Pei Wei

This will be my first bad review. I didn’t really get into Pei Wei. I didn’t think the food was that good… more of a fast casual Asian restaurant place. The food was not necessarily bad just not authentic to me. The rating is based on the food and not the staff. The staff was friendly and productive.

I must say I am so happy they fixed the «sticky tables» since I was last here. Today I had the Pei Wei spicy chicken with fried rice. Food was really good with great flavor. I was served by Timothy who was very professional and friendly. He went above and beyond my expectations. He consistently came past my table to make sure everything was okay. I am impressed the finally got it together at this location.

Ordinarily I would award it at least three, maybe four stars, but I just got through one of the most frustrating experiences trying to order.
I called in and was placed on hold, with an automated voice telling me that was «one» in the queue. This happened for 10 minutes. Now, I live very close by, and when it became apparent that no one was going to answer, I decided to drive up there, still on the phone. Then my call was simply disconnected. I called back, and again was told I was «one in the queue».
So I made it up there and stayed on hold as I watched the workers ignore my call. I was on hold this time for over 15 mintues this time. All this time I was never waited on and my call was not answered.
I ate at Petra’s down the road. Good Gyro.
Pei Wei is good quick food, but man it can be a frustrating experience.
Granted it was busy, but they seem ill equipped to deal with it.
Try to eat at 4 on a Tuesday. That should get it done.

We ordered food to go (we’ve done this before at this location) — not for the first time, they were nowhere near ready at the time they told us to arrive. We waited over 15 minutes (meaning, over 45 minutes after the order was placed). The person behind the counter seemed in no way concerned — just business as usual. Finally it came, and my wife expressed politely her dissatisfaction and desire to express it to the manager. To which she was told by the counter person that she did not know where the manager was at the moment and if we were willing to wait until he might show up, we would be able to talk to him. Wait??? That’s what we had been doing over-​long now for quite a while! Like heck. So, off we go.
The food was good (although they left the peanuts out of my wife’s Pad
Thai — ever hear of Pad Thai *without* peanuts??) —— but that’s not the point. It doesn’t matter that the food (mainly) lives up to expected mass-​produced standards, if you drive away from the whole experience angry and wondering if you really like their food enough to go back.

Always good food here I love all the yummy bowls and especially the edamame Really Awesome service too !! can’t go wrong with chicken teriyaki bowls– I frequently visit Pei Wei

This place is a hit or miss kinda place. Sometimes it’s good but sometimes it’s not. Like today, the food was crap. I should learn to avoid this place but I won’t.

New Tables… CONGRATULATIONS!!! Now i’ll be back more often. Food as good as allways!!!

I was leaving from Massage Envy, and decided to try Pei Wei. I have had it before, but from a different location. It wasn’t too clean… the floors and tables were nasty. There wasn’t too many people there, therefore you would think the page would be clean. I decided to go with the teriyaki chicken with lettuce wraps. It was good, but I was starving as well. The food is made when ordered, so that’s one thing that I really like about this place. If you are in a hurry I wouldn’t recommend, because they are pretty slow. The staff was very nice.

@Elio R. — too funny. We do exactly the same thing!!! Apparently when the restaurant first opened they cleaned the tables with cleaning solution that stripped the varnish and made it all sticky. You would have thought they would have fixed it in over 7 months.
The food is great. Great portions. Caramel chicken is a staple! Delicious. Plus they have one of those crazy Coke machines. Love it! I’ve had problems with my orders often as I go weekly. Last time I went the chopped vegetable still had the sticker from the store on the skin. An apology is nice. A coupon for a return customer would be nicer.
If only the wait staff were friendly and didn’t always have a bad attitude. Then again, every other month they are replaced.

Pei Wei is so good! It feels weird to review a chain restaurant, but I love this place and will continue to eat here. What’s even better? They serve wine! I love the many options of bowls and apps and rolls, however I always tend to order that same Ginger Broccoli wok’d entrée. Yum! Oh and don’t forget the lettuce wraps. MMM!

