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Why do people go to P.F. Chang's?
By adamg on Sun, 01/17/2010 - 8:23pm
We tried the new P.F. Chang's in Legacy Place in Dedham today and are left with a single question: Why?
Why, in a big city like Boston, with plenty of actual Chinese restaurants, would anybody go there?
The food was OK (bonus points for the chicken and shrimp in the wonton soup; minus points for egg-drop soup that tasted more like beef broth than egg). But amazingly high noise levels (it seemed like every single conversation in the place was being beamed right at our table), topped with insipid sorta-pop music (not even Chinese pop music, but good ol' American dreck) made for a frenetic, unsoothing experience. Now throw in amazingly slow service (when the waiter brought the wrong dish, Nancy finally had to get up and find a manager, because the waiter, no doubt busy, had, once again, disappeared; to their credit, the right dish did get to us very quickly).
Next time we're in Dedham and just can't wait the ten extra minutes it would take us to get to Mandarin Gourmet in South Brookline, we'll take the Tahiti over P.F. Chang's.
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Comments
Stick with Putterham
Stick with Mandarin Gourmet, the Chinese place at Putterham Circle in Brookline. We never had a bad dish there. It's a bit pricey, but ALWAYS tasty. Service and atmosphere was fantastic.
and lunches (until 3pm)
are a bargain. AND! you can get a hot cup of coffee from Starbucks or fresh bread or pastry from Cheryl Ann's Bakery on your way home, challah, rye, etc etc etc
A word about Mandarin Gourmet
When we go, we can order "the usual," and they'll know what to bring. So, yeah, we've spent a bit of time there :-).
Boston's great Chinese restaurants
Being a huge fan of Chinese myself, that was a sad review. My favorites are Beijing Garden in Norwell, China Pearl in Boston, Yangzee River in Lexington, Hong Kong in Harvard Square, and Lucky Garden on Concord St. in Cambridge. Some restaurants have wonderful food, others are good and convenient, others have great ambiance to recommend them. I hope Little Q Hotpot in Quincy manages to survive the reconstruction eviction. They fall in the wonderful food category. Which reminds me, for elegance and great food, Fung Shui in Cohasset. Highly recommended. We will make the effort to try Mandarin Gourmet in South Brookline, though!
Lucky Garden
We just drove past Lucky Garden, and it looks like it either isn't there or suffered a name change. Do you know which?
Cantabrigian
There is no d in Cantabrigian.
I moved here from California,
I moved here from California, where P.F. Chang's is quite popular (in Los Angeles and Orange County, specifically), about six months ago. When I visited Boston shortly before that and went on the trolley tour, I remember quite clearly how shocked I was to see that even Boston has a P.F. Chang's. I figured a mediocre overpriced chain of a restaurant could only succeed in the southern California cities where people love their chains, not a city with a good selection of better-tasting and better-priced food at independent establishments.
(I also thought the same when I saw that Boston has a California Pizza Kitchen. Come on... California pizza on the east coast?)
Dude, please never call CPK
Dude, please never call CPK pizza "California pizza." First off, California pizza as such does not exist. CPK pizza, on the other hand, is nothing more than a bland chain that doesn't even deliver quality.
Boston only has it in places where chains are meant to thrive: malls, and that stupid Transportation building downtown that was specifically designed to house a bunch of mediocre chains for god knows what reason.
My act of calling CPK
My act of calling CPK "California pizza" was to that exact point. Good pizza in California is usually what they call "New York pizza," albeit not exactly. I do consider CPK to be "California pizza," as in bland chain pizza. I meant nothing more by that statement.
PF Chain's
I never understood the appeal of PF Chang's. There's one in Boston at the State Transportation building, just spitting distance from Chinatown. It's like the equivalent of Red Lobster as a seafood restaurant. Why?
Ironically.... just had dinner at the one at the Pru tonight!
I like it because I like the food. It's pretty cheap and you're bound to be able to get most people in your group to agree to to go there. Of course it's not authentic any more than Chili's is authentic tex Mex.
Same
I don't go for authentic Chinese, but the food is tasty.
OK, I can buy that
Maybe we just set our expectations too high for a "Chinese" restaurant.
The food at PF Chang's is
The food at PF Chang's is lousy, and only stupid white people with no real taste and who would use 'price' as a yardstick would actually eat there. I'm sure most of the idiots who posted they like it are too afraid to trek to 'dirty' Chinatown.
Go back to Shewsbury, phlebians!
Pretty strong talk for an anon
Nobody's afraid of Chinatown that I can see, bub.
