Hurray for spontaneity and eight layer cakes!

There are always those plans you make time and time again which never end up following through...those seemingly great ideas you bounce back and forth with friends but for some reason or other, you never make it to the restaurant, or that movie and next thing you know, you find yourself out of opportunities.
I have been faced with one such plan for about a year now and I am proud to say that, thanks to a twist of faith and a spontaneious rush to the head, it became a reality!
A good friend of mine and I had been trying to go to PF Chang's on one of the days her husband was working as a waiter.  About two months ago, my friend and her husband moved out of the South End to JP and I thought we had lost our chance for good.  Just the other night however, we found ourselves feeling rather peckish after Nutcracker performance #22 and, as if by magic next thing I knew we were waiting for a table at the PF Chang's located in the Prudential Center.
All I can say is that it is a real pity it took us so long to finally do this as it was the perfect post-performance treat.  Once we were seated, we each got a glass of wine, PF Chang's conveniently offers half glasses (for half the price), I got a Riesling from Château St. Michelle, which was delicious with a peach-y taste, Corina, my friend got a Chardonnay - La Crema which was indeed quite creamy.
We then ordered their Szechuan Chicken Flatbread (which, as you can see was more of a quesidilla, but a very tasty one at that.)

We decided that what made it however was their 'green bean' sauce, a mixture of Japanese mayonnaise, sirracha and scallions.  It was the perfect zing and spice.

We also ordered their Mongolese Beef which came nicely cooked in a sweet-ish sauce and scallions. (and one wayward brocoli, which was a treat), and the Chang's Spicy Chicken, quite spicy but off set by a comforting sweetness often characteristic in Chinese cuisine.

 
PF Chang's is a chain restaurant, and it is american Chinese, so these things are reflected in the pricing of the items. For instance, if you were to order a Mongolese beef dish at a restaurant in chinatown, you would get probably twice as much for twice as less. However, you might also get twice as much sauce, which sometimes is less than appealing to me. So you win some you loose some.

What I was most excited about however, and this was even before the meal began, was their dessert tray, conveniently on display near where we were waiting to be seated. It is the most beautiful assortment of desserts, with a queen of chocolate cakes which you can barely take your eyes off of.

We opted for the Great wall of Chocolate, which indeed, is a huge, eight layered wall of chocolate cake which comes surrounded by a raspberry sauce and berries.

We got it à la mode with their pineapple coconut ice cream which really rounded the whole dish off nicely.
By this point, we were the last ones in the restaurant and Corina's husband joined us so we could polish off the remainder of the chocolate challenge. I must say, I think we did it justice.

The cake could have been a little moister, finding a good chocolate cake is like finding a good chocolate chip cookie...much more difficult than you would think!
All in all, PF Chang's did a good job for being a large chain in a corporate world. I do believe however that most of the night's success rested on the attentiveness of our server, and the satisfaction of finally going through with a plan set in motion a year ago with good friends. That's always worth something in my book!
For information regarding PF Changs restaurant, visit: pfchangs.com