Phoenicia's Back !

[JoB]

dawsonct..

maybe i caught a lazy day.. but although i appreciated the quality of the ingredients used … i ended up with very little that i couldn’t have produced as well in my own kitchen.

I know i experiment at home more than most… i have been experimenting with this cooking thing for 50 years now and practice does have it’s benefits ….

but when i go out…i either want relatively inexpensive easy food or i want to pay for what i won’t or can’t prepare myself.

i want to be charmed and intrigued with novel flavor combinations… i want to feel spoiled.

I always paid through the nose when Hussein cooked for “just for me”.. but i never left feeling that i didn’t get value for my dollar.

I realize that may be hard to do with a new restaurant where at least in the beginning you have to cater to volume trade… but that’s what i want.

i would settle for really really good soup at lunch:)

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[dawsonct]

Thanks for the feedback JoB. I make pretty good soup, so will talk to the chef about that as a lunch item.

Hussein’s sous chef is still there, and he told me about some of those “pay through the nose” meals. We are obviously trying to lower the price point as we transition; I would say that we are a restaurant in the middle of an evolution and that the restaurant we have now is not the one we will have in six months or a year. Hope you come back after a while and give us another chance, JoB.

—

If anyone took my advice and went down there last night, sorry! We had a power outage around 7:30, and it pretty much crashed our menu. We struggled along until it got so dark we couldn’t see.

Good training!

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[charlabob]

Bob and I haven’t made it to Phoenecia since it reopened, but we look forward to it. I appreciate and understand (and even envy) the viewpoint of excellent cooks who expect something they can’t do.

As someone who can barely boil water on a good day, I have to say I am amazed and delighted by good food that I didn’t have to prepare myself. (If your dishes just had to be better than I could do, the bar would be much too low.) :-)

Everything I’ve read about the new version makes me think it’s different (understandably) and, possibly from our viewpoint, even better. I’ll let you know.

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[JoB]

dawsonct…

let us know when you open for lunch..

i will definately come in for lunch.

and i will try more than once..

i know it takes a new place time to find it’s voice..

Hussein’s voice could never be replicated…

and i am not sure i would turn my pocketbook over to another chef like that anyway:)

i am eager for the family to find theirs..

i really want the new Phoenicia to succeed.

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[grr]

I believe Phoenecia is now open for lunch on the weekends!!!

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[dawsonct]

Whoops! Post #23 was incorrect; we ARE open for lunch only on the weekends for now.

Hope we can go full-time in a few weeks. See you there soon!

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[johnnyblegs]

Today’s Times review

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/restaurants/2012368062_cicero16.html?cmpid=2628

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[add]

We finally tried Phoenicia earlier this week and had an absolutely lovely meal and great service. The 39-Spiced Beef and Garlic Green Beans small plates were delicious and much larger portions than expected. The pear and gorgonzola salad was good, and the prosciutto and arugula pizza was perfection. We had a corner table and enjoyed the Alki sunset, and our server was friendly and just the right amount of chatty. We loved it and will be back!

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[nighthawk]

As someone who loved the the original Phoenicia, I’m not crazy about the new one. It was a couple of months ago when we went.

Part of this I will admit is definitely the lack of Hussein and missing the old place. I did not go their often but every time I did it was a memorable experience. The first time we went it was a complete accident, just walking on Alki, wanting dinner and hey this looks good. I think it was the 4th time I went before I ever ordered off the printed menu because Hussein always had the most amazing specials.

Taking out the nostalgia factor, one of the main issues I had with the new Phoenicia is it was loud. The music was competing with conversation. I really hate feeling like I have to yell over dinner and I think possibly the acoustics in there have something to do with it, lots of flat surfaces and nothing to dampen the sound.

For dinner we ordered some small plates and pizza. We really enjoyed the pizza but the small plates were meh. Especially for the price.

The last thing was the service, it was also sort of meh.

That said I will mention again we did love the pizza. From comments here I will definitely pay more attention to the special if we go again.

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