PF CHANGS

Changs is alright, even more acceptable when someone else is buying which I seem to have numerous customers wanting to have lunch at - tis pricey. Now my all time record for worst. service. ever. was earlier this year at one of the 'foodie' spots mentioned earlier in this chain.

My wife likes Changs so I have taken her there about 4-5 times the past few years. Contrary to what others have stated, i found the prices to be reasonable and portions pretty generous. I'm a hardcore original patron, but Changs is an acceptable alternative.

I'm with everyone else on here; well most everyone. Sure, it's not local and a chain . But, for the dishes they offer, I've had worse at places calling themselves authentic that were local. NOW, of course, this is all my culinary opinion. And, I'm no Alton Brown.

I hope your dinner wasn't too tragic. Let us know what you ordered. But, from the sound of it, you've already made up your mind it was not a good meal before eating it.

Sarah and I had a good dinner there (PFCs) a few months back. It was good, not as good as any of the other locals already mentioned but OK. I do remember having a great food server that for us, was the best part of the meal.
That and Beefeaters is Beefeaters no matter where you dine.

So here is what happened at dinner.

There are four of us. Granted two of the women are tiny (under 5 feet under 100lbs), but instead of seating us in a large both they sat us at a table. That wouldn't be bad except for the fact that the condiment plate comes immediately followed by waters for all followed by our drinks. That takes up 1/2 the room. They sat 1 person at a booth behind us after we asked if we could move and were told no. ONE person. It was crowded but we were having a good time catching up so we made it work.

We had lettuce wraps, wontons, and spring rolls for appetizers. The lettuce wraps were fantastic. He even brought extra lettuce for us. The wontons and spring rolls were nothing to right home about. I'm used to my spring rolls being more authentic with shrimp and cilantro. These were more "egg roll" type.
Lettuce wraps were a large portion for the price. The wontons were ok and so were the spring rolls, to me, for the portion/price ratio.

One friend ordered vegetable lo mein. Large bowl of noodles with veggies. It was ok, but did not have much flavor and only a very light hint of any type of sauce. Price was good for the size portion.

One friend ordered crispy chicken and an order of shrimp fried rice. The chicken was not anything special to me. Seemed a take on any fried chicken dish at any chinese type restaurant around. It was an ok value. The shrimp fried rice was pretty good and a huge bowl of it. It was a great value for the money.

My other friend ordered chicken with black bean sauce. I thought the dish had a great flavor. I thought the portion was extremely small for the $12.75 price tage. To me, it looked like a pint size serving size (if you think chinese take out). WAYYYYYY overpriced.

I had Dan Dan Noodles. They were GREAT! The portion was large. The flavor was fantastic. I loved the cucumbers. It was really spicy, not just hot. It was a great portion for it's $9.95 price.

Overall, we all shared. There were leftovers, thanks to their tiny appetites and the drinks we had.

Regardless, it isn't somewhere that I would frequent. I can get decent chinese take out at many, many places without paying the prices there. I'd rather spend my money somewhere else, but it wasn't a bad night. I am jealous that my boyfriend and his friends went to Dakshin though.

I'm in the Chang's is OK camp. Not a rabid fan, but I think it is an acceptable restaurant. Consistent, with some good offerings. My office is in the area and I eat lunch there maybe every two weeks or so. I think they have some good value, good tasting stuff with their lunch bowls. Right or wrong, I really like their hot and sour soup. Yes, I prefer August Moon and Red Pepper, but I don't feel like I have to wear a hood over my head when dining at P.F.C's, either.

And on another off-topic note raised herein, I'm not so sure the food put Chi-Chi out of business as much as did the public's reaction after patrons died from e coli or whatever it was up in Pennsylvania or wherever it was. That place went under very fast after all the publicity surrounding the deaths. I'm not saying the food was any good (it wasn't), but the mediocrity of food doesn't seem to doom chains (see, Cheddars, etc.).

Pope or no Pope my last experience at "Bucca whatever" was not good. Mushy pasta and gallons of red sauce. I thought they gave The Spaghetti Factory a good run for their money.

in my opinion bucca has gone done hill a bit. they have taken the best items off their menu. the recipes and quality is not what it used to be. they keep changing their menu. they are now owned by hard rock cafe.

That's a real shame. I haven't been in about a year and half (I'm not on Hurstborne very much), but I have fond memories of going there with huge groups from the dorm in undergrad. I guess its hard to keep the quality up when you grow to such a large size. I'll miss it.

Pope or no Pope my last experience at "Bucca whatever" was not good. Mushy pasta and gallons of red sauce. I thought they gave The Spaghetti Factory a good run for their money.

in my opinion bucca has gone done hill a bit. they have taken the best items off their menu. the recipes and quality is not what it used to be. they keep changing their menu. they are now owned by hard rock cafe.

That's a real shame. I haven't been in about a year and half (I'm not on Hurstborne very much), but I have fond memories of going there with huge groups from the dorm in undergrad. I guess its hard to keep the quality up when you grow to such a large size. I'll miss it.

My last experience there was about two years ago. A good friend had a restaurant close two days before a big party she had booked (kid's birthday). She called Buca, they had an empty party room available, but was demanding a fee for the room plus a minimum charge per person - totally out of line for kids. She tried to negotiate, offering various alternatives to boost profits for the restaurant, but they stood firm. Their price started at around $600 for 20 kids! She ended up calling around, and had around 5 options to choose between (all local, with better quality than Bucca, and a third to half the price).

buca has changed their attitude now. they actually hired a recruiter to cold call and stop at big companies to offer their services.(business meetings) they have some special. food and beverage, a soda for about $10.00 a head. i was waiting for my food to be prepared and the recruiter told me things were very very slow. they needed to drum up some business.

Amazing how some companies start loving customer service when the business is going down the drain. Had they done so before, maybe business wouldn't be so slow.