get fast service. The portions are fair and there’s lots of parking at this location.
You won’t see any lineups as the restaurant can seat a stadium.
Definitely recommended and convenient if you are looking for quick noodles or congee.