The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Show reviews
  • Music
    • Live music
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Literature
  • Fashion & Beauty
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureFood & DrinksRestaurant & bar reviews

PF Chang’s Asian Table in Covent Garden: Popular flavours in a relaxed format

PF Chang’s Asian Table in Covent Garden: Popular flavours in a relaxed format | Restaurant review
24 January 2020
Ezelle Alblas
Avatar
Shot by Matthew Pull
Avatar
Ezelle Alblas Shot by Matthew Pull
24 January 2020

Food

Ezelle Alblas3

PF Chang's Asian Table

BarQuick & easyCasual foodFine dining
QUICKCASUALFINE DINING

Concept

Casual dining

Cuisine

Asian - Casual dining

Highlights

Sesame ChIcken, White Chcocolate Bombe

Rating

★★★★★

Food ▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮

Drinks ▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮

Service ▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮

Links

InstagramFacebookTwitterWebsiteMap

Popular family-friendly restaurant brand PF Chang, first opened in 1993 by Paul Flemming and Philip Chaing, quickly spread out across 210 US outposts and 95 restaurants around the world, dominating the market with its farm-to-wok ethos. This chain eatery opened its first London premise near Leicester square in 2017, relying on its established worldwide reputation and proximity to the many theatres and tourist attractions for its heavy footfall.

Slick black awnings and smart signage mark our arrival. We are welcomed into an enormous dining room with a bar flanked by stools and higher sharing tables nearer the front. Lower seating dominates the space further in, as does the open kitchen. Provocative murals appear on the whitewashed brick walls, with stairs leading down to The Pastry Lab, where the desserts are created in-house, the space often used for special events. 

For an early Monday dinner, the place is heaving with an eclectic mix of birthday parties, dates and after-work dinners. We start our own festivities with two of their speciality cocktails. Luck + Fortune blends a savoury fusion of gin and Thai basil over mandarin liquor, while Miyamoto with Ginsing and grapefruit is zesty and refreshing. Both work well alongside our choice of starters: homemade vegetable spring rolls plumped up with julienne vegetables and a delicious sweet chilli sauce followed by a crispy stack of tempura green beans paired with creamy aioli.

Unfortunately, the lack of vegetarian and vegan main dish options here is a shame given the current food awareness and trends. The Lo Mein vegetable noodles do not dazzle and it would be nice to have a tofu option to bulk it out and add texture. A side of silky, flavoursome Chinese chilli aubergine was a better veggie alternative, served with a bowl of the tasty, fluffy jasmine fried rice – which also went well with the main of tender sesame chicken with broccoli (although our plate was missing the red peppers which were pictured on the menu).

For dessert, we opted for the show-stopping white chocolate bombe filled with sickly pieces of honeycomb. The waitress poured over warming toffee sauce whilst we grabbed our camera phones and watched the chocolate slowly disintegrate. The chocolate flourless mousse cake was made to share and needed the vanilla ice cream and sprinkle of blackberries to mute all that gooey richness.

As a chain, PF Chang is capable of bringing people together to enjoy fresh, homemade ingredients and Asian decor, and in this regard, it doesn’t disappoint. However, if there are plans for a UK expansion, there’s probably a few tweaks that need to be made in order to continue the brand’s notorious success.

★★★★★

Food ▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮

Drinks ▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮

Service ▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮

Ezelle Alblas
Photos: Matthew Pull

To book a table at PF Chang’s Asian Table, 10 Great Newport Street Covent Garden London WC2H 7JA, call 019 2355 5161 or visit their website here.

Related Itemsreview

More in Food & Drinks

Gastronomika returns for 2022 focusing on the UK: United Kulinary and life beyond London

The editorial unit
Read More

Geranium in Copenhagen takes World’s Best Restaurant for 2022 as Italy and Spain rise in the rankings

Food Desk
Read More

World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2022: The new 51-100 list mapped out

Food Desk
Read More

Parisian bar Little Red Door to take over Adam Handling’s Eve Bar on 7 July

Food Desk
Read More

50 Next: London chef Santiago Lastra recognised in Bilbao as one of the 50 young people shaping the future of gastronomy

Food Desk
Read More

Taste of London 2022 at Regent’s Park: Creativity in gastronomy is alive and kicking

Ashiana Pradhan
Read More

Adam Handling’s Eve Bar launches new cocktail menu

Food Desk
Read More

Hotly anticipated Pan-African restaurant Tatale to open on 14 July

Food Desk
Read More

Taste of London returns to Regent’s Park next week

Food Desk
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Food

Ezelle Alblas3

PF Chang's Asian Table

BarQuick & easyCasual foodFine dining
QUICKCASUALFINE DINING

Concept

Casual dining

Cuisine

Asian - Casual dining

Highlights

Sesame ChIcken, White Chcocolate Bombe

Rating

★★★★★

Food ▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮

Drinks ▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮

Service ▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮

Links

InstagramFacebookTwitterWebsiteMap

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Camden Fringe 2022: Rome 3000 (Julius Caesar) at Canal Cafe Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Midsummer Mechanicals at Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Luck
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Maisie
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Nope
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Eiffel
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • “Theatre is totally unique… there’s simply nothing else quite like it”: An interview with Sir Howard Panter as the new cast of Jersey Boys opens at Trafalgar Theatre
    Theatre
  • Jersey Boys bring on a new cast at Trafalgar Theatre
    Theatre
  • All of Us at the National Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Nope
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Jersey Boys bring on a new cast at Trafalgar Theatre
    Theatre
  • Luck
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • South Facing Festival: Jungle bring their signature neo-funk to Saturday night
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • “Everything that’s happened to me has brought me here”: David Leitch on Bullet Train and working with Brad Pitt
    Cinema & Tv
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why
With the support from:
International driving license

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Sex/Crime at Soho Theatre | Theatre review
The Lighthouse | Movie review