P.F. Chang's China Bistro

04/21/2008 Posted by CAPN8E

My wife and I met my Mom, sister and brother-in-law at P F Changs in Emeryville, a half way point between our homes in the north bay and central valley. A 1 hour 20 minute drive for both parties. We ordered 2 orders of vegetable dumplings and one order of green beans as appetizers, but received only one order of dumplings and no green beans. There were 5 of us at the table and 4 dumplings. Our waitress went to check on it, and came back and said, "yeah, you did order 2." She checked to see if I was telling the truth, not to see where our appetizers were. Our 2 remaining appetizers arrived with dinner along with an entree that we didn't order. The 2nd order of dumplings were not vegetable, but shrimp- unknowingly bit into by 2 vegetarians. Our waitress was very hard to flag down. When we finally did, she took the dumplings away. Later she showed up at our table, with the manager who said, "We try not to let things like that happen. Thanks for being understanding." No apology or reparations were offered by the waitress OR manager. The food that we DID order was mediocre, at best. After dinner, we ordered coffee and desserts. The coffee was cold by the time dessert arrived. When we got the bill, there was an extra item added on, that we had not ordered. All in all, our waitress was so negligent, it could be considered rude. The manager was indifferent, and the food was not good. My wife is missing work today, due to nausea which began about 3 hours after dinner. If you're ever looking for a place to eat in Emeryville, remember... there are a lot of places to choose from, before you have to resort to P F Changs.

Pros: nothing

Cons: bad food, bad service, bad management

08/29/2007 Posted by onecogmind

I found this place to be a very uncomfortable dining experience. Wait staff was forgetful and came back to ask what we ordered 2 times. Low class atmosphere, people talked very loud and on phones. Food was ok, saturated with sauce. Someone dropped a plate in the kitchen and people whooped and hollered like ill mannered inner city folk from poor neighborhoods. Do not go here if you want good food and service. I only went to redeem a gift card, never again.

Pros: Location, Parking

Cons: Service and Atmosphere

06/27/2007 Posted by wilgus64

I have had great experiences at PF Changs...not this time! I got in late from the airport, and conveniently walked across the street from my hotel to what has ALWAYS been a failsafe establishment in any other city I've traveled. Boy was I disappointed! First, half the tables were dirty with plates and glasses from long-vacated patrons. I was seated amidst this mess. It took 10 minutes for the server to "greet" me and she only did this by dropping off a menu...no inquiry of what I wanted to drink or "hello." When she came back...she was in a hurry...she wanted my entire order! I asked to order a cocktail first...a high-end Cosmopolitan. When it arrived at my table...it was served drawfed in a oversized wine glass because "all the martini glasses are dirty." To boot it was lukewarm and therefore lacked any ice crystals. I ordered my meal, which was served after quite a long wait for the volume of patrons remaining in the restaurant. Before I had three bites of food in my mouth, the server came back indicating it was "last call"...even though it wasn't even 9:30 p.m.! It was evident both she and the bartenders were eager to "move things along" so they could check out early on a Monday evening. I felt very rushed to complete my meal, even though it had just been served moments before. Upon leaving, the manager was going around to several groups to "move them along." I was astounded at the lack of appreciation and customer service that this staff leveled upon their patrons. I would think twice if you are looking for a nice evening out with good service at this PF Changs location. I will say, the only redeeming thing was that the food was very good and served nice and hot. It is too bad I was so rushed to eat it that I couldn't enjoy it.

Pros: Good food and close walking distance from hotel

Cons: Dining room a bussing disaster, drinks served improperly, slack service

06/16/2007 Posted by geebz

I went to P.F. Chang's in Emeryville at a friend's recommendation (remind me to cut her off of the Christmas Card List). I was met with snooty waitstaff, a long wait for my order to be taken, mediocre food, and a bill that must have been for someone that ordered a lot of good food that was handed to me by mistake. We had the ribs as appetizers, the chicken chow mein, shrimp fried rice, and chicken dumplings. I could have spent 41 dollars in chinatown and eaten the leftovers for a couple of months. The ribs were salty, as was the chicken chow mein. The dumplings were seasoned with water and the shrimp fried rice tasted as if it were made with those seasoning packets you can pick up at Alberson's. P.F. Chang's owes me some money, man!

Pros: It's close to the Bay Street shopping scene.

Cons: Everything that you expect a good restaurant to be, it's not.

02/14/2006 Posted by krnboy

pf changs, some fake westernized overpriced chinese food. if i want real chinese food, ill go to chinatown and get better tasting food at half the price. everything there is too salty or deep fried. id rather eat at dennys

Cons: food, price

07/16/2005 Posted by divya94501

i thought that the food was good & i the service was good too, if you're good to the staff they're good to you!! good place for a drink or dinner before a movie, just let the waiter know your in a hurry. p.s. "mu shu" is a chinese dish served with thin bread that could seem like tortillas but aren't!

Pros: ambiance, cocktails

Cons: wait

07/04/2005 Posted by jnav1

I've been to other PF Changs and by far this was the worst! The reservation was 1.5hrs later than our target time and when we arrived 15 minutes late, they said we'd have to wait 30 minutes more. Without reservations wait time would be 3 hours (2nd time they've said so). Not genuine Chinese food, but still good. The waiter apparently couldn't take criticism - we got nothing but lip after we corrected our order. Not once did he check up on us. It took 20 mins and 3 flag downs after the meals were delivered until he brought out drinks. Same story for refills. He never apologized for such slow service - the reason was obvious as we always saw him just chatting in the kitchen - but continued to be snyde with every contact.

Pros: appetizers, ambiance

Cons: service, rudeness, waiting

05/21/2005 Posted by turbox

It is a ripe off to pay that much of money for such bad food and services. It took a long time for the waiter to serve us. The food was in very small portion and didn't taste like Chinese food to me. There is much delicious food in any other Chinese restaurants than this place. What? I thought tortillas was Mexican food. What on earth did they come up with this clever idea of serving tortillas with "mu shu" chicken. I am definitely not going BACK to spend a penny in this restaurant!!!

Pros: n/a, n/a, n/a

Cons: expensive, long wait, small portion

03/27/2005 Posted by unbiased16

Yes the ambiance is beautiful. However, the server began our evening by asking, "Just so I know, will you be dining luxoriously or are you in a rush?" Don't ever ever answer this question 'luxoriously' because you'll be waiting a VERY long time to get served. To top it all off, she repeatedly made excuses and said, " I know everything was alright because I've been by here a million times." I wonder if she realized it was only towards the tail end of our meal did we see her come by? The chicken lettuce wraps are really good though.

Pros: ambiance, cocktails

Cons: service

02/15/2005 Posted by m_c

there's much, much better Chinese food out there. there was just something off about each dish and everything was so salty. our enthusiastic waitress encouraged us to get the "Shanghai street dumplings" which were described to us as pan-fried but the bottoms were pale. the chopped chicken meat inside seemed a little congealed, not like it was (somewhat) freshly-made. we also ordered "Singapore street noodles" which were basically vermicelli, chicken, and veges tossed with a load of (salty) curry flavor. then came the "mu shu chicken" which was supposed to be served in "thin pancakes" and instead came with tortillas that were thick and hard. it wasn't horrible, but it was like Chinese food gone wrong. maybe there's better stuff on the menu, but 3 out of 3...i'm not willing to give it another try when there's much better food out there, and for a better price.