For some reason, I’ve never been a big fan of PF Chang’s (although they are growing on me), but when Pei Wei came out a handful of years ago (PF Chang’s answer to “fast food asian”), I fell in love.  While there isn’t anything amazing about Pei Wei, I’ve always enjoyed the laid back atmosphere, the fact that it’s fast food but brought to your table (like Noodles & Co., another of my fast food favorites), and the variety of asian dishes.  On Friday night, before picking the Husband up from the airport, I had a strong craving for some noodles and decided pad thai would hit the spot.  We haven’t had an opportunity to scope out many Thai restaurants yet, so Pei Wei was a quick option for my Friday evening.  I was also crazy hungry since I’d had a small lunch before heading to the Aveda Institute to dye my hair (pics coming in a future post, if anyone cares!).

When I arrived, I quickly checked the menu to see if anything else greatly stood out to me and decided on an appetizer as well. I love that their appetizer menu allows the ordering of a single eggroll, so that’s what I got – a pork eggroll.  Little did I know that it would be HUGE! More like the size of two eggrolls, but it calmed my hunger till my pad thai came out (the food is served as it’s ready in the kitchen, generally pretty close together).

Pei Wei serves their dishes generally family style (and the dishes are large enough for about two people as an entrée or more if there are multiple dishes).  The tables have plates on them to serve on to, but since it was just me, I just used my bowl.  I did, however, grab a to-go container from the beverage center in order to pack up my dish in advance.  Be warned that if you don’t like spice, this is a bit spicy (just the way I like it).  You can order it with chicken, pork, or veggie (my version this go was chicken) and the tofu included is in nice, large slices (yum!).

All tables have a bucket of chop sticks and I happily enjoyed my dish with my wooden sticks

While I didn’t interact much with the staff, they met all of my expectations.  The food was freshly prepared, hot, flavorful, and a great value.  I love Pei Wei

Any good Thai recommendations for the Las Vegas/Henderson area? The Husband and I have Lotus of Siam on our “to try” list, but any others we shouldn’t miss?