By now you should know this is a blog about cheap and not so cheap places to eat and not eat in Oahu Hawaii. P.F. Chang’s is at the borderline. I have this love hate relationship with this place. Although it’s a chain, I don’t mind coming here because it’s a fun place to dine. The inside of P.F Chang’s are always dressed up real nice, service is ehh, food is ehhh and prices are ehhh. Well, I guess the main reason to come here is for its ambiance.

I think one great reason why P.F. Chang’s has managed to stay afloat is because there’s no other chain like it. It’s the only big Asian chain that is well known, stylish, fun to dress up for, o.k. if you don’t and not as expensive as fine dinning, but still a nice place to dine. The inside of this one is like an fusion between 70’s and Asian if you ask me.

There’s some outside seating as well.

Another thing that P.F. Chang’s does differently is have the server make this sauce at the table upon greeting you. For as many times as I’ve been to one of these places I still don’t know how I feel about that. Actually, the fact that I’ve been to one of these so many times and still don’t know how I feel about it probably means I would prefer it if they didn’t. The scenario, I imagine is pretty much the same at every table. The server greets you, “hi, how’s everyone doing? My name is Mary Jane, I’ll be your server today. How do you like your sauce, spicy, medium or mild?” And this gives everyone at the table something to converse on, “ohh, I like it spicy, how do you like it? I like it mild. I like it medium. I can’t handle spicy.” Blah, blah blah. Then the server will create a mixture of hot sauce, hot mustard and soy sauce in the center ramekin. The vinegar and hot oil are never used. Everyone stares in awe like the waiter is some big sushi chef. Every once in a while someone idiot will yell out, “ohhh, will you add some hot oil to mine,” or something of that nature. And the server goes, “sure” but she’s really thinking, “Bitch, are you fucking retarded, it’s just sauce, fucking add the shit yourself.” And just so you know, the mixture is usually the same every time, regardless of whether you said hot, medium or mild. All I’m saying is, yeah I get why they do it, it’s fun and different, but I could make my own sauce, spank you very much. It’s not the way I want it and I never see anyone use it. Not to mention, now that we have this amazing sauce, we’re expecting you to give us something to dip it in? Oh, what, you mean there’s nothing. The sauce you just made is for nothing. So that was basically a waist of my time and a complete waste of yours. Sweet. Anyway, lets move on.

We start off with these crab won tons served with a spicy plum sauce for $5.95. I use to make these everyday at our family restaurant so just being able to eat them with out any of my labor involved made these fritters even more special. It came with 5 pieces. The sauce for me was salty. I would of preferred the traditional sweet and sour sauce.

Just so you know, this is probably the easiest thing to make if you have a deep fryer. It’s a mixture of mainly cream cheese and minced crab meat.

What ever happen to the days when you could expect rice to accommodate your order? At P.F. Chang’s they still uphold that tradition. Not only that but you get a choice of white or brown rice. I always pick brown since I don’t get to eat it much.

We shared a Combination Chow Mein, $10.95. It was tasty. Ray could of done without the bean sprouts and celery. He said vegetables should never be bigger than the meat. I guess that’s a good point, not because I like meat, but I don’t like big chunks of vegetables. However, the size of the celery didn’t bother me. If you prefer your chow mein with some kind of sauce or gravy, then request it or order something else. This chow mein was dry.

Overall my response is still, ehh. The flavor, like it’s decor is very contemporary. It’s Chinese food but modern American-Chinese. They lack true authentic flavor. P.F. Chang’s is like Panda Express Food in a really nice restaurant. Sometimes Panda Express isn’t so bad, at least it wasn’t this day. By the way did you hear Bill Gates, now the second richest man in the world, bought 1 million shares in P.F. Chang’s stock. If he believes in their food, well then so do I.

Lies, all lies!

View Larger Map

P.F. Chang’s
1288 Ala Moana Blvd.
Honolulu, HI 96814
(808) 596-4710

The Golden Duck is a great neighborhood restaurant to get Chinese food at a fair price.

