P.F. Chang's China Bistro

Rating:

P.F. Chang's China Bistro in Edina's Southdale Center just might be the hottest restaurant in the Twin Cities. During the holiday shopping season, the wait for tables sometimes ran up to three hours.

If you like authentic Chinese cuisine, you probably won't like P.F. Chang's. But then again, maybe that's irrelevant, since P.F. Chang's isn't really very Chinese. (For that matter, it isn't a bistro, either.)

Or rather, it's a Chinese restaurant in the same way that Don Pablo's is Mexican or the Olive Garden is Italian. It's a smart and stylish variation on the basic chain-mall-theme restaurant formula: foreign cuisines adapted to U.S. tastes, with just a hint of the exotic, but nothing too weird or unfamiliar.

If you like those restaurants, there is a good chance that you will like P.F. Chang's, and that you wouldn't like the more authentic Chinese restaurants such as Shuang Cheng, the Dragon Court or the nearby New Hong Kong Kitchen. Those places may have more authentic food, but they don't offer much in the way of ambience, and even reading their menus may be upsetting for the squeamish.

To look on the bright side, P.F. Chang's food may be mediocre, but no worse than at a lot of second-rate Chinese-owned Chinese restaurants. And P.F. Chang's offers a much more attractive setting -- with replicas of the famous Xian terra-cotta soldiers -- plus generous portions, reasonable prices, a full bar and a convenient mall location.

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