Let me start by saying that I absolutely love PF Chang’s. Long before being gluten free I loved their food. Now that I am gluten free I adore them. PF Chang’s is a very gluten free friendly restaurant, and that is something hard to come by. Consequently I eat there ALL the time. Just another perk of being gluten free. . .
My experience the other night definitely does not reflect a typical adventure there. But here it is, enjoy:
The other night my boyfriend, Lawson, took me out to PF Chang’s. We made a reservation---which is highly necessary at such a delicious place---and were in the car driving over when my dad called. I decided to answer. As it turned out, my dad was in town picking up a friend from the airport, and coincidentally they decided to eat at PF Chang’s too. My dad couldn’t remember exactly where it was and the next thing I knew they were crashing our date night.
Because I’m away at school I don’t see my dad all that much so I didn’t really mind, and Frank, was visiting from Cairo and is always hysterical. Besides, my dad is always generous and I knew he would pick up the tab.
We were seated by the hostess and the moderately awkward small talk began. Luckily everyone got along well. But eventually it became apparent that not only had we not yet had a server come by, but one wasn’t coming. Finally we managed to flag down a server and ask where our’s was. He was polite and took our drink order. After we got our drinks the manager came by and apologized, apparently our waiter had gone home unexpectedly. To make it up to us he gave us several appetizers. It was very nice---PF Chang’s always so classy.
None of the appetizers were gluten free, but one, the lettuce wraps, had a gluten free option and we had it switched. Someone brought out the appetizers, one of which were these delicious looking fried snap peas (but of course I cannot attest to their actual taste). They, as always, clarified that the lettuce wraps were gluten free. We were all chatting and enjoying ourselves, and I was just finishing my second wrap (oink!) when yet another server came by, declaring, “here are your gluten free lettuce wraps.” Suddenly my stomach hit the floor and I instantly knew I had been GLUTENED! I looked at the plate the wraps I had been eating were on, and the one critical thing was missing.
At PF Chang’s because they are so good about gluten and avoiding contamination they even put gluten free items on a separately styled plate. Their regular plates are white and the gluten free feature their logo. There was no logo on my plate. I had forgotten to check and just assumed the server had brought the correct dish.
Everyone, including the server, were mortified. And of course being the baby I am, and knowing the inevitable agony lying ahead of me, just went into panic mode. I had to excuse myself. I planned to purge, but I just wasn’t man enough to do it, and besides the damage was done.
The manager came by yet again and apologized. He said he could sort-of relate because he had a friend with Celiacs. I appreciated the sentiment, but how bright spirited could I really be knowing I had just eaten poison? Who knows what kind of face I was making while attempting to seem cool about it.
My dinner finally came, and on its designated plate.
PF Chang’s took care of the ticket. They did not have to do that, but yet again they are a classy place.
As it turned out the evening was not a total bust, and the unfortunate parts were not the fault of my dad or Frank; so a success there. And, I did still made it out without having to pay. . .
OH, and a side note: it you can ever go to PF Chang’s I highly recommend it. Do not let this discourage you as I have been there countless times and this was the first time something like this happened. But most importantly, when you do go, get the chicken fried rice, it is the BEST! (I always get it, literally)
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