peter chang's china café

lips of fire. my boyfriend and i love spicy food, especially him, but the heat in these dishes make them almost inedible. and we asked for less heat because we read the reviews. everything, and i mean everything, is covered inhotpeppers. tried crispy pork belly for the first time and it was gud but i think i would have enjoyed it more if my mouth was not on turbo fire! our poor american mouths are not used to this torture.

party of three mid saturday. the first meal i've had in a long time where every appetizer (3) and every entre (3) was superb. the prices were reasonable, the service was excellent and the staff made good recommendations. the food was spicy but not evermuch. one of our party was not a bighotfood fan but still enjoyed the experience. the staff will advise you if you ask. if you like szechuan pepper try the dry fried eggplant appetizer.

definitely go... food is awesome, especiallyhotspot and bamboo fish

read/heard so helpful reviews about this so wanted to try. we reached there at 8:30 pm and it was getting closed by 9:15 (dunno why they close it this early), so wondering they would even serve us or not. the restaurant was full of people, all the tables and we got to know we came to the right place. i am sure this place is full all the time. glad they gave us a booth.

the ambiance was not that great, it was like some normal restaurant. the server was quick to acknowledge us, took our drink order. my friend told me that if you go there, try bamboo fish and fish of the fillet. i did not find fish of the fillet on the menu, later on, she told me that you have to ask for this. anyway, we ordered

bamboo fish - it was superb, they prepared with herbals and some spices which were great

hot and sour soup - good

spring rolls - good

schezwan chicken hotpot – i really liked this, they serve it with small chimney-type fire which keeps this warm all the time

chicken hunan – superb. my wife really liked this, though beans were bit salty

we enjoyed our time and food here. prices are moderate, not expensive (except few items). would definitely recommend this

in my list since long time, and finally i visited.
featuring it’s speciality inhotpot mushroom along with mala sauce! i specially liked the aubergine fritters which had black peppercorn, truly amazing! the improvement area should avoiding spices along with oyster sauce!

very good. so far i love this place...better than any other chinese restaurants in rva.

besthotand sour soup ever. very fresh ingredients in the entrees. good lunch prices.

excellent chinese food. peter chang, contrary to many of the reviews here, is an absolutely superb chinese restaurant. they have incredible variety and the different items actually taste very different - i.e. they aren't basically putting the same sauce on 5 different meats and calling it five items. here are some things to try:

for appetizers, the bang bang shrimp, dan dan noodles and bubble pancakes are excellent. for spicier options, the dry fried eggplant and thehotand numbing beef are superb.

for the main course, almost everything in the chef's suggestions is worth try. however, here are some things to try:

non spicy: duck & pork meatballs soup in ceramic pot, beijing smoked duck, golden mountain beef, boneless