
Chinese food gets a bad reputation for being a pretty unhealthy cuisine.
Most people across American associate Chinese food with deep-fried battered meats (often coated with tons of sugar), greasy sauces, and loads of MSG. A Chinese restaurant is the last place a person seeking out “spa food” would visit.
So I was surprised when P.F. Chang’s contacted me about their new summer menu. They threw names of ingredients at me that I did not expect, like “heirloom tomatoes”, “quinoa”, “green papaya”, and “cilantro.”
Really?
Granted, P.F. Chang’s is not your typical Chinese restaurant. In fact, it’s a nationwide chain that got its start in Arizona by selling Asian-themed “grazing food”. Though it’s called a “China” Bistro, its food is actually inspired by all sort of Asian cuisines.
I agreed to try out the summer menu.
Bryan and I took a couple friends with us and decided to try the entire summer menu, literally. The summer menu has six items, so we knew we needed to bring some “help” in order to have any hope finishing all six dishes.
It had been years since I had visited an “American Chinese” (or maybe fusion is more appropriate?) restaurant, so I wasn’t sure what to expect.
P.F. Chang’s has an Asian-themed cocktail menu, with drinks that incorporate ingredients such as
Asian pear, black tea, coconut, and spicy chilies.
Bryan started out with the Yuzu Ginger Mojito which he thought was not bad – refreshing and not too sweet. He wished for more ginger flavor, though he tends to prefer drinks that have a very strong ginger component.
We sort of freaked out the server when we told her we were planning on ordering every single dish on the summer menu.
“Are you sure? It’s a lot of food.”
“Yes, we definitely want to order every single item, plus a few more of your classics.”
She asked us a few more times if we were really sure, and we confirmed that we needed to try every single dish. She looked skeptical and slightly amused, but went along with our “demands.”
Alas unfortunately, they had sold out of the Peking Duck Summer Rolls, one of the six items. We did order the remaining five summer menu items, along with a couple additional classics.
Thought we were sitting at a typical table for four, our server ended up moving another table over for us in order to fit all the food.
I swear it must have been the first time I’ve had to add a table to fit all the food I ordered.
Crazy.
We began with one of the starters from the summer menu, Heirloom tomato and Thai basil salad ($7.95). According to the description, market-fresh heirloom tomatoes were tossed with avocados, Thai basil and ponzu dressing.
Although the concept behind the dish was promising, the execution was a disappointment. The tomatoes were just not that flavorful and had the texture of refrigerated tomatoes. Perhaps they weren’t vine ripen? The avocados redeemed the dish a bit – they were ripe with a nice, soft texture. I’m really not sure if the Thai basil added anything. Overall, we did not love this dish.
One of the better dishes of the evening was the Grilled Prawns with Chilled Peanut Noodle Salad ($15.95). The prawns were grilled perfectly – they were juicy, flavorful, and cooked just enough so that the texture of the shrimp “popped” when you bit into them.
The cold noodles seemed to be inspired by Thai flavors, and were tossed in a red curry-peanut sauce served alongside shaved snow peas, crispy shallots, bean sprouts, carrots, cilantro, and lime. Overall, the sweet, savory, and “peanut-y” sauce was reasonably pleasant, though I didn’t really like the texture of the noodles, which were a bit mushy. The dish wasn’t very spicy (unlike authentic Thai food), but captured a balance of savory and sweet.
I was really surprised to find a healthy dish like the Grilled Pineapple Citrus Swordfish with Pineapple Rice ($19.95) on the menu (which doesn’t really seem Chinese at all). The swordfish is line-caught and grilled, served over a fried rice mixture that includes asparagus, carrots, summer squash, red peppers, and fennel. Unfortunately, the flavors were quite bland, since there’s hardly any salt in the dish. Adding soy sauce helped, but overall this dish was underwhelming.
