It was ages since we had dined at P. F .Chang. You always tend to overlook the obvious choices and go for the fancier ones. But there are times, when you want to get back to the familiar places and have some good old family time. So some of my mom friends and me decided to treat the Dads for Fathers Day. And as it was a surprise and all the Dads have very different tastes in food, we thought of sticking to common grounds. Everyone likes Chinese, right. P. F . Chang's it was. It also meant that we could all squeeze in some typical KC Photos with the Plaza Fountains before or after dinner, if the girls were in the mood for it.
It was almost a year after we went to P F Chang's. It always holds a special place for me, and my expectations were pretty high.
They had a new menu for smaller plates, but we opted for the regular menu as we were 12 of us(including hungry children), and surely needed bigger and wholesome helpings.
We started off with SALT AND PEPPER CALAMARI, CHICKEN LETTUCE WRAP AND DYNAMITE SHRIMP. The Calamari was tender and not rubbery and just had a hint of seasoning. I could do with a lil more salt. I personally prefer the Beef Lettuce Wrap but the chicken one didn't disappoint. The disappointment started with the Dynamite Shrimp. It used to be served in a Martini glass and used to have a good hint of spice to it. The current version was served in a plate with some crisps. And it was clawingly sweet. Did I mention I hate my non vegetarian fare to be sweet. It somehow kills my appetite for me. But I let it go, thinking, that maybe it was one dish which was bad. But I was clearly mistaken on that. It was just the beginning of the food disasters which were to follow. So much for a special night huh !
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| SALT AND PEPPER CALAMARI |
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| DYNAMITE SHRIMP |
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| CHICKEN LETTUCE WRAP |
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| CHANG'S FRIED RICE |
The Singapore Street Noodles always make me feel as if I am on a vacation. I have never been to South East Asia, but whenever I taste this noodles, it makes me feel thats this is what street food would taste in that part of the world. The shrimps in the Singapore Street Noodles were a decent size and overall the noodles packed a punch in terms of taste.
I hate food photography with flash, but the restaurant had really bad lighting in its private dining area,so had to use flash for some photographs. My apologies for that.
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| SINGAPORE STREET NOODLES |
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| HUNAN FISH |
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| CHANG'S SPICY CHICKEN |
With kids and four families, we had to re-order a few things. So we opted for LOBSTER FRIED RICE and another round of SINGAPORE STREET NOODLES.
The Lobster fried rice was a nice and buttery and the natural sweetness of the lobster was a good compliment to the fried rice. It was pretty balanced and I could make a meal out of just this.
But the star of the show was surely an old favorite of ours, which luckily still is good. Its GARLIC NOODLES. These are noodles, which are cooked with a heady mount of garlic then tossed with ed chili flakes and served with cucumber juliennes to cool it all down. Its a vegetarian noodle dish, but its so good, that you can actually eat plate full of it. The noodles have a good kick to them, and while you might feel hot, you will still reach out for more.
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| GARLIC NOODLES |
We finished off dinner with huge slices of decadent CHOCOLATE CAKE which I decorated with some candles, to make it more apt for the occasion. The Restaurant didn't have any candles even for special occasions.
It was a great time with friends and family, as Four Dads celebrated their special day together. But in terms of food and service, P F Chang's has literally gone down the hill. What was the need to re-formulate the recipes of popular dishes which everyone loves so much. And our server was so in his own world and didn't do anything to make the special time a bit more special. This is clearly not the service one expects from a chain like P F Chang.
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