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Featured Replies

Went to P.F. Chang's yesterday. While we aren't a huge fan of it, we do have friends that have always liked it. The food yesterday was terrible, and tasted different from the past. It turns out this "freshly made food" restaurant has recently changed to be a "heat up the packages in the microwave" restaurant. It's ridiculous.  Stay away from this crap restaurant. Also below a reddit post from a server there.

Also, the prices are ridiculous. $7 for a tiny cup of Wonton soup.

Edited by Dbeasy

I ate there about 6 months ago and felt the same way.  We got what we deserved.

Gimme hole-in-the-wall Thai food any fucking day.

Could Mark Davis be reached for comment? I guess Pei Wei now has the superior product lol. I just looked it up, they split in 2017.

I remember when it was the place to go for a special occasion. It was always pricey, but really good and worth it once in a while. The last time we went was more than 5 years ago. It was horrible and they'd put the tables so close together, to get more people in the restaurant, that you couldn't even move. 

29 minutes ago, Dr Fear said:

Could Mark Davis be reached for comment? I guess Pei Wei now has the superior product lol. I just looked it up, they split in 2017.

 

i haven't been to pei wei in a looooooong time, but it used to be pretty good 

41 minutes ago, Dbeasy said:

Went to P.F. Chang's yesterday. While we aren't a huge fan of it, we do have friends that have always liked it. The food yesterday was terrible, and tasted different from the past. It turns out this "freshly made food" restaurant has recently changed to be a "heat up the packages in the microwave" restaurant. It's ridiculous.  Stay away from this crap restaurant. Also below a reddit post from a server there.

Also, the prices are ridiculous. $7 for a tiny cup of Wonton soup.

This is probably a decade stale, but I had a friend working for the Austin Chamber of Commerce that got data on a lot of payroll for restaurants in town and discovered the Austin Arboretum Chang’s head chef was one of the highest compensated in town.  It seemed sort of intuitive at the time-they were a hot restaurant, tons of tables and big kitchen, always full, and had lunch and dinner services to manage.  In other words, cash-cow.  
 

You go in there now and it’s empty like Highland Mall before it was sold to ACC.  

47 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

p.f. chang's was good at one time, solid date spot for sure 

Back around 2003 Arboretum location won ton soup, lettuce wraps, orange chicken slammed and went hard. Those lettuce wraps must have been an aphrodisiac and it was heavily in my rotation 🤷‍♂️🤣

Just now, QuesoEspecial said:

Back around 2003 Arboretum location won ton soup, lettuce wraps, orange chicken slammed and went hard. Those lettuce wraps must have been an aphrodisiac and it was heavily in my rotation 🤷‍♂️🤣

+ bottle of wine, and panties are dropping 

44 minutes ago, Mac8111 said:

Now their wine list resembles the selection at CVS

Sounds like it still drops panties then.

Back it college, wetried to eat at a PF Changs in Baton Rouge. 3 hour wait. People were cheerfully holding on to their reservation buzzers and waiting it out. It was fairly new to town, but I was gobsmacked.  
 

I’ve always thought Pei Wei was ok. They had a spicy Korean dish with noodles that was pretty good. They’ve closed all the locations near my house and office. I probably won’t revisit it. 

Edited by billfromlaketravis

5 hours ago, LCHorn said:

This is probably a decade stale, but I had a friend working for the Austin Chamber of Commerce that got data on a lot of payroll for restaurants in town and discovered the Austin Arboretum Chang’s head chef was one of the highest compensated in town.  It seemed sort of intuitive at the time-they were a hot restaurant, tons of tables and big kitchen, always full, and had lunch and dinner services to manage.  In other words, cash-cow.  
 

You go in there now and it’s empty like Highland Mall before it was sold to ACC.  

The Goldmine rocked.

5 hours ago, QuesoEspecial said:

Back around 2003 Arboretum location won ton soup, lettuce wraps, orange chicken slammed and went hard. Those lettuce wraps must have been an aphrodisiac and it was heavily in my rotation 🤷‍♂️🤣

The lettuce wrap recipe is online.  Sub minced dove for 1/2 of the chicken thighs and its even better.

This is the story for chains, it has been played out time and again.  PF Changs was bought by private equity in 2012, saddled with a heavy debt load, and in 2019 sold to new private equity.  They are now slashing any costs and going to take it apart for parts.  That’s how this works. 

1 hour ago, 956 Worldwide said:

This is the story for chains, it has been played out time and again.  PF Changs was bought by private equity in 2012, saddled with a heavy debt load, and in 2019 sold to new private equity.  They are now slashing any costs and going to take it apart for parts.  That’s how this works. 

Has PE ever made a restaurant chain better?

Just now, Cousin Strawberry said:

Has PE ever made a restaurant chain better?

 

have they ever made anything better ?

3 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

 

have they ever made anything better ?

I don't know, I just know they made Whataburger worse, PF Changs worse and they inexplicably found a way to make Red Lobster shittier.