Even Chinese food in Chinatown is American in a sense.
Ive been to China and they do not have the same things there that they do in Chinatown. At least where I went anyway.
Strong? Maybe. Certainly stupid.
Strong talk from an anon? Maybe.
It's certainly stupid talk: We get Shewsburg and phlebian in the same sentence.
phlebian?
a commoner who draws blood?
we'll take the Tahiti over
Tahiti?
Ugh!
Yeah, sure, it's mystery brown sauce and all
With pineapple! Can't forget the pineapple. Plus, OK, they also have this Heart Attack on a Plate: "Chunks of white chicken meat with special ham dipped in egg batter and fried to a golden brown, then expertly sautéed with tropical fruits, Hawaiian pineapple, and sweet and sour flaming rum sauce served at your table."
But you can actually talk to people across the table from you without losing your voice, there's something soothing about the 1950s decor and they don't have frightening giant horses ready to stomp you out front. Also, no hour-long waits for a table.
Tahiti
Tahiti was actually across Mah Way in the now-vacant auto-parts store until sometime in the 80s (I think). I haven't been there for almost that long, so I'm willing to believe that my "ugh" was outdated.
we'll take the Tahiti over
You really did lose all foodie cred with that one Adam. It's like criticizing McDonalds' burgers, and pointing to Burger King.
I had foodie cred?
Damn!
I'll take Mandarin Gourmet any day. But if I were trapped on a desert island with just two restaurants, I'll take the Tahiti over PF Chang's until we're rescued or I drop dead of a heart attack.
I think they mean the Tahiti in Dedham.
Which I think has great American Chinese food. Great lobster sauce, apps and shrimp.
PF Changs will do better once that Legacy Place settles down a bit. I mean, that place is packed every single night of the week!
Walking past Chinatown to get to PF Changs
People do it, it baffles me. I've done informal tours of Chinatown for new neighbors showing them good spots for this or that, including an intro to dim sum. I hope never to hear another neighbor talk about PF Changs. Or Beijing Kyoto - which is neither good Beijing nor Kyoto style food.
Anyone wants a Chinatown tour, let me know!
Jacqueline Church
The Leather District Gourmet
I miss Grand Chou Chou
Lucky Dragon twice as much.
The dumpling place acres the street is good though. I had the vegetarian dumplings and the seafood noodle soup both excellent. I don't usually order vegetarian but man these were really tasty. The filling was good and the dipping sauce phenomenal. They don't have the thin egg noodle for their soups but the thicker noodle was good.
Tahiti is great for atmosphere
and so is Kowloon up in Saugus. For good Chinese food my favorite is Taam China on Harvard St. in Brookline (between Comm Ave and Beacon St). They have amazing lunch specials that come with a bowl of crispy noodles and sweet sauce. Taam China is Kosher so they close for Shabbat. Golden Temple on Beacon St in Brookline has amazing food too and are open late. Their BBQ ribs are indescribably good!
OM NOM NOM
Golden Temple OMG OMG.
PF Changs
It's chinese food for people who are scared to try real chinese food. You know, those people who consider italian food "ethnic food" and Chipotle (or any other california style chain) good "mexican" food. Take these folks out to a real chinese place and they'll probably order the chicken wings (true story). You also might find them being extra adventurous when they try sushi, and by sushi, I mean a california roll.
I don't know why some people are so scared to try something new, but PF Changs has successfully catered to them.
I'm in California, and there's a chain here called "Elephant bar". Go there, and all you'll find is white people. Go to the thai place down the street, and you'll find only asians (and myself).
Boston at least is better than other cities. I'm in Fresno right now, and it's chain after chain after chain. Boston proper has managed to escape from Applebees, Chillies, Sizzler etc etc in favor of more local options.
Chain restaurants
Boston hasn't escaped mediocre chain restaurants entirely - it just has enough people with taste that the mediocre chain restaurants haven't driven the good restaurants out of business.
I mean, there's an Olive Garden within a couple miles of my place. Even with the North End in close proximity.
Why P.F. Changs?
I was there this past Friday night at about 9:40 PM.
It was very busy - I guess the economy is improving? :=)
I had never been to Legacy Place before and I was surprised
how many cars were there. (Then again, it was the
start to the holiday weekend). I went to see a movie
with a friend and afterward she really, *REALLY*, wanted
to go to PF C's. So we went there.
The service was very good and in spite of how busy it was
I didn't notice the noise level (maybe it depends on
where you sit?). My friend kept raving about the
"chicken lettuce wraps". "They are SO good", etc.