Similarly, their Summer Vegetable Quinoa Fried Rice ($11.95) was another dish that was hardly salted and seemingly a bit heavy on the oil. This dish also includes a variety of fruits and vegetables, such as sunburst squash, mango, tomatoes, and snow peas. Again, adding soy sauce helped make the dish taste better.
The Korean BBQ Chicken Stir Fry ($13.85) consisted of deep fried and battered chicken pieces tossed in a sweet and spicy red chili sauce. These pieces were stir fried with fresh red peppers, onions, and green beans. The entire dish was then topped with a kimchi slaw.
I personally was not a big fan of this dish. The chicken was not particularly tender, and the sauce was too sweet and thick for my tastes. The battered fried chicken + sweet sauce combo sort of reminded me of Chinese take-out, like sweet & sour chicken or General Gau’s chicken.
Because we were not able to order the Peking Summer Rolls, we decided to order a few of their classic, best dishes. We asked the server for recommendations.
“Basically, if you look at the menu, the top few items are also our most popular items.”
She strongly recommended the Chang’s Chicken Lettuce Wraps and the Crispy Honey Shrimp. We went along with her suggestions, as well as ordering the Crab Fried Rice, which just looked interesting.
The Crispy Honey Shrimp ($15.95) consisted of lightly battered and deep fried baby shrimp tossed in a honey sauce with green onions. I found the batter and sauce too sweet for my tastes. This dish reminded me more of Americanized Chinese take-out versus authentic Chinese food.The Crab Fried Rice ($13.95) caught our eye because the ingredients looked really enticing: rice was tossed in a hot wok with lump crab meat, Shiitake mushrooms, asparagus, egg, bacon, lemon, and Sriracha.
This was yet another dish that just wasn’t as flavorful as we had imagined given the ingredients. We needed to add soy sauce to bring out the flavors, which definitely helped.The Chang’s Chicken Lettuce Wraps ($8.95) are classic and they are pretty good. Ground chicken is stir fried with mushrooms, water chestnuts, and green onions to serve as the meaty filling which you wrap with the iceberg lettuce. The contrast of flavors, textures, and even temperatures is nice, and overall this dish is solid. I can definitely see why it’s one of the most popular dishes.
The desserts are pretty standard American desserts, such as New York cheesecake, tiramisu, red velvet cake, and chocolate cake. There’s nothing really that Asian on the menu, except for perhaps the Banana Spring Rolls.
We decided to get the Chocolate Peanut Butter Sweet Treat ($2.95), which was a decadent, rich layered dessert that included peanut butter crunch, milk chocolate and caramel layers on a chocolate brownie-cake. The entire cake was then topped with honey-roasted peanuts and served with chocolate syrup and caramel sauce.
I really liked the dessert. It sort of reminded me of a really fancy Snickers bar cake. I especially liked the textural crunch from the honey roasted peanuts. The dessert also came in a really small portion, which was perfect for us, since we were already really, really full.
Overall, it was definitely an interesting experience visiting P.F. Chang’s. The restaurant is most certainly more a a fusion type restaurant and quite liberally borrows ideas from all different types of Asian (and even non-Asian) cuisines.
The prices are not crazy high per dish, though the portions run on the small side compared to a normal Chinese restaurant. Our party of four actually managed to finish almost all the dishes (I think we ended up with the rice dishes left over, namely the fried rice and the quinoa).
There are a surprising number of healthier choices on the menu that are inspired by the bounty of fresh summer ingredients. Many dishes are quite friendly for those on a low-sodium diet (though arguably kind of bland for the general public). My favorite dishes of the evening were probably the Grilled Prawns (minus the noodles), Chang’s Chicken Lettuce Wraps, and the Chocolate Peanut Butter Sweet Treat. I would skip anything that is deep fried and comes with a thick, sweet sauce.
I’m not sure how much longer the summer menu will be around (can you believe summer is almost over?!). Perhaps they will try to do something similar for the fall and the winter – continue to experiment, explore, and offer healthy dishes inspired by a broader range of Asian cuisines.
Disclaimer: this post and meal were sponsored by P.F. Chang’s. All opinions are my own.
