The Phonlik House

I have been to this restaurant a number of times and it has never left an impression on me, good or bad up until now. For my mothers birthday she decided she wanted to have a family get together at the Phonlik, with family members travelling from Oxford, Tamworth and such like with a party of 10 which included 2 children one of which needed a high chair. The restaurant isn’t very big and they had packed us in like sardines, our table right at the back of the restaurant with no room to manoeuvre, they had decorated above the table with balloons and banners indicating that it was a birthday we were here to celebrate, however that is the only good part of the whole meal. They didn’t provide high chairs even though we had telephoned ahead to confirm we had 2 young children attending that evening one of which needing a high chair, we had to result in using the car seat.

One party member wasn’t keen on Chinese food and did ask if they could order something not on the menu, be it, it was nothing extravagant, just chicken and chips and a starter of spare ribs, another 2 party members decided on a set menu for two and the rest of us just chose different items off the menu including starters. When the starters arrived the spare ribs were no where to be seen and after asking twice and everyone else finishing their starters, the spare ribs finally arrived. From the time of arrival to the time our main meals arrived was about 2 hours this after complaining that people had travelled a long way to be here and the fact that we had small children. In fact everyone else in the restaurant that had arrived after us had been served. Eventually our main meals arrived including some starters from the set meal which had been given as starters. The meals were given to the wrong people and we all had to swap, now for the taste test. We the Chicken and Cashew nuts tasted bland a thick watery sauce with soggy vegetables, its ironic but I ordered a side of fried vegetables to accompany the meal and to share with my children, however they were also coated in this bland watery sauce and very soggy. The chicken looked and tasted boiled and the fried rice was brown in colour and tasted like it had been re-heated, the peas were dry and wrinkled. Two party members ordered beef dishes and the beef tasted that off that they sent the dishes back and didn’t bother eating anything else. All in all the service, the food and the surrounding were very poor and not a restaurant I would recommend to anyone. The prices are very high and mislead you in to thinking you are eating in a quality restaurant with good food and good service. When the bill arrived it was all in Chinese so we didn’t know what we had been charged for, we did question the bill and was told that the beef dishes had been taken off, but the bill which came to £145.00, which taking the children out of the equation works out at £18.12 per head including drinks. Oh and to top it off we then had a waiter come over and remove the balloons to give to other children in the restaurant not ours.

I hope people get to read this and yes go there and make your own mind up but my advice would be to go somewhere else instead and have an enjoyable night.
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Monday, April 28, 2008

I have been to here twice now and will booking to go tomorrow for my husbands birthday, on both occasions we have received good hospitality and the food has been tremendous.

I would totally recommend anybody to try out this restaurant and I'm sure you will go back and back.
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Tuesday, March 11, 2008