Fabi R.
Yelp
There's a reason I don't like going out on "special" days. Valentine's Day, New Years Eve...Mother's Day. You get the B team working, if you're lucky.
My son had taken me out to a fantastic dinner on Friday at Mala Chili and an incredible lunch at Bitelo on Saturday, but we decided at the last minute to grab a late evening bite at PF Changs on Sunday.
I normally love PFC. I'm a rewards member and have been eating at various locations at least once a month since the 90s.
Walk in and place is mostly empty, because it's 8:30 on Sunday. I ask if we can sit in a booth - as I can see literally ten of them empty - and am told no by the hostess. They're all reserved.
You're telling me that you have ten reservations between 8:30-10 that have specified a booth???
Um....okay.
We do get led to a wonky "booth" in the back. They were benches covered with food crumbs & had cushions so worn they felt like a dog bed. Gee...thank you!
I always get the same thing - Chang's Spicy Chicken, extra spicy. There have been times it's been better than others, but generally it's pretty solid.
Not today.
We ordered the Chef's Feast - something we have never done, but the kid saw $20 for 3 courses and got excited, so I played along.
I had my usual and my son had the sesame chicken.
We both started with the egg drop soup, which was abysmal. It literally tasted like dirty dish water. We added a ton of soy sauce and that made it almost okay. The egg wasn't stirred in but like long strips of egg white. No seasoning. Not good at all. 1/10.
Then we had the chicken lettuce wraps. They're a $3 up charge. The chicken was fine but they changed the lettuce from iceberg to small, slim romaine. The portion was also much smaller than usual. 7/10.
Nobody came to check on us but at numerous times during our meal there were 3-7 servers congregated around the back stand just talking and laughing. Our dirty dishes sat at the end of the table as servers and bussers walked by.
Finally got our food.
My son's sesame chicken was awful. Heavy vinegar flavor and gummy (not crispy). He never sends back food, but sent this back. 2/10.
My chicken was also awful. Gummy. It's like the chicken wasn't properly fried before being sauced, so all you tasted was an undertone of raw flour. 2/10. Sent that back.
When I say sent that back, we had to flag our server down, since she wasn't checking in on us. We told her our dishes were awful and instead of saying she could remake the food or offering something else, she said we had to speak to the manager, Ernie.
We weren't asking for anything to be comped and we weren't asking to speak to him - we just needed different food - yet we had to wait and chat with him.
We both felt awful about it, but it just wasn't good. My son swapped his out for Orange Chicken, which he enjoyed. 7/10. Very obviously a different cut and fried w different coating.
I opted to just have mine remade.
It was brought out by Ernie himself, but neither he nor our server came back to check how the new food was.
Believe it or not, the second batch of my food was worse than the first. It was so so so salty - something I've never experienced w this dish - that it was inedible. Literally.
Again, nobody was coming by to check on us, so I just sat there and drank my wine while my son ate.
Our server finally came by and I asked her to get the manager again. When he finally came, I asked him to please try it. He wouldn't but said he'd talk to the chef. 0/10. By this time my son had almost finished eating.
I asked to sub for Mongolian Beef.
Both the Mongolian Beef and Chang's Chicken were a $4 up charge.
The Mongolian Beef showed up and was fine. It was a bit overcooked but the flavor was good. The portion, however, was tiny. Less than a lunch bowl. 6/10.
Again, nobody showed up to see if this was any better.
By the time I actually had food, my son was finished eating, so I ended up taking most of mine to go.
Someone walked by and left a card for a free app on the table without explanation.
No discount, didn't comp my wine, which I didn't get to enjoy with my food.
Overall this was a comically bad experience. Sad ending to an otherwise great weekend, but I did have great company!
If this weren't my first really bad PFC experience in decades, I'd just never go back. Still not sure when I'd be motivated to again.
Just a lousy meal, lousy service and lousy value (over $80 for this).
It felt like we were putting everyone out simply by being there. And it was clearly a young man taking his mom out for Mother's Day.
Zero effort all around.