17 minutes ago, Cousin Strawberry said:

I don't know, I just know they made Whataburger worse, PF Changs worse and they inexplicably found a way to make Red Lobster shittier.

They bankrupted Red Lobster.  But it's not like prior ownership couldn't have done that all on their own.  

51 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

 

have they ever made anything better ?

Beat me to it.  Not really. They just bank on the next greater fool buyer coming along in 3-5 years that will believe their bullshit.  

I didn't grow up poor but I had a mother who didn't cook seafood often. When I got to pick, I always chose Red Lobster because I never got crab or shrimp at the house.

That was probably once a year.  I hate the Red Lobster destruction.  

3 hours ago, 956 Worldwide said:

This is the story for chains, it has been played out time and again.  PF Changs was bought by private equity in 2012, saddled with a heavy debt load, and in 2019 sold to new private equity.  They are now slashing any costs and going to take it apart for parts.  That’s how this works. 

Jersey Mike's just got rolled into the chop shop. Fucking makes me sick. 

16 minutes ago, threesheets said:

Jersey Mike's just got rolled into the chop shop. Fucking makes me sick. 

Well that's just fucking great!

Worked at Tulsa location when it opened. Great Wall of Chocolate ftw

IMG_4667.jpeg.478f92674431e2eb020bee4ab3d2cdc5.jpeg

14 hours ago, 956 Worldwide said:

This is the story for chains, it has been played out time and again.  PF Changs was bought by private equity in 2012, saddled with a heavy debt load, and in 2019 sold to new private equity.  They are now slashing any costs and going to take it apart for parts.  That’s how this works. 

bustout.webp.0dac0fb4e087107fa078bbc25b596f69.webp

It's a story as old as Moses.  Nice restaurant concept starts, expands, gets acquired by national restaurant portfolio, starts sucking.  

23 minutes ago, South Austin said:

It's a story as old as Moses.  Nice restaurant concept starts, expands, gets acquired by national restaurant portfolio, starts sucking.  

waco.jpg.277ed2aaad9bf282a897bc9ff7209534.jpg

My 12yo was on a big orange chicken kick so we went for her birthday last year. My wife and I hadn’t been in a decade so we were really talking it up to her. Everyone’s food pretty much sucked. My older daughter got sweet and sour and it was soggy and disgusting. They did have a cool show for Chinese new year so it wasn’t a complete bust. 

Oriental Express on Cameron Rd is 10x better and half the price. Also giant portions. 

Sure you'll drink a gallon of water due to salt intake, but the leftovers keep for days.

On 1/5/2025 at 11:50 AM, QuesoEspecial said:

Back around 2003 Arboretum location won ton soup, lettuce wraps, orange chicken slammed and went hard. Those lettuce wraps must have been an aphrodisiac and it was heavily in my rotation 🤷‍♂️🤣

I was a valet there in 99-00. It was great and I got an employee discount. Always a great place to take a date. 

On 1/5/2025 at 4:36 PM, 956 Worldwide said:

This is the story for chains, it has been played out time and again.  PF Changs was bought by private equity in 2012, saddled with a heavy debt load, and in 2019 sold to new private equity.  They are now slashing any costs and going to take it apart for parts.  That’s how this works. 

Like Tony Soprano in Davey Scatino's sporting goods store.

7 hours ago, MissingInAction said:

Oriental Express on Cameron Rd is 10x better and half the price. 

Sir, I believe the correct term is Asian Express.

I'm ready for the aliens to delete us, honestly. 

I bet they used to fuck with some Mongolian Beef and chicken lettuce wraps. They must also hate these PE fucks.

Same CEO who cratered PF Changs food was hired this past summer to destroy what is left of Red Lobster.

I expect similar results.... Fix bottom line by destroying anything that made the place good.

56 minutes ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

Same CEO who cratered PF Changs food was hired this past summer to destroy what is left of Red Lobster.

I expect similar results.... Fix bottom line by destroying anything that made the place good.

Get ready for imitation lobster claws.

2 hours ago, South Austin said:

Sir, I believe the correct term is Asian Express.

Funny you mention that.  My friends SJW daughter tried to correct me thinking I was being a racist asshole.

I may be an asshole but I'm not racist.

1 hour ago, South Austin said:

Get ready for imitation lobster claws.

And lots of Krab.

I went to P.F. Changs once about 15 years ago. It sucked back then too.

1 hour ago, F250 said:

I went to P.F. Changs once about 15 years ago. It sucked back then too.

image.gif.78e1bee7bc64cc57ced9728646c40827.gif

I've been to PF Changs exactly once back in 1998 or so.  It was good, but it wasn't better than the relatively hole-in-the-wall place that was down the street, extremely good, and more reasonably priced. 

 

RIP Ming's in Montrose.

On 1/10/2025 at 7:39 AM, South Austin said:

Get ready for imitation lobster claws.

But "all you can eat imitation lobster claws!"

On 1/10/2025 at 7:39 AM, South Austin said:

Get ready for imitation lobster claws.

65yqlv.jpg

 

/sorry.  But funny is funny

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