I went to Pei Wei all through my undergrad years but I haven’t been able to go back as much since the location near me closed. I have a general list of the things I liked back then but I haven’t tried them again to see if I still love them or not. (Though I’m totally willing). I assume my tasted haven’t changed that drastically but maybe. I will have to update once I’ve had a chance to try stuff out again. Until then, here’s the list of things I liked/​disliked in the past.
REALLY WANT TO TRY: Japanese Chile Ramen
Love:
— Spring Rolls
— Mandarin Kung Pao (with lo mein instead of rice)
— Spicy Korean
— Thai Dynamite
Like:
— Crab Wontons
— Hot & Sour Soup
— Thai Wonton Soup
— Kung Pao Chicken
— Pei Wei Spicy (retry)
Ehh:
— Minced Chicken with Cool Lettuce Wraps
— Pad Thai
— Sweet & Sour

Years ago one of the first Pei Wei opened in south Florida (PF Chang’s is its parent company, and Pei Wei was opened as a quicker and more casual alternative to PF Chang’s), and my then brother’s girlfriend wouldn’t shut up about it. One day I finally decided to see what all the fuss was about, ordered my standard chicken and broccoli in a brown sauce to compare to other places, and the first thing out of my mouth was «Well, I know for fact that I’m eating chicken!!» So, even though it was nothing spectacular, it turned into my go-​to for Americanized-​Chinese fare.
Decided I wanted some Chinese last night but wasn’t in the mood to try out a new place (just not feeling adventuresome in my new city yet) so opted for something that I thought I knew. The menu was completely different… more Thai style, where you pick your protein, then your sauce/​veggie combination, which I like. Went for the shrimp and ginger broccoli, since ginger sauce is typically my fave, and some spring rolls, to go.
Made it home, munched on the spring rolls, which weren’t that bad since they had a bunch of ginger in them. Then made the mistake of opening my main… My first issue was that I ordered an original size hoping to have some left-​overs, but the portion was ridiculously small (literally half of the container, with the rice included). There were a bunch of tiny little one-​bite shrimp and maybe five teeny tiny pieces of broccoli swimming in what was the second issue… The sauce. The sauce, which on the menu is described as a sweet soy base with ginger, was not at all the sweet soy that I use quite often nor even close to slightly resembling the ginger sauces I’ve had so many times at various other restaurants. It was chemically and artificial and candy-​like. Not what I was expecting, definitely not what I wanted, and the only proper descriptive was «gross». This was made even worse by the fact that I couldn’t get the taste out of my mouth for nearly two hours, even after brushing my teeth a few times. The only thing that was palatable was the fried rice… at least the part that managed to not get this sauce on it.
The customer service at the take-​out stand wasn’t bad. Guy was friendly enough, maybe said his version of my name a few too many times.

I’m not sure why this place has such a bad reputation. Sure, it’s a chain. Sure, the crew can be less than exceptional. It’s Midtown Memphis with off site upper management. It is what it is.
That being said, I like their food. It has always tasted really fresh and has been cooked exactly the way that it was described.
The sauces are spiced well and accompany the menu well. The food is made in an open kitchen so no real surprises.
I find the proteins to be better quality than a lot of the locally owned Chinese place around town. I never take a bite and wonder… where did this part of the «chicken» come from??? I’ve never seen this before.
Anyway, it’s good for a quick bite to eat. I agree it’s PF Changs but cheaper. But hey, what’s wrong with that? I like the self service sauces and the quick table service. Just the right blend of leave me alone and give me what I want.

Not bad at all. The portions are typically pretty big and the prices on the new menu are very reasonable. The chicken fried rice is delicious. My friends and I enjoy going there for lunch from time to time to get out of downtown. I recommend.

So hit or miss. When the food is cooked properly, it can be awesome. I always get the Kung Pao tofu and veggie and the range of quality in just one dish always astounds me. When it’s cooked right, the veggies are still crisp with a good crunch to them, but not raw. The tofu has a nice crispy edge with a smooth texture inside. Veggies should still be green! There should be enough sauce to cover all the rice.
However, today’s lunch was totally overcooked. The tofu is like leather, snow peas so cooked they look shriveled, and the broccoli is yellow and soggy looking. The sauce is a lot more spicy today, too, but this is something I can live with. Thankfully, I got enough sauce today, but I’ve had this dish where the sauce was barely enough to wet half the pound of rice they give you.
With better training for the cooks, this place could be good. But like any fast food/​quick food place, they probably don’t offer any kind of competitive wages, meaning that anyone bright enough to assemble a Pei Wei dish correctly probably won’t stay around making minimum wage very long. I wish that these kind of places understood that for quality output, you need quality people. And you have to pay quality wages to keep them. Sadly, however, Pei Wei will probably forever be hit or miss, a shadow of what good, fast Asian cuisine could be.

