Bug-ger

There's the little fella!

I want to start by saying that I'm not too big on Pei Wei and other places like it in general. This is Southern California; there are countless great Chinese (and other Asian) restaurants that don't put corn syrup in every sauce and don't serve you what I can only assume is Uncle Ben's rice.  So, while there may be a smidge of bias in this review, my experience here was reprehensible, and had it occurred somewhere else, I would be writing it just as harshly...

I went to Pei Wei with some friends today for lunch. First, one of the soda machines had flat soda water, which wasn't that big of a deal (it happens), but what came later in the meal was a big deal...a big six legged deal. Two of my friends ordered a salad to split. After they had eaten half of it, one of them looked down and saw a dead roach sitting on her greens. We asked one of the employees to send over the manager, and watched as he told her about our table. The manager then looked at us, walked in the other direction, and went into the back room for about five minutes before making her way over to our table. When we told her, and showed her the bug, she looked at us and said (and I quote) "I'm so sorry, can I take that back and get you something else?" Are you kidding me? How about give us a refund...she almost ate a freakin roach! When we declined, she disappeared again and came back with some gift certificates (again, no refund, but gift certificates) To top it all off, she began to defend the fact that there was a roach in the food: (another direct quote) "When you use fresh produce like we do, sometimes there are bugs in it.  It just happens." BY FAR the worst excuse for a critter in a meal I've ever heard. I'm pretty sure that's why some restaurants wash their produce BEFORE serving it!

I'm looking forward to using those gift certificates though...I hear the spicy spider stir-fry is delicious.