A friend gave me a gift card to P.F. Changs a while back and Hedgehog and I never used it (although we greatly appreciate them, we are really horrible about using things like gift cards and always end up using them a really long time after they've been given to us!). I decided to ask a couple of friends, The Stuff Guy (TSG) and Vegas Girl, to join me in using the gift card in Hedgehog's absence. I decided on a week night since I thought the crowds might be kinda crazy on a weekend, so I made a reservation for Thursday at 7:15.
Parking is located behind the restaurant in the Hokua condo. There is a convenient entrance to the restaurant from the parking lot, though you still need to walk to the podium at the front of the restaurant to be seated.
We were seated immediately upon checking in and were given a table. There are a handful of booths, but most of the seating is table seating, and there is also an outdoor seating area. Diners can see into the kitchen, although there is glass separating the dining are from the kitchen, which probably keeps out excess noise. Upon being seated, a server showed up and immediately brought us 3 glasses of water while we decided on what we really wanted to drink. TSG ordered a beer that sounded very exotic and was supposed to have a hint of orange in it. I ordered a glass of Ste. Michelle Riesling, something fairly standard, but very good and always reliable.
Note that this is not my first experience at P.F. Changs, but the last time I ate there was in Vegas several years ago. I remember the decor and some of the food, including some kind of duck with buns and noodles that we had fun adding sauces to. The most memorable part was the Great Wall of Chocolate that we ordered to go. It literally was a wall of chocolate cake, and the to go box for this was a rotisserie chicken container! Back to the experience here in Honolulu...
The menu is pretty extensive, so it took a little while to navigate and narrow our choices down. We started out with five dishes in mind, but decided it was too much and narrowed it down to four, which was still a lot. These were our selections and what we thought of them:
Vegas Girl's only "must" was the lettuce wraps. The filling is made of chicken and the iceburg lettuce was very cool, crisp, and refreshing. The chicken was served on a bed of nice and crispy bean threads (I know, doesn't sound appetizing, but they're really yummy!). P.F. Chang's provides a plate of sauces and condiments which we experimented with when eating the wraps.
After the lettuce wrap, our remaining dishes came out all together, and rather quickly. We were actually quite amazed at how quickly the dishes arrived! However, the eating part took us a while since the portions were huge.
I was intrigued with the description of Tam's Noodles: "a unique gnocchi-like noodle stir-fried with sliced beef, shrimp, and chili peppers in a subtle abalone sauce." The gnocchi-like noodle sounded interesting to me. However, some of our group cannot eat shrimp, so we asked for it to be left out, which was absolutely not a problem. In fact, our waitress offered to substitute pork or chicken for the shrimp, so we chose the chicken. This was a terrific dish with a bit of heat. The "noodle" was nice and chewy. I would definitely order this again.
When we were looking over the menu, we decided we needed something with vegetables, and I suggested a salad. We pondered the Chicken Chopped Salad, but it sounded very ordinary and we ended up selecting the Warm Duck Spinach Salad. It turned out to be a good choice. Once again, the crispy bean threads served as a bed for the salad. The spinach was appropriately wilted, and the duck was really yummy (for a moment I thought I was eating kalua pig, but wrong animal!) There were some mandarin oranges, and my favorite part was the toasted almonds.
The fourth dish was mu shu pork, which I think was tied for a favorite of mine with Tam's Noodles. It's not something I would normally order in a
Chinese restaurant, although I would describe P.F. Changs as Chinese fusion. Don't go here expecting something you would get at your neighborhood Chinese restaurant. Back to the mu shu pork -- the "pancakes" were kind of tortilla-like, and were wrapped for us table side by our server. She made about four of them, and left a dish with the remaining mixture (which was a lot!) and a little bowl of hoisin sauce.
I wasn't going to order dessert, but Vegas Girl mentioned that as we walked in, she noticed a tray with shot glasses on them that were filled with desserts. She asked our server about them, and they're kind of like little sampler desserts, and they're only $2.50 each. Vegas Girl ordered a S'mores and I ordered tiramisu. The size of these were perfect. I would include a picture, but unfortunately the desserts are out of focus, and nothing drives me crazier in a food review than blurry pictures!
With all this food, it's not surprising that we had leftovers. A LOT of leftovers! While the food came out really fast, it took us a long time to eat until we were full. We left the restaurant about 2 hours later. Our bill for all of the food and drink came out to about $70, not including tip. We probably could have done well on three dishes, but it was more fun and allowed for more variety by selecting four.
