Pei Wei

This place is bad enough to review after a few bites. Tables are sticky. .food is terrible. Vegetables were fresh, but the flavors are off. Chicken reminds me of frozen Tyson nuggets.

Never again.
The slowest moving line. The slowest preparation. The slowest delivery of my food. I came at the tail end of the lunch rush. There were no guests in front or behind me so I expected much better service. The food was hot, thankfully, however my rice was severely overcooked (crunchy!) and so was my chicken. The honey chicken was a huge miss for me. I am fairly certain that I would not have enjoyed any item on this menu now that I know this is just another Americanized «Chinese» restaurant.
Simply not a fan. Totally not worth the time, effort, calories, or money when Chipotle is so close by.

Great food everything’s from scratch… idk why so many bad complaints… it seems like customer service is lacking here… you should rehire me and I make it better… bye tony

I’ve had Pei Wei in three different states and enjoy it each time. This isn’t your run of the mill greasy Chinese food. The food is fresh, fast, and most importantly delicious. There are also options for those of us who are health conscious such as brown rice and steamed meat. My only beef is that they don’t give you very large portions sometimes. Otherwise, I recommend this to all of my friends and family. Will be back in the not too distant future!

I ordered the sesame chicken, which comes with very little chicken. The flavor was spicy and hot as advertised. Most well seasoned onions and peppers I’ve ever had. I opted for lettuce cups, turned out to be a half head of ice berg lettuce. Not how it was explained at the register. Train your employees! Even if i had wanted to use the layers as tortilla wraps, I wouldn’t need a half head for the portion size, which wasn’t very much. Dwarfed by the lettuce to be sure. Wish now I had kept the receipt. #firstTimeHere #firstImpressionFail #feelingStupid #feelingRippedOff

First time and never again. I got an order to go amd they forgot one dish. I wasn’t walking back to get it, although I called them and they offered me a free entre and a $ 10 gift card.
But my sushi has been sitting in a fridge. The rice was hard and the tempura flakes were not crunchy. My soda is flat and the lettuce wraps that people love at PF Chang’s had stale fried rice noodles.
You might think I went at the wrong time of day, but it’s dinner time, 6:30pm. I won’t waste my money there again.
I was

I went in at 1:20 pm on October 7 and the cashier was super rude. She was a young Hispanic lady who when I was asked what sauce I wanted on my rice bowl she told me they were on the board. I explained I didn’t see them and then she laughed at me… I proceeded to tell her she was rude and left. She provided no help or direction. I would never go back due to the customer service they provided me.

Food is good but customer service sucks. I ate in and the lady tossed my plate at me. The guy that rang me up was a jerk.

Unhappy with the speed of getting food. I have had two difficult situations there, was thinking about going back today and my friend said he had bad experiences on wait as well as a manager yelling at customers.
Can we get a better chinese food place in streeterville, please?

Stopped by this place to get some sushi to go. You can not beat the prices on their sushi, between 3 and 4 dollars for a half roll is a great deal. The sushi is pretty good, will stop by this place again, when in Chicago.

The definition of terrible americanized chinese food.
I haven’t been to a pei wei for over 3 years. Having lived near one in Newport Beach, CA, I used to go maybe once a month. I don’t remember it being this bad.
But I got to Chicago and thought, hell — why not? The only thing this place has going for it is the convenience and the portions.
Bland. Just all around not so good. I walked in and ordered. The cashier was just nonchalant. She asked if I had the pei wei rewards and I told her I didn’t know what that was and asked if she could tell me more. She just said «well you just sign up…»
.Well no shit sherlock. Thanks for the explanation.
Anyhow, I’d rather pay the extra $ 2 to go to big bowl down the street on ohio.

