Pei Wei does Asian the right way
Review: Pei Wei Asian Diner
Rating: Three and a half forks out of four
Where: 2441 N. Maize Road (New Market Square), 316-729-7285
Hours: 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays; 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
Type of food: Asian
Alcohol: Beer and wine
Reservations: No
Web site: www.peiwei.com
First thing's first: It's pronounced "Pay Way." But even if you accident ally called it "Pee Wee" or "Pie Wie," it'd still taste just as good.
Pei Wei is a new Asian diner in NewMarket Square, 21st and Maize Road, that opened almost a month ago. Another restaurant is planned for the east side.
Owned by the same people responsible for P.F. Chang's China Bistro, Pei Wei offers the same type of fresh, delicious food in a more quick and casual setting.
ON THE MENU: Pei Wei's style is Pan Asian, which means it samples cuisines from a variety of Asian countries, including China, Japan, Korea and Thailand.
Diners will find familiar dishes such as pad Thai, Mandarin kung pao and sweet-and-sour as well as a number of noodle bowls, salads and appetizers. Each is served with choice of meat, or vegetarians can choose veggies and tofu.
DON'T-MISS DISHES: The menu offers something to suit any taste, from the non-adventuresome who prefer their Asian food fried and veggie-free to those who want crunch in their snap peas rather than in their chicken.
One of the best dishes, the Mandarin kung pao, delivers a little bit of both. A mixture of chile-seared scallions, garlic, snap peas, carrots and peanuts, the dish was particularly tasty with shrimp ($9), which was served wok-fried but not breaded and certainly not greasy. The snap pea/peanut combo gave the dish an excellent crunch factor, and the sauce had a nice kick.
Less saucy but just as tasty was the Asian coconut curry with pork ($7.75), the manager's recommendation. Though the chunks of pork were a little large, they were lightly coated with an excellent spicy green curry coconut sauce and served with onion slices, red pepper bites and a wonderful Thai basil that made its herby presence known. (It's also served with long beans, but on a day when the restaurant was out of long beans, snap peas made a suitable substitu te.)
Also good was the honey-seared chicken ($7.75), one of the aforementioned crunchy but veggie-free dishes, served with a delicious sweet-but-savory honey sauce flavored with garlic and chile. Again, the fried bits of chicken (this time breaded) were not at all greasy.
And the spicy Korean ordered with beef ($8.25) had a unique smoky flavor to its sauce, made with pepper sauce and garlic and served with white mushrooms, onion, carrot, long beans and toasted sesame seeds.
The only disappointment was the pad Thai ($7.75 with chicken), which was fine but not nearly as good as the pad Thai prepared in several of Wichita's home-owned Thai restaurants.
Appetizers also are a treat at Pei Wei, the best of which is the simple edamame ($2.95 for a bowl full), salted soybeans served in the pod. The shells are a salty treat and the beans (meant to be sucked out) are mild and tasty. Pei Wei's crab wontons ($3.95 for four) also are a treat because the creamy center tastes of real crab, not just the cream cheese/processed crab combo that fills most crab Rangoon.
Pei Wei also offers a few lower-priced kids' dishes. AMBIENCE: The dining room has a bright red floor, black tables and booths and nice Asian decor. It's a small dining room, though, and since it's always packed, things are tight and quite noisy, and those standing in the long line to order can't help but hover over some tables. Diners can, however, watch the cooks at work and occasionally see a dramatic flash of fire as the wok gets oiled up.
PRICE RANGE: Most chicken dishes are $7.75, beef $8.25, shrimp $9 and vegetables and tofu $7.25. Appetizers range from $2.95 to $6.95. Salads are $6.25 and $6.95.
SERVICE: Good. Diners line up to order then get a number, find a table and wait for table service. The managers are on top of handling the opening-month crowds and keep things organized and moving.
This story was originally published February 15, 2008 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Pei Wei does Asian the right way."