Half of the restaurant looks like an old diner.

And the other half looks like an old restaurant.

We started off with Crispy Gau Gee (8 pieces), $5.25. These little fritters were tasty, but not amazing. I like that it came with 8 pieces so each of us were allowed two each. It didn’t come with sweet and sour sauce, so remember to ask for it because it makes these things much tastier.

It was a basic won ton wrapped around pork meat.

Justin ordered the Chicken with Honey Glazed Walnut, $8.75. In my opinion this dish is like Orange Chicken, the first bite or two is always amazing but after that my palate gets bored and I find myself eating something else. I’ve tasted many Honey Glazed Walnuts and I do want to say that this is the best I’ve had, but it doesn’t change the fact that after the second bite, I had enough and was pleased to see more food on the lazy Susan to spin my way.

The famous Mongolian Beef, $7.95. The flavor was good but the beef was a little chewy. I’m not a fan of the rice noodle styrofoam things underneath. They serve no purpose except to make consumers think they have been given more food than what they were actually given.

This was Shane’s order, Chicken Fried Rice, $6.50. If you love peas, this is the fried rice for you. It was totally overloaded with peas. I’m a fan of peas, so it didn’t bother me, however, everyone at the table said the same thing, “way too much peas.” Besides the peas, the flavor was right on, but the chicken was scarce. More chicken, less peas and it would of been fabulous.

One thing I like about having Chinese food is that food is brought to you as soon as it’s made since it’s family style. The foods piping hot and everyone gets to eat. However, we go the first two dishes and when we were all done eating, I had to remind them that we were still waiting on one more dish. Oh well.

View Larger Map

Golden Duck
1221 South King Street
Honolulu, HI 96814
(808) 597-8088

Every time we have plans to try this place another restaurant intercepts us in on the way. Well today we were determine with a one track mind and tunnel vision we finally made it for lunch.

The restaurant is quite large once inside.

This was our first pick. I have to say I’m not a huge fan of fried dim sum, only because by the time it rolls out to our table from the kitchen it’s not as hot and fresh. I’m sure we all can agree fried food taste best right out of the deep fryer when it’s hot and crispy. These fried shrimp won tons were crispy but they were room temperature, like they had been sitting out for hours.

I was quite certain that my taste buds would be a huge fan of these seafood balls rolled in sticky rice, but I was wrong. Wow, it just had a huge seafood taste that was so overpowering I could only eat the outer layer of rice on one of them. I don’t know what seafood is used but just think of seafood bologna rolled in sticky mochi rice. But maybe that was just me, cause Ray really liked these.

Pork hash is a must at dim sum. It’s just a safe plate as it is always delightfully fresh and appetizing.

Here’s another dish that’s new to me. Mochi balls stuffed with meat n’ stuff. Just so you all know, I’m not really a mochi fan. I do enjoy it but in small amounts. Biting into one of these was a little overwhelming for me because there was so much chewy mochi that it made it hard to swallow and when I finally did, it seemed like it wanted to come back up. However, once I made my way to the center I found the stuff inside to be surprising delectable.

Steamed pork buns, yet another classic dim sum pick. These were hot and tasted fresh not to mention very filling even after just one.

This time I saved the best for last. If you have not had these pineapple buns you must stop what your doing right now and get some. The sweet flaky top, and hot creamy egg custard filling puts you in a state of shear bliss. Do not get these things at a bakery, it’s never the same, only at a restaurant. Better yet, get them here they were amazing.

The whole bill came out to around $15.00. That’s why I love dim sum so much, it’s fun, delicious (most of the time), filling and always so cheap.

Here are some other reviews on Good Luck Chinese Restaurant that I found. Enjoy!

‘Ono Kine Grindz

Yelp

View Larger Map

100 N Beretania St #101
Honolulu, HI 96817
(808) 524-9988