P.F. Chang's — Restaurant in Austin

I noticed the owner responded to several reviews so I’m hoping this will make it to him/her in an effort to bring to their attention the deplorable management staff and conditions my family experienced this evening.

We visited this location for Father’s Day; family of 4. I’ll start by saying that our server (Kyle) was absolutely incredible. Very professional and the ONLY reason our evening was tolerable. The same cannot be said regarding the remainder of the evening.

While waiting for our appetizer and the beer my dad ordered to arrive, a cockroach fell into my mother’s hair. (Not a joke). After she seemingly screamed it out, we killed it in a napkin & handed it to the server who quickly (and repeatedly) apologized. While most people would immediately take this opportunity to walk out the door, we chose to stay.

After the appetizer arrived (but the beer my dad ordered had not) Kyle said he was going to check on the status. He returned to let us know they were out of that particular beer option. My dad chose another; Kyle left and returned to inform us they were out of that one as well. My dad picked a third option but was informed at the table they were out of it as well. At this point my dad and the waiter walked to the bar together to see what options were actually available and in stock.

For our main dish, my parents shared one entree and my daughter and I shared another (2 entrees in total). When the meal runner arrived with the meals and was moving them from her tray to our table her thumb went into BOTH of the fried rice bowls as she lifted them across. Additionally, we asked that the meals not have any shellfish as my mother is allergic (and we had intended to all share across the table) however the meal my daughter and I received had chicken, beef, and SHRIMP. Thankfully my dad caught this before my mother tried our dish.

At this point I walked over to our server and asked if the manager on duty was aware of the repeated issues we were having especially the cockroach and the fact that all of this was occurring on Father’s Day. (the manager had still not come to our table). Kyle said yes he was aware.

After we finished our entree’s we asked for a dessert menu. When we finally made a selection for the Banana Spring Rolls, wouldn’t you know it…out of that as well. We settled for the chocolate cake.

At this point the “manager” (we are guessing he was the manager although he never introduced or presented himself as such) delivers the chocolate cake to the table. He apologizes for the “issue” early and proceeds to inform us that the “exterminator comes regularly” and that when it rains “they sometimes come out”. We were at a loss for words to respond to such a statement.

We asked for additional spoons (since only one spoon came with the plate) to which he offered a miniature / personal sized version of the desert menu which included a red velvet cake. We graciously accepted. Once delivered to the table, with no additional spoons, the red velvet cake was still frozen solid and difficult to cut into effectively rendering it inedible.

When the bill arrived, I was shocked to see an $80 balance; the only items comped were the appetizer and the individual sized dessert trio that was offered.

While we understand businesses must make money to operate (as our family are also business owners) we are also very much aware that customer satisfaction can make/break any business. Events such as these would typically result in customers, loudly, expressing their concerns or opinions, while my family took the high road and attempted to make the best of it with the understanding that the manager would do his due diligence to redirect the negative experience. Instead we were met with a gentleman who seemed to have no true understanding to the gravity of the situation, and an $80 ticket.

While the above is all facts, the following is opinion. Kyle deserves a raise and/or promotion. And the “manager” needs significant retraining and/or a demotion. We do not plan to return to this location any time in the...

PF Changs used to be the go-to of Asian dining especially for special occasions. We recently came to this Austin location for an engagement party that had just happened downtown. We brought some guests with us. Gotta admit, it was super embarrassing for us and very much bummed us out during dinner for our special occasion we made reservations for. They did put out special place mats for a nice touch. But that was where the quality of the experience stopped. When you tell staff that guests are there for something special, place mats should not be the only thing special about the experience. The hostess didn’t greet our party. The server, although sweet, looked to be extremely young and veryyyy new. Normally I can be very patient with new servers, I was in the industry myself in college. But not for a special occasion with reservations. I struggle with the idea that if it was known she was inexperienced by management/the hostess, why in the world seat her a 7 top?? Anyway, when we arrived, 5:30 ish on a Saturday, the place wasn’t packed at all. But the server took forever bringing even just water. We had to ask for literally everything that should be a given, water for the refills (we ordered an entire bottle of sake and drinks), silverware, plates (she brought out 4 plates for our appetizers so we had to ask for more) she forgot to ring in orders, everything took forever. Again, this place was not busy at all. We would need something she failed to bring which should be implied, and when she forgot something else she would just disappear for another 10 minutes. This kept repeating over and over. It got to the point where we just stopped trying to ask for anything that should’ve already been provided. It was miserable. She brought out a random complimentary egg roll dessert at the end that no one had been asked about if they wanted, or we would’ve picked something else. She didn’t even pay attention when we told her who the engaged couple was, and didn’t even try to draw the purpose of the dessert for them. She was unsure where to place it. Then the bill comes. And it says 20% included gratuity!! My jaw dropped. I expect included grats for 7 or more guests. I anticipated it. But I’ve only ever heard of max 18% included, with the option to leave more. I immediately found the manager (discreetly) and explained our service, and that no wonder the service was so poor if she knew she was getting a 20% tip minimum. Normally I ALWAYS tip WELL over 20% even when the service is average, it’s the minimum in my mind when dining out, especially for large tops or bills even when grat is included. I always leave more. But NOT for actually TERRIBLE service. The manager was so professional, he removed the grat right away and told us it shouldn’t have been on there in the first place and that he would talk to the server about the service. I was happy he tried to make it right, but the damage for the night had been done, and unfortunately will be the last time I will be back or risk ruining another night with guests, particularly for something special. Shame. I really used to...

We have been long-term patrons of PF Changs, eating at PF Chang’s restaurants across the country as we travel extensively, but that opinion has now changed due to a horrible experience.

We made a reservation online and arrived right on time. As we arrived the hostess was in a long heated conversation with someone and didn't even acknowledge that we had arrived. When she finally did come to greet us at the hostess stand several minutes after our arrival she greeted us with an attitude. We asked to be seated at a booth for a relaxing meal after shopping. There were only about five seated tables in the whole restaurant, so certainly not busy by any stretch. All of the booths and many tables on one side of the restaurant were dirty with plates, etc other guests had left. No telling how long they had been sitting there dirty. There were several booths on the other side of the restaurant, all of which were clean. The hostess said she couldn't seat us on that side of the restaurant due to having recently seated a large table there in that section. (This large table had six people at it and it was the only seated table on that whole side of the restaurant). This server only had one table to serve. She said the only place she could seat us was on the dirty side at a table in the middle of the room.

Honestly, at this point, we should have just left because her attitude and staring at us the rest of the evening was disconcerting. Everything else was off. We sat there watching these dirty tables sit there, dirty, the rest of the evening. Finally, someone did come out and clean only 3 of the tables which didn't even scratch the surface. He did pick up the plates and glasses, but cleaned the table and brushed the crumbs off on the floor. The whole restaurant had the feeling of dirty. We also watched the wait staff, the hostess, and others stand around talking and ignoring these dirty tables. Years ago when I worked in a restaurant it didn't matter that I was a server, when I had a spare minute I would help clean the tables. There is nothing like the feeling of being dirty when most of the restaurant has dirty tables left sitting around.

I will say that our food was good as expected, but we found ourselves wondering if the dining room was dirty and left unkept what did the kitchen look

Also, we did watch 2 other larger parties come in and want to be seated in the large booths but got turned away. Both parties left, and with an almost empty, but dirty restaurant.

Si sorry for...