Phenyllactic acid is a new biological preservative with broad antibacterial spectrum. In order to obtain high yield lactic acid bacteria, 2 lactic acid bacteria strains with high phenyllactic acid yield were isolated from 50 samples in different environment with the modified methods of dissolving calcium ring and bacteriostatic circle, which were named respectively as BLPC002 and SCPC008, and the strains were identified. The results showed that the yield of phenyllactic acid in shake flask fermentation with phenylalanine as substrate was 358 mg/L and 333 mg/L, respectively. The yields of phenyllactic acid were evidently improved compared with less than 100 mg/L before modification. It indicated that the modified method was more efficient and accurate. The strains were identified as Lactobacillus plantarum by morphological analysis and 16S rDNA sequencing.