PF Chang's

Columbia, MD (at the Columbia Mall)

Price:$$$

Decor: Casual but classy

Summary:OK food with nice decor

(2 crabs out of 5)

Karen-Ever been innocently purusing this week's One Day sale at the Mall and
suddenly been confronted with two mammoth stone horse-beasts with nostrils
flaring? Thanks to the proliferation of upscale improvements to Columbia
Mall, this is now a fairly normal occurrence. Catching on to what other
malls have known for years, Columbia has finally constructed, along with a
new Nordstroms and lavish L.L. Bean, several nice restaurants to allow you
to make dining at the Mall an event rather than a greasy quickie at the
Food Court. And best of all, these restaurants aren't your typical
Appebeeish chain-clone. Both PF Chang's and Z Tejas offer two of our
favorite foreign cuisines, but with unique twists. (Of course, if the
chain is experience is what you crave, don't despair.
Entertainment-saturated Columbia offers one of each of the major chains
along just in one three-mile strip of 175).

Paul-whew thank you for that summary of the entire Columbia area dining scene.

Karen-Once you've braved the equestrian monoliths, the inside of PF Chang's gives
off a feel that's surprisingly calm and exotic. You'll certainly
appreciate it after waiting outside in the roar of the Mall for the long
hungry minutes predicted by the hostess (and many more after that, if your
experience is like ours). We can't complain too much though?where else can
you catch up on your Zen with a real-life waterfall outside the doors?
After they let you back in, you can observe broad softly glowing disks hang
from the ceiling and a subdued, cultured feel emanates from a décor which
combines both Oriental and trendy, Ikea styles. PF Chang's seems to pull
off a sort of exoticism that is usually missing from living-room style
Chinese restaurants.

Paul-long story short, it had very dark lighting inside. The horses outside were admitedly cool...reminded me of the Never Ending Story.

Karen-Once seated, we were treated to an unexpected demonstration. Our waitress brought forward a tray of bottles, and inquired as to whether we were PF Chang firsttimers. When we admitted we were, we were given an animated and dramatic monologue on the uses of said bottles: "That is soy sauce, it is
salty, so it is our verision of American salt!" Oh so that's what soy
sauce is! Thank goodness she explained, or I surely would have spooned it
into my Pepsi. Although her speech would have been useful 400 years ago to the Europeans in their post-silk-buying culinary explorations, I think one look in the
little plastic baggies under the passenger's seats of American cars will be
enough to prove we are well-acquainted with Chinese condiments.
Not to sour her good intentions, but this is the same sort of phenomenon
you see with the Macaroni Grill, where we were given instructions on how to
dip bread in the strange yellow liquid called "olive oil." Both
restaurants offer trendy spins on classic foreign fare, and both do it with
enough grace and style to satisfy my need for an eclectic palette.
However, they both are a tad overzealous in their enthusiasm to share with
the public a food culture which really isn't all that strange.
The watiress' performance continued more creatively after that, as she
mixed a sauce at the table to our order of spiciness. Although we were
still reeling from the soy sauce comment, this display was a neat and
interactive way of piquing the tastebuds' interest. If only they had
brought a bowl of Chinese noodles with which to try it, instead of the tips
of our Chop Sticks, they would have more than made up for the soy sauce
incident.

Paul-yeah the sauce thing was a bit odd and as hungry as I was it would have helped a ton to have some chips or something to munch on....especially seeing that they seated us 10 mins later than their 40 min estimate. A Chinese place that doesn't give you a bowl of something to munch on is just plain cheap.

Karen-As it was, we were left to try it with our appetizers. Much to Paul's
chagrin, we ordered the Spring Rolls instead of dumplings. On this point,
I'll have to concede to his better instincts. The Spring Rolls were rather
smallish and normal-tasting fo r$3.50, while our companions' crab wontons
came delicatea nd pretty for a few dollars more.

Paul -I was soooo hungry and therefore in a bit of a bad mood...its family tradition to get in a bad mood when you are hungry ...I wanted those dumplings so bad but the girlfriend didnt like dumplings....how can you not like pork anything? Anyway we were stuck with the pretty lame spring rolls.

Karen-The menu had made each main course selection sound so irrisitably appealing that my decision had come only after intense comparison, personal
evaluation, and multiple requests for the waitress to come back to me. My
ultimate choice of double pan-fried noodles was one which the watiress
claimed you either love or hate. Bold culinary risk-taker that I am, I dug
right in. While its heavy teriyaki flavor and stir-fried chicken with
noodles was not all that revolutionary, the texture of noodles was a
satisfying departure from the norm. They were soft inside, but held firm
with touch of chewiness. With the chicken as variety, they provided good
solid flavor-packed bites.

Paul-It reminded me of this Tai dish I get....can't remember the name of it but it's pretty good.

Karen-Paul's Moo goo gai pan was a nice platter of nice chicken bits with nice
veggies, which made for nice dipping in the mixed Sweet & Sour sauce.
Overall nondescript and nice, but lacking in a certain oomph.
In fact, all the dishes carried the expected good taste but lacked a
pizzazz in presentation. My senses may be biased after witnessing the
pretty carrot-flowers at Taibai in St. Mary's, but even so, some eye candy
might help complete an impression fo meticulous style that real chop sticks
(so what if they were too slippery to use) and prettily-presented fortune
cookies help create.

Paul- yeah all in all this was a pretty lame Chinese place. It gave you much smaller portions, that looked and tasted far worse than your local neighborhood takeout.

Karen-For being a) trendy b) in Columbia and c) home to two giant stone horses,
PF Chang's offered fairly reasonable rates. My noodles were $9, which with
appetizer allowed for a meal under $15.

Reviewed-8/01