P.F. Chang's China Bistro

Let me start by saying, the food at P.F. Chang's is very good.  However the Wikipedia page description hits it on the head when they claim it is "Asian-themed American casual dining".  The 204 locations around the U.S., Puerto Rico, Mexico and the Middle East are to Chinese food what Olive Garden is to Italian food.  That's not to say anything negative about the food, just that if you are looking for authentic Chinese food you're best bet is to find the small greasy hole in the walls ran by actual Chinese people.

The first thing that threw me off was that our waiter was Caucasian.  This should have been a good thing as in the past I have always commented on how the Asian people who have served me are hard to understand and have no interactions beyond taking your order and delivering it as a faithful servant.  This white kid who took our order the other night was like any other waiter you would find at any casual dining restaurant in America.  He did a great job, however his eyes were a bit too wide to make me feel like we would be getting authentic Chinese food.  

When he came to take our order he recommended going with the four course meal for two selection to save a few bucks.  We went with his recommendation and ended up ordering Egg Drop Soup along with Hot and Sour soup to start with, as well as Spring Rolls as an appetizer.  Everything was top notch to begin with but slightly off from what we are accustomed to.  The meals we went with were the Sweet and Sour Chicken, which is my meal of choice to judge a Chinese place before moving on to the other entrees on later dates.  Laura went with the Garlic Noodles.

I tried a little of everything and as I said at the very beginning it was very good.  However it was not the crispy, large chunks of chicken, served with a side of sauce and vegetables that any normal take out Chinese place would serve.  It was homogenized for service anywhere in the country.  I could tell that every single P.F. Chang's in America serves this exact style of Sweet and Sour Chicken in the same way you can order the exact same Cajun Pasta from any Applebee's in the country.

There was very little authentic feeling to the food we were served at P.F. Chang's.  Once again, that doesn't mean it was bad, just not exactly the Chinese food I was looking for when we searched for our first Asian dining experience in Austin.  When we got our dessert though there was no mistaking how delicious it was.  We each got a shot glass, mine was called "The Great Wall of Chocolate" and Laura's was the "Triple Chocolate Mousse".  Both were exactly what we expected.

There's no question that next time we're in the mood for a fine dining Chinese experience that P.F. Chang's will be the first place we think of, however we are still in search for our take-out Chinese place to order from on any given night of the week when we don't feel like cooking.  It took us four or five attempts with pizza before we finally found the place for us, so I am sure that out search for authentic Chinese food will also be just as pleasurable and fun.

P.F. Chang's