Review for the lo mein noodles: pei wei now has options to add extra vegetables and extra steamed tofu to any dish. I decided to give it a try — this is what I noticed. The tofu is prepared exactly the same as in any other dish and is not steamed. Also, they try to fit more vegetables and tofu into a container with the same amount of noodles. This does not work — in the end you will notice your extra tofu and vegetables is really not extra and they can barely get the takeout lid closed. I would recommend to box up the extra protein and vegetables separately from the original dish or get a larger container to fit the extra toppings.

Tried to like this place. Only good food is Hot & Sour soup (fair) and lettuce wraps. Everything else is airline food.

Went here with my SO a few months back; just got reminded to review this one! We dined in. The sauces used were oh-​so-​sweet that it was almost like having dessert. I was digging around in my veggies with a fork, and then I noticed the stickers on the vegetables had been left on! I asked the staff about this, and his reaction was «oops, sorry about that». There was no offer to remake my food or to give a refund. If there are stickers left on the veggies, how does one know if they are washing their produce at all? I’ve avoided the place ever since.

Had a fortune cookie here was v disappointed with my lucky numbers. The lucky numbers assigned to me were 4, 9, 25, 26, 32 and 41 and let me tell you I could use some luck around here and these numbers will NOT help out. Also confused by a symbol on the back for the word «eye» because how does that help me at all. ²⁄₁₀ would not fortune cookie again

So, dating a new guy and he wanted to eat here for lunch. I tried to subtly steer him to a less Americanized place, but he was insistent that it was really good. Me? I’m all about authenticity, but, like I said, a new guy… figured he would just learn the hard way that I don’t do «fasion» (fake asian). BUT… I understand Pei Wei is not marketing itself as an authentic Asian place, so I’ve taken that out of the equation for this review. It still only gets 2 stars.
I was in the mood for a big bowl of soup, so I got the Thai Wonton Soup, which one reviewer said was good, and the pork egg rolls. I asked if they could add veggies to the soup, hoping I could choose the vegetables from what was in other dishes. The cashier had to ask, then informed me that, yes, they could add veggies, but only a mix of carrot, snap beans, and broccoli. Ok… I said fine, and also asked for extra, EXTRA spicy. My date ordered the Dan Dan noodles, and asked that his chicken be not minced and velvet cooked. Again, the cashier had to check that this was doable, and then said ok.
We got our drinks and sat down. The egg rolls came out first (I wanted them with my soup, but I forgot to tell them that so it’s my fault.) They were SOOO greasy — I rolled them up in my napkin and squeezed as much oil out as possible. They were also incredibly bland, The sauce didn’t help much, but I was hungry. I mixed 3 parts chili paste to one part mustard sauce, and piled a ton of it on the egg rolls to give it at least a little bit of flavor.
Next out was my soup (my date’s meal was nowhere to be seen). I saw right away that they had given me a standard Wonton soup. Since the waitress had jetted off the moment my soup touched the table, my date got up to tell her the problem. A few minutes later it came back… pretty clear that they had just thrown in some veggies and spice without heating the soup again. The veggies were super crunchy and in huge pieces, the broth was bland and lukewarm at best, and it was as spicy as milk. Not good. When my date’s meal FINALLY arrived (I’d had my re-​make for about 5 or so minutes already), we saw that they’d messed up his order too… minced chicken. But at this point we figured there was no winning and he ate it as is. At least his meal was hot! I tried his meal, and I liked the hot temperature, but the flavor and mushy noodles were not so favorable.
Since I hadn’t eaten hardly any of my soup, I got up and asked one of the waitresses to bring me a to-​go soup container. Figured I take it home and doctor it up a little (ok, a LOT). Ten minutes later it was obvious she had forgotten. Or ignored me. I got up again and found a different person, who came back right away with the requested cup.
So.yeah. Two stars, because… um, the diet coke was good??? I guess I’m trying not to compare it to the many (MUCH BETTER) Asian places out there. But, food aside, the service sucked.
My date has agreed that from now on, I am in charge of choosing restaurants when we go Asian. Smart man. :)