Seriously has gone down a very steep hill!
While having my order taken by an inexperienced girl, a male coworker came over while I was In The middle of ordering and asked if he could take a cookie for free… She let him too!
Ordered Mongolian beef, spring rolls, and a soda. $ 17.
Restaurant was empty except for all employees sitting at a table hanging out. Sat down at a table which was sticky. Changed table 4 times before I gave up and just took a great deal of napkins! Went and got a soda. Almost every soda that I wanted on machine was unavailable! So I settled… There was a medium size liquid/​water spill by machine. Instead of wiping up, they just put a yellow no slip sign up.
Received my food, order was correct however received Mongolian beef, 2 minutes later the egg rolls, two minutes later the extra sauce on side I requested. Seriously?!
Mongolian sauce was thick and gelatinous on side and on meat. There was no crispness to beef like before. White rice tasted left over. I turned me off the whole meal as I realized how horrible this place has turned. I used to love this place and always recommended it. Now I will do the opposite and never return too… This 100% are the leaders of this organization’s fault. All team members are only as good as their direct report. Shame!

It was nice and quiet on my visit here during the week, which is a bad sign. I’ve eaten at other locations around the country and have felt they’ve been consistently bad. The food is tolerable but the service can vary. This location has the worst. You might as well eat the tofu since their meats aren’t that good. At least the tofu tastes like chicken. Oh yes, they also have pints of Kirin for $ 6, if you’re in the mood for a cold beer. It’s really the only redeeming quality of this place.

For some reason the beef teriyaki with white rice wasn’t as good as before. Maybe because there’s more lettuce and more uncooked onions than the beef. Maybe there’s a new guy in there. I think I’ll be skipping this place for a while. Quality went down way down than before. I work one block from this spot and it’s a daily lunch place when I’m working.
One star for whatever.

More like Pee-​Ewwww!
This proved to be a classic example of why you should pay attention to online reviews before dining in a new place. Despite the postings, I convinced the wife we should walk around the corner from our apartment and sample the «Five Unique Flavors From Five Asian Food Styles».
So, the first sign of a bad restaurant experience? Completely, and utterly, empty dining room on a Sunday night at 7:00pm. Second sign? Only one guy working the sushi bar, while also staffing the empty kitchen. Third bad sign? Not an Asian in sight.
The menu options are pretty simple — a small offering of four and eight-​piece sushi slices, including a Mango California Roll for just $ 3.50 for the four-​piece and $ 6.99 for the eight piece Spicy Tuna Roll.
Entrees are offered as stir-​fried, or «Wok’d», where you pick out your protein — chicken, veggies or tofu for $ 8.69 or Steak or Shrimp for $ 9.69. You then select your rice — a glop of greasy brown or Spackle-​like white … or for a $ 1 upcharge you can take your chances with the rice noodles or fried rice. Toss in an extra buck or two for «spicy» sauce or extra protein.
We decided on the Wok’d Orange Peel Steak and the Kung Pao Shrimp, along with a four piece of Spicy Tuna Roll and Sweet-​n-​Sour soup.
First, the soup was so gelatinous and grossly thick from being over cornstarched, that the heavy, china spoon actually stood straight up in the bowl — see the photo above. Absolutely disgusting.
The Wok’d entrees were tasteless, with both proteins saturated in the same bright red sauce, despite being completely different orders. The shrimp were rubbery and overcooked, the green beans were completely raw. My carrots in the Orange Peel Steak were so hard and rubbery, I thought they were boiled poker chips. The meat was chewy and could have passed for overcooked chicken.
Service was minimal — three people delivered the sushi and two entrees –each about three minutes apart. We never saw the server again.
Lesson learned.

First and last time coming here! Staff are inattentive and cold, but that can be excused. Well the table we sat at was broken and rickety, and the second one we moved to was STICKY!
I ordered a variety of «sushi» and a chicken wrap. The «sushi» was hard, tasted stale and fishy and so loosely rolled it was falling apart on the plate. I’ve had edible sushi even from walgreens compared to this disturbance.
As for the chicken wrap, the peanut sauce it came with was straight peanut butter, what a joke. My boyfriend ordered a chicken vegetable stirfry and was served chunks of deep fried, questionable chicken that was neither spicy nor flavorful but overtly salty.
The first time I have ever been pushed to asking for my money back, we left after a few tortured bites. How is this place in business?