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Kinda crazy that swordfish dish is $19!! (For PF Changs! You can go to a pretty fancy restuarant for $19 entrees.) I’ve never been to a PF since it seems that I can get real Chinese food for much less… and I find it very expensive! (And I LIKE Chinese-American and fusion.) Good review though. 🙂
I have to say I never expected a PF Changs review from your blog. I was disappointed, but morbidly curious. Why eat mainstream, over-priced, Americanized Asian food when you can get the real thing from so many local entrepreneurs?
I had to go there once, in a group. Given what I saw. smelled and tasted, I imagine even in your compliments you are being generous.
It’s true – you can definitely get cheaper and better Chinese food at a real Chinese restaurant!
Thanks for taking the time to comment, and I’m sorry if I disappointed you. I do occasionally write about chain restaurants on the blog, though it’s quite rare and I do intend to keep it that way. Thanks for your readership. 🙂
I do appreciate the rarity of chain restaurants! I am mostly opposed to them myself, but I know most folks aren’t.
And I know why they asked you to come. You know Asian food. You know food really. And a lot of people trust your reviews.
Jennifer and everyone else who commented on this article, please allow me to tell you something about chain restaurants. There are all kinds of chain restaurants out there. Some maybe not so great, but majority of them do provide great quality food, and style of cooking like you would find at an independence owned restaurant. Many of the chain restaurants use lots of fresh ingredients, and scratch cooking recipes at each of the locations. Yes, it is a standard recipe that every restaurant follows, but it does not mean that they are not as great as the independence. In some way these recipes allow all of the locations to provide consistent products for the customers to enjoy. If anything, trainings that are provided at these chain restaurants are far more serious and intense for both FOH and BOH staff so they can provide the best experience for the customers. If you look at these independence own restaurants at a different angle, would they be able to provide the same type of consistency if they grow into multiple locations? Also, before we make any bad assumptions about chain restaurants, please know that 1/3 of all meals consumed by the Americans are eaten at the chain restaurants. If they are really that bad, I am sure they are all out of business by now. As far as the comments on being over price Chinese food, please do keep in mind that PF Chang’s is not a typical Chinese American food restaurants you find on the corner of your neighborhood. We probably should keep an open mind that there are so many fusion restaurants out there that provide all sorts of fusion types of cuisine, why can’t we be more fair and look at PF Chang’s as a fusion restaurant? I am sure you are also not going to find the investments that have put into build each Chang’s as you would find at a typical Chinese American restaurants, and that is also why, and some of the other companies, including the independence, can charge a higher price than the others. At times, I do understand that the execution of each restaurant can cause the perception of chain restaurants are not as good, and this can go the same as any chain companies out there, whether is food related or not. I would only agree with you on the part of some execution flaws on these chain restaurants, but I just feel that it is very bias on the comments about chain restaurants.
One more note, on the comment about swordfish plate being $19. Please do go to the seafood store or supermarket and find out what the price is for swordfish, before making a statement about being over priced.
I found this an open-minded and respectful review of a place that is a bit incongruous for your blog. My only criticism would be that you didn’t disclose whether the parent company or marketing firm picked up the tab since they reached out to you.
Keep doing what you’re doing. This blog is wonderful and I really enjoy your reviews/recaps.
Hi Yuki,
Thanks for your thoughts. I appreciate you taking the time to comment. I agree that not all chain restaurants are the same, and some definitely execute dishes much better than others. I tried my best to give my own balanced opinion of my experience at this one restaurant.
Thanks for your readership.
Jen
Hi Jon,
Thanks taking the time to provide honest comments on this blog – I appreciate it! Please note that I did disclose that the parent company, P.F. Chang’s, picked up the tab. This is stated in the disclaimer statement at the bottom of the post. The FTC requires that bloggers disclose if a post is sponsored.
Thanks for your loyal readership and kind words about my blog. I do really appreciate it, since so few people comment on my site in general!
Jen