Date Visited: 18 April 2009Meal: Dinner
Diners: 2 - Me & Wendy
Experience: Pei Wei is one of the newer Leesburg restaurants, self-described as "a limited service quick-casual restaurant. The menu features classic Asian favorites cooked to order using contemporary recipes." And from the parent company's web site: "P.F. Chang's China Bistro, Inc. owns and operates two restaurant concepts in the Asian niche. P.F. Chang's China Bistro is our full service upscale casual dining concept and Pei Wei Asian Diner is our quick casual concept." I'd describe Pei Wei more as upscale Asian fast food. One of the unusual things is that your order and pay up front (with no way include a tip), but your food is delivered to your table by a waiter; very similar in that way to Tenderjacks, which is in the building next door. Pei Wei shares the building with California Tortilla (reviewed on 3 August 2008).
On this visit, we started with the Crab Wontons appetizer ("You can taste the freshness and quality of our crab wontons in every bite. We fill our crisp golden wontons with a mix of delicately seasoned rock crab and and cream cheese and serve it with a side of sweet chili sauce. The perfect balance of flavors and textures!"). They were indeed nice and crispy, with a great slightly-spicy sauce (which we used to dip rice in later).
I had the Thai Dynamite with chicken ("Sriracha chile [sic] sauce gives this dish its kick! Fresh lime, soy sauce, scallions, red bell peppers, carrots and Thai basil balance out this delicious stir fry dish"). It had an overpowering lemongrass taste. It also came with brown rice done just right. It wasn't really very spicy, given the Sriracha chili sauce.
Wendy had the Pad Thai ("This satisfying Thai noodle stir fry brings together the balance of salty, sour, and sweet with 5 spice tofu, bean sprouts, scallions, egg, crushed peanuts, fresh lime, cilantro and rice noodles"). The mushrooms were big, firm & fresh, beansprouts too. The chicken was very tender, and the overall impression of the dish was that it was authentic.
Later I realized that we both ordered Thai dishes, so we'll have to come back and try some of the other styles. All of our food was delivered with a nice presentation. The only complaint would be that our entrees were served a little too fast; we had hardly started on our appetizer when they arrived - but hey, this is basically a fast food restaurant. The cold Chai Tea was surprisingly good, a nice change from run-of-the-mill iced tea.
Overall, Pei Wei was good but not great. If I want great Thai food, I'll go to Thai Pan (formerly Thai Royal); if I want great Chinese food, I'll go to either China King or Jasmine. If I want great Vietnamese food, I'll to to Xuan Saigon.
Location: 528A E. Market St., Leesburg, 20176
Web site: http://peiwei.com/
Total bill: $26.63
UPDATED 29 August 2010: Added the comment about Pei Wei sharing a building with California Tortilla. One building over, Tropical Smoothies shares the building with Tenderjack's. Also, the comment about there being no way to add a tip at Tenderjack's is no longer true. I havn't been to Pei Wei in a while, so I don't know if they've made that change too.
No comments:
Post a Comment