So we got them. There were OK but I can't say they
were memorable. However, she loves them. The other stuff we
got was OK too. Szechuan beef and sesame chicken.
So, why do people go there? If you're going
shopping and/or going to see a movie and you like PF
Chang's you might well go there. And some people like
chain restaurants because they can predict what they're going
to get served. For example, I like Legal Seafood but a lot
of people on the Chowhound.com web site think it's the pits.
Not for the first time, YMMV.
If I was going out for Chinese food, PF C's would not be
#1 on my list. But it wouldn't be at the bottom either.
P.F. = Paul Fleming of
P.F. = Paul Fleming of Fleming's Steakhouse.
Gluten free...?
The day of the Frozen Fenway BC/BU game, I took a friend to Changs' at the Pru because they have the entire back page of the menu listed as 'gluten free' and she's allergic. Maybe one third of the way through her meal, the waiter runs over to tell her, "um, oops..."
Yup, they screwed it up, even after she wwent over it with him.
She felt lousy for two days afterward.
Myers + Chang
Myers + Chang also has a gluten-free menu (as well as other special diet menus), except they really know what they're doing with it.
They eat at PF Changs for same reason they eat at Olive Garden
.... They don't know any better.
The problem with "real" Chinese and Italian restaurants is they don't advertise much, outside of flyers and local coupons. For the best ones, customers may discover them by word of mouth, a review, or online discussion forum, but not everyone knows.
Contrast that with the big chain ethnic restaurants: Many advertise on TV, and almost all of them are in prime locations -- malls, Rte. 1 and Rte 9, major intersections, etc. You can't miss them. The convenience, high visibility, and standard menus and decor gets people in the door.
Also, someone mentioned China Pearl earlier. It's gone way downhill in the past few years. If you want dim sum near Chinatown, try the place about a block west of South Station, in the triangular building with a parking garage on the two middle floors on Beach Street (it's like 91 or 93). No English name, but the Chinese roughly translates as "happiness arrives at the gate" restaurant (xi lin men da jiu lou). It's crowded with locals, and very reasonable -- less than $10 per person.
Lots of terrible chinese restaurants
Didn't we have the same discussion about pizza places? There are a many more bad ones than great ones... it's just about a caloric input for most people. You can never be sure if you just wander into a chinese restaurant, the food might be inedible. At least at a chain, the food is trucked in from some central warehouse and it will taste the same here as it did in the airport in Minneapolis.
Authentic does not = better, just authentic
The best "Chinese" food I ever had was in India, and that wasn't authentic either. I've tried a couple of the places in Chinatown and found them depressing with sticky carpeting, sticky menus, too much grease and garlic and no brown rice, which is better than "authentic" white rice. I suspect that, like NYC, the better Chinese restaurants are in the burbs.
P.F. Chang's is good and cheap if not authentic, but there's really no such thing anyway.
Golden Temple
Just adding my voice to those who plugged Golden Temple. Great food. Parking is rarely easy, but the Cleveland Circle line will take you right to the door. A bit pricey compared to run-of-the-mill Chinese restaurants, but well worth the hit to your wallet.
Also, Tahiti in Dedham isn't at all bad for those who like Polynesian/Cantonese/American Chinese. They serve a fantastic lobster sauce.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Newton
Perhaps a bit out of the way but South Pacific in Newton (at the four corners on Beacon Street) has always had the best Chinese/Polynesian. I still make the trek once a year or so and it remains just as good as it was 40 years ago. I think the same people run it as did in the 1970s, which may account for that.
PFs
You people are all crazy. PF Changs is fantastic. Most chinese restaurants the dishes all taste the same, overly saucy crap. PF Changs uses high quality meats and not dark meat unrecognizable meat. I love it ... and I've eaten in fantastic Chinese restaurants in San Fran, Boston, Chicago, and New York. I still go back to PFs as having some of the highest quality chinese food ..... one way you can tell if you have good chinese food is if it tastes good the next day from your frig. PF Changs always makes great left overs...most other chinese restaurants...their food turns to mush on day 2. So there you have it.
Most Chinese restaurants are
Most Chinese restaurants are mediocre. Going into Chinatown is definitely better, but for people who don't speak Cantonese, it's not going to be easy. E.g., most of the push-cart ladies at dim sum restaurants don't speak English, so eating at one might be a gamble, especially if you have allergies. I think PF Chang's covers that middle area where the food is better than the sketchy corner Chinese restaurant, but is more accessible/less intimidating to non-Chinese speaking people than Chinatown restaurants.