This probably isn't a place I would frequent, partly because of the prices, and partly because it is a chain. If I were going to select somewhere to have dinner, I would probably choose something more unique. But if you've never tried it and have wanted to, give it a try. Chances are you won't be disappointed. I thought the service was very good too, which always adds to the experience.
Parking is located behind the restaurant in the Hokua condo. There is a convenient entrance to the restaurant from the parking lot, though you still need to walk to the podium at the front of the restaurant to be seated.
We were seated immediately upon checking in and were given a table. There are a handful of booths, but most of the seating is table seating, and there is also an outdoor seating area. Diners can see into the kitchen, although there is glass separating the dining are from the kitchen, which probably keeps out excess noise. Upon being seated, a server showed up and immediately brought us 3 glasses of water while we decided on what we really wanted to drink. TSG ordered a beer that sounded very exotic and was supposed to have a hint of orange in it. I ordered a glass of Ste. Michelle Riesling, something fairly standard, but very good and always reliable.
Note that this is not my first experience at P.F. Changs, but the last time I ate there was in Vegas several years ago. I remember the decor and some of the food, including some kind of duck with buns and noodles that we had fun adding sauces to. The most memorable part was the Great Wall of Chocolate that we ordered to go. It literally was a wall of chocolate cake, and the to go box for this was a rotisserie chicken container! Back to the experience here in Honolulu...
The menu is pretty extensive, so it took a little while to navigate and narrow our choices down. We started out with five dishes in mind, but decided it was too much and narrowed it down to four, which was still a lot. These were our selections and what we thought of them:
Vegas Girl's only "must" was the lettuce wraps. The filling is made of chicken and the iceburg lettuce was very cool, crisp, and refreshing. The chicken was served on a bed of nice and crispy bean threads (I know, doesn't sound appetizing, but they're really yummy!). P.F. Chang's provides a plate of sauces and condiments which we experimented with when eating the wraps.
After the lettuce wrap, our remaining dishes came out all together, and rather quickly. We were actually quite amazed at how quickly the dishes arrived! However, the eating part took us a while since the portions were huge.
I was intrigued with the description of Tam's Noodles: "a unique gnocchi-like noodle stir-fried with sliced beef, shrimp, and chili peppers in a subtle abalone sauce." The gnocchi-like noodle sounded interesting to me. However, some of our group cannot eat shrimp, so we asked for it to be left out, which was absolutely not a problem. In fact, our waitress offered to substitute pork or chicken for the shrimp, so we chose the chicken. This was a terrific dish with a bit of heat. The "noodle" was nice and chewy. I would definitely order this again.
When we were looking over the menu, we decided we needed something with vegetables, and I suggested a salad. We pondered the Chicken Chopped Salad, but it sounded very ordinary and we ended up selecting the Warm Duck Spinach Salad. It turned out to be a good choice. Once again, the crispy bean threads served as a bed for the salad. The spinach was appropriately wilted, and the duck was really yummy (for a moment I thought I was eating kalua pig, but wrong animal!) There were some mandarin oranges, and my favorite part was the toasted almonds.
The fourth dish was mu shu pork, which I think was tied for a favorite of mine with Tam's Noodles. It's not something I would normally order in a
Chinese restaurant, although I would describe P.F. Changs as Chinese fusion. Don't go here expecting something you would get at your neighborhood Chinese restaurant. Back to the mu shu pork -- the "pancakes" were kind of tortilla-like, and were wrapped for us table side by our server. She made about four of them, and left a dish with the remaining mixture (which was a lot!) and a little bowl of hoisin sauce.I wasn't going to order dessert, but Vegas Girl mentioned that as we walked in, she noticed a tray with shot glasses on them that were filled with desserts. She asked our server about them, and they're kind of like little sampler desserts, and they're only $2.50 each. Vegas Girl ordered a S'mores and I ordered tiramisu. The size of these were perfect. I would include a picture, but unfortunately the desserts are out of focus, and nothing drives me crazier in a food review than blurry pictures!
With all this food, it's not surprising that we had leftovers. A LOT of leftovers! While the food came out really fast, it took us a long time to eat until we were full. We left the restaurant about 2 hours later. Our bill for all of the food and drink came out to about $70, not including tip. We probably could have done well on three dishes, but it was more fun and allowed for more variety by selecting four.
This probably isn't a place I would frequent, partly because of the prices, and partly because it is a chain. If I were going to select somewhere to have dinner, I would probably choose something more unique. But if you've never tried it and have wanted to, give it a try. Chances are you won't be disappointed. I thought the service was very good too, which always adds to the experience.
1 comment:
YUM YUM!!! especially da Lettuce wraps! =) hehe.. FUUUD PIX!!!! YAY!
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