The Phoenix was a superior Chinese restaurant in Histon where we live. It’s where we liked to go for special occasions. Virginia and I did make the mistake of going there once for Valentine’s Night and found ourselves sitting in a typing pool of tables, where we couldn’t but hear the drunks at the next table. Usually it was a very pleasant experience.

We often went for a set menu, partly it was cheaper, partly it saves mental effort! I to be different ordered the hot and sour soup (rather than the delicious chicken and sweetcorn) and then suffered how hot and spicy it is.

The heart of the meal for me was the crispy fried duck, making the pancakes with plum sauce and bamboo shoots and the duck. Yum yum yum.

For afters I went for the Peking pancakes. The final bill is a tidy amount, but eating at the Phoenix was a special experience to me.

Sadly in 2019 the Phoenix as a Chinese restaurant closed its doors. It has been reopened as a bar cum cafe cum restaurant which is better than being turned into housing.