Pei Wei Asian Kitchen — Restaurant in Tucson

Up and down... we've been customers here off and on for many years. Originally, we thought the food was "alright" and it was a cozy place to go with family, and a quick grab for dinner on the way home from a busy day at work.

Then, they introduced the Wei Better Orange Chicken (optionally, with Veggies). Beyond amazing. The dish had plenty of sauce and was simply, quite amazing. We went to Pei Wei more often than ever.

However, the last year or so has been filled with many disappointments. We're not exactly picky, but some of the issues we've encountered here, almost always when grabbing to-go for dinner, follow:

• The Wei Better Orange Chicken set the new bar for my wife & I - we loved it. But now? First, the "with Veggies" isn't an option any more (without adding individual veggies and paying extra $$), which is unfortunate. Yet worse, every time we have ordered the dish lately, it comes out with barely any sauce. It's nothing like it was for several months after they introduced this Better dish. If this is the expected norm, we honestly would prefer Panda Express - who actually have some sauce with their orange chicken.

• Ordering Pad Thai with chicken, and receiving tofu instead... not once, but two times in a row. I complained the first time, and they sent a free entree coupon, which was nice, but then it happened again. I had that dish many times prior to those two where it came out beyond-delicious.

• Fried rice. Our second-to-last visit, we splurged and upgraded to fried rice for our four entrees. That fried rice ended up being drier than the driest brown rice we've ever had. It was obviously some form of fried rice though - it did have some of the diced veg in it - but, incredibly sad and ruined what was supposed to be an extra tasty evening.

With that said, the Take Out staff are always super fast and friendly - I don't think they could do a better job. It almost seems as if they're doing three jobs at once, and some how manage it even during the rush!

...but, for whatever reason for the disappointing changes as of late, we're not going to be returning to this location for awhile, though we are going to give the downtown location a try and see if they are any better.

I did write customer service again, but all they seem to want to do is say "sorry you had a bad experience, we'll let staff know so it doesn't happen again. can we have your address to send a comp coupon?". We really don't want a comp coupon, we just want the delicious food that you once provided (again, the introductory Wei Better Orange Chicken with Veggies set the higest bar for us). These days, we do far more takeout as we work long hours, so having them "fix it" is somewhat troublesome. It's unfortunate, but - we hope they turn it around. I'm sure we'll try this location at some point in the future, but for now, let's hope the downtown location is better - otherwise we'll just patronize Panda...

Regret most of takeout order was poorly prepared, some items inedible and far below what has been a dine in and take out favorite. We order same menu items as we've come to rely on quality ingredients, expert prep and quality taste...we opened our order of 6 crab Wontons..the filling was coming out of top and burned.Won tons were brown and over cooked and maybe a tiny fingernail full of filling not creamy, zero flavor...i called the restaurant and was offered an apology and a refund (which wasn't expecting), but appreciated...and there were several packets of what should be sweet chili sauce...whats inside is watery and tasteless!!! We then went to eat our fav Thai Dumpling soup..used to be a flavorful broth, mini dumpling w flavorful dumpling filling. Our soup's broth was tasteless, wonton wrappers were overcooked, soggy and falling apart. The dumpling filling was floating in the broth, tasteless and consistency was sponge like..You used to get a cup of this delicate and authentic soup w mini dumplings and yummy filling.... Its now just a large and expensive serving of very poor quality wonton soup.. one more thing. Steak&Mushrooms...used to be tender, quality pieces of steak, in a sweet/savory sauce with fresh scallions.. tonight at least 1/3 of the steak pieces had gristle and were inedible. Meat was overcooked, dark brown and sauce was neither sweet nor savory and cooked down so it was over salty. The scallion tips were over cooked and mushy..usually they are delicate, barely cooked and add a extra flavor to the dish... I usually always write positive reviews complimenting staff and product.. We did appreciate the young lady's willingness to satisfy the 1 item. Then we sat down to what was a practically inedible meal...several thumbs down on one of our favorite places- a $26 tab for crab wonton app, soup and 1...

I've been to this location in the past, so I'm not sure if there was a recent change in employment, but the service today was not good at all. I ordered takeout: a general tso's chicken with rice for myself and a chicken pad thai, extra tofu, sauce on the side for my wife.

We get home, which is 20 minutes away, try the food; the general tso's came out fine - actually pretty darn spicy, which is how I like it. However, the chicken pad thai had maybe two pieces of tofu when we ordered extra. At first, we thought there wasn't any tofu at all, as they changed their tofu from white strips to off-yellow triangle chunks, and immediately called to get a re-make of her food. I was hesitant to drive a 45 minute round trip when we already just did that, but I wasn't about to let my wife go without food.

We go, pick up the food, get in the car, check the food again... and they didn't put the sauce on the side. It's mixed in, which is too spicy for her. She wanted to control the sauce amount. As well, she had 6 pieces of tofu now, which feels like a regular, not extra, amount of tofu. Whatever. We go home, transfer the tofu to her first order so she can finally have her extra tofu, and she uses the first order's sauce on the side to actually have the meal she wanted.

The location wasn't even that busy each time we visited. I can forgive messing up once and fixing the issue, as maybe you weren't completely attentive when making the food the first time. Fine. But a second time? You have to be going out of your way to mess it up again. You know it's a re-make, so why wouldn't you be extra careful to make it correct? I don't know. This review is long enough. Take from this review what you will - I won't return to this Pei-Wei again.

2 stars for the good General Tso's. 0 for the service on the...