P.F. Chang's

My husband and I, and our 3-year-old daughter, went to P.F. Chang this Saturday evening, hoping to celebrate our Valentine's Day (we couldn't celebrate on Tuesday). Well, this was not possible. We got to the restaurant at 5:30pm. They told us the wait would be of 55 minutes. We thought it was a bit too much but had some things to do in the area and decided to go for it. Half hour later we came back willing to patiently wait for our turn.\r \r The waiting area in this restaurant is very small and it was so crowded that we hardly had any room where to stand up. When hour and a half passed by (It was almost 7:00pm by now) my husband went to find out how much longer we will have to wait and he was tole it would be another 15 mintues. When 15 minutes went by and they didn't call us, I went to find out how much longer we will have to wait. The hostess told me it would be another half hour (even thought our name was next on the list) because at that time they were taking care of their reservations.\r \r Well, that was it. After yelling at her, my husband, my daughter and I left the restaurant, and we're not planning to give it a second chance. I had never felt so misstreated. The lack of consideration and respect for their customers is really outrageous. more

After being given a gift card for PF Chang's we decided to leave the bustling culinary action of the city for an adventurous trek to the burbs. Though we did enjoy two of the best mojitos Cleveland has to offer (Asian Pear no less) and some outstanding service, the food here left much to be desired. The hot and sour soup was not bad though a salt bomb, perilous for anyone with blood pressure issues, but the egg drop soup was virtually tasteless and no amount of their ""special sauces"" could impart any flavor whatsoever. In addition it slid down the throat uncomfortably like lukewarm oil coating a wok. The allegedly sushi-grade seared Ahi Tuna appetizer might have once been a fine piece of fish, but after being pre-cooked to a no longer pink center, it arrived at the table limp and listless, spongy in texture and leaning towards grey in color. The flavor was not terrible but a mere shadow of what it might have been if cooked properly. The personable and professional server attributed this to a ""rookie"" in the kitchen and offered to replace our dish. We attributed this problem to the distaste for ""undercooked"" fish so prevalent in the local clientele, thanked him, and decided to forge ahead on our exciting quest for a fine chain dining experience. The real horrors did not begin until the arrival of the main courses. The Kung Pao Scallops had been deep fried to within an inch of their natural consistency, resulting in a dish so high in fat that even the most professional fast food diners might blanche. The sauce was tasty, luring us into eating the dish but leaving us feeling so bad afterwards that we cancelled our plans for a movie and went home to recuperate. The grilled salmon, though somewhat healthier in terms of fat but still dangerously high in sodium, had been cooked into submission with the texture of tenderized leather. Again our excellent waiter tried to give us a piece of correctly cooked fish, but we had had enough by that point and moved on to desert. Later when we tried to spoil our constantly ravenous cat, The Professor, with some of the remaining salmon, which we only took because it comes in such a nice to-go bag, he turned up his nose and looked at us like we were trying to put something over on him. Smart cat - thus the name. Desert was a banana egg roll, which like much of the food tasted OK, at least once we removed the greasy egg roll wrappers from the unassuming bananas, but was so shockingly high in fat and calories that it seemed like we could taste each gram going down. We did not finish the dish for which our arteries thanked us later. We know that virtually no one chooses a dining experience based on calorie count and saturated fat levels, but when McDonalds seems like a healthy alternative, something is indeed amiss. So if fast food is your thing and real Chinese food is too scary, indulge yourself in the hybrid experience of this suburbanized Chinese fast food chain, otherwise there are far better choices all around the city. more

The menu here is pretty diverse, with something for everyone, including vegetarians. We intended to try another large restaurant on a Saturday night, but that one had a waiting time of 60-90 minutes. Not wanting to wait nearly that long, we drove to nearby PF Chang's. Parking was no problem, and even though the restaurant seemed just as full, we only had a 20-minute wait, if even that. The dumpling appetizer is great, as is the banana spring roll dessert. The flavoring in many dishes is a bit overpowering, which works with some of them, but not all. Our friend had a noodle dish with chicken that was a little too spicy and strong to be enjoyed. We had the lemon prawn with noodles special and the lemon-pepper shrimp. Both were very tasty and we would order the special again. Although the shrimp tasted good, I was a little disappointed that the shrimp were fried in a batter coating and some were a little tough. Most disappointing was that the julienne cut vegetables, which were stir-fried with the lemon-pepper shrimp, were covered with what felt like grit, as if they didn't bother to wash the vegetables before cooking them. I don't think it was the pepper, either - I've never had gritty-like-dirt pepper. I ate the shrimp because it tasted good and I was hungry, but I had to scrape off the vegetables to avoid the unpleasant grit. Also, the celery and green onions I did eat were so fibrous that I couldn't chew them anyway. Maybe cross-cutting them would have been a better choice. The hostesses did a good job, and our server was efficient enough, but I'm not sure the server smiled once. This will never be one of our favorite restaurants, but it's not bad for a moderately priced place with nice decor. Pros: Parking, decor, service, most entrees and appetizers, all desserts Cons: Over-seasoned food, dirt in vegetables, noisy when full more