The Phoenix

Lovely bar, with a really nice atmoshere.
Shame about the wine list; the only wine I liked wasn’t chilled!

I would actually give this place no stars if I could. I read other Unilocal reviews that said that food was good, so I was looking forward to giving it a try. I asked a staff member about seating, he said sit anywhere. I grabbed a high top to the left of the bar, and looked over the menu. After 30 minutes no one had come to take an order, or even looked at me. I finally just got up and left. The food may be great, I have no idea, but the service experience SUCKED!

Ha ha, I keep finding myself here when I am in Central London. Its a stone’s throw the BBC for us music folks, does really decent food and the best thing is all the entertainment in the basement. Bands, clubs, comedy etc as it is also one minute to walk to Oxford Circus and the drinks are a decent price for W1. Lots of laughing and friendly staff means that I will keep finding myself there again, no doubt.

Awww, I don’t like writing bad reviews. But this time I really have to :(
I have been coming to the Pheonix for over a year for regular meetups, and have never written a review because it was just average. Not amazing, not horrible, and never really chose to go there anyway.
Well, it seems that the Pheonix has changed owners, and has gone from average to really meh.
So! It’s a pub in super Central London — split on 2 levels, it’s always relatively busy. The food has gone from your average pub food to some sort of american diner. So… Burgers. And that’s about it.
When I asked if I could switch my chips for salad, the waitress looked scared. She was scared of the chef. She still went and asked him, and nearly came back in tears. Apparently the chef yelled at her «she takes it or leaves it. I’m not going to make the salad, who is?». Okay.
And then there was an issue about placing the order without the table number. Well, there weren’t any table numbers on our tables, and that caused another series of drama.
The burger? Well… I went for chicken avocado burger. Avocado wasn’t ripe, chicken was overcooked, chips were bland.
Between the below average food, the disappointing menu and the appalling attitude of the chef — just couldn’t give this place a good review. And will definitely never ever go there by personal choice.

Went here for a comedy night. Really good fun and great atmosphere. The food is good too.

Really cute place to get a pint, but not the cheapest. They do have a wide range of beer, wine and liquor though. Nice place for an after work pint.

We came here for their comedy event «the Pun Run». The event was about £3.50 a person and held in their ginormous basement full of cushy seats and benches. The event itself was kinda expensive for what it is, especially given that it was run around dinner time to draw in drinks and food sale, but their food was actually really good. We got some beer and cider, and then their southern fried chicken for £13 — Expensive? Yes. Worth it? Yes. To be fair, I haven’t had much fried chicken (well any) in London so it’s not comparative, but the half chicken chopped into four was extremely juicy and well breaded. I’m normally not one for the white meat as they usually come out really dry, but this place had it spot on. I enjoyed every bite of it. The fries/​chips and coleslaw was pretty good too. A side dressing for the chips were not very good, but nothing to it.
If I ever wanted to get some good fried chicken, i’d definitely come back.