Recently just discovered this place –how did it take me this long?! It’s currently on the top of my list for a quick and filling lunch since it’s close to work. The Ginger Broccoli with steak is very good. I haven’t tried the Original size portion for any of the entrees but a small is enough for me. The great thing is you can order online and pay when you pick up your order.

It was my first time here after getting a $ 10 gift card.
This place is rather hidden on Ontario St as people don’t seem to eat at the restaurants along this less-​traveled street. The place is big with plenty of tables but there were only a few tables there on a 7pm weeknight. We were greeted by a friendly employee upon walking in. We took a few minutes to decide what to order. They were out of the sushi rolls with tuna in them. Bummer. We ordered Pei Wei Spicy Chicken Original and Thai Dynamite Steak Original with a fountain drink.
The Pei Wei Spicy Chicken was super sour and sweet. t wasn’t that spicy despite the abundance of bright red pepper flakes. We inhaled the steam from the food and coughed from the vinegar smell in the dish. The snap peas were super fresh and crunchy. The circle-​cut orange slices might look boring but added a firm sweetness to the dish. It was served with plenty of white rice. The chicken was breaded and deep-​fried so it added a nice crunch to the dish. There seemed to be plenty of chicken, too. Yay!
The Thai Dynamite (Steak) was a favorite of the employee taking our order. I thought it was okay — I would try another dish next time. The steak was lightly breaded and deep fried and there was a small amount of thick sauce. The beef pieces were crunchy and settled atop a bed of sliced green onions and red peppers. The dish seemed to have a lot of salty seasoning and the green onion and red pepper didn’t suffice to minimize the saltiness. The brown rice I ordered with the dish, however, helped balance out the saltiness but it was a bit dry. Luckily, I had a fountain drink.
The fountain drink served to quench my thirst. One of the machines was almost completely out of order. Perhaps only 2 – 3 soda brands were available. The working machine, located closer to the kitchen and on the left side of the back counter, gave the drink a weird, almost algae-​like taste to the drinks. I tried different drinks (orange coke, sprite, ginger ale, sprite with peach) and they all had this weird taste to it. I wonder if it was the pipe on the machine that had algae on it or the water pipe servicing the machine that had algae in it or the water source servicing the machine that had algae in it. I’m not sure what it was but the soda tasted off.
The service here is excellent. The team members seem to get along well with each other and the server who brought food to our table told us what the dishes were as they brought them out to us. Service was quick and the employee who took our order asked us if we had any questions when we were ordering, which was nice of her.
The ambiance is very nice. The lighting is great as it’s very well-​lit and bright. The dark tables go well with the brick walls and the restrooms are quite clean. I’d like to come back again to try out their other dishes such as the Pad Thai next time. I’ll give the fountain drinks another try, too. Maybe I’ll try the smaller-​sized dishes (4oz vs 8oz of meat) since 8oz is a bit too much for me.

Decent ambiance and attentive staff (I visited around 6 pm on a Monday, though, and it was dead). I ordered the small (it was huge) tofu and vegetables lo mein, and while nothing spectacular, I thought it was pretty darn good. Simple, no fuss Asian inspired dishes at decent price points. And — unlike Panda Express — I didn’t feel sick afterwards!
I’d be interested in trying their spring rolls and other sides. Stay tuned.

About as close, cuisine-​wise to my old favorite, Ben Pao (R.I.P.). Nice place – roomy, casual enough for an easy dinner but classy enough to be a lunch date kind of place. It’s a little more than just fast food, and the menu is confusing. Work through it, and you’ll understand. Took me a couple times before I settled into a routine: Original chicken with Teriyaki sauce and steamed rice complemented with a 2-​pork egg roll side. Skip the fountain drink, and the whole meal is around $ 13. They have noodle dishes as well.
Tourists: this is NOT Panda Express. Keep walking.