Pei Wei – There Is A Time To Eat
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While attending our MSDN event in Glendale everybody headed over to Pei Wei Asian Diner for lunch. Ah, at least some place familar.
Atmosphere
Pei Wei is always busy, that’s gotta mean something right? Wrong. There are restaurants that serve billions yet all they serve is a gross mystery. Pei Wei is no mystery though, the food is cooked in an open air kitchen. Even so, if there were such a thing as Asian fast food, Pei Wei would be cleaner version of it.
Most Pei Wei’s are situated in pompous locations where ever there is an AJ Fine Foods, but atleast they aren’t located in the ghetto.
Food
As far as the food goes, it is about as Americanized as you can get. So if you live in America and have American taste buds, it will appeal to you. Unfortunately if you want authentic Asian food you won’t find it at Pei Wei. I don’t understand why they even bother to put chopsticks on the table, the rice isn’t even sticky enough to pick it up with. They are for decoration. They are part of the ‘fake’ Asian dining experience. Apparently, Pei Wei serves food “manadrian style” from Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, Korea, and China. In the words of Bill Lumbergh, “Ooo.. yeahh.. I’m just not sure about that.” Having traveled to China I can honestly tell you that Chinese food is different. Apart from the rice, the food lacks vegetable oil and garlic. In China those two ingrediants are used in many dishes and Pei Wei lacks them. When I first started visiting Pei Wei I ordered the Sweet and Sour, but I got sick of it. Sometimes the meat would be tough, sometimes the chicken would clump together all nastily. What I get now-a-days and what I got on this particular day was Mandarin Kung Pao. Even though the dish is spicy, that doesn’t mean it has to be dry – and it was. What it was missing was some catalyst to bring out the spicy flavors and make them more vibrant.
Price
The dishes at Pei Wei are family style meaning they are meant to be shared with several people. A dish and a drink will end up costing you about $10. If each person gets one dish, that’s a lot of food, probably enough to feed a small village in Africa somewhere. It would be nice if they served each dish in two styles, family and single, large and small. Family style is great if you always visit Pei Wei with your family. But if you are out for lunch with people from work you might not want to share your food with your co-workers. They aren’t your family. You don’t know them.
Conclusion
Pei Wei is a modern Asian diner that is probably better than most of the mom and pop Asian diners out there, even if most of the food is cooked by Mexi— I mean Asians.
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On the lighter side of things..
This complaint just makes me laugh. You gotta be one unlucky individual to have gotten a medium-sized cockroach in your food, if you did indeed receive one.
Want some Pei Wei?
Pei Wei Asian Diner
20022 N 67th Ave
Glendale, AZ 85308
(623) 825-9949
Google Maps
Health Inspection Records
Menu
2.75 Hot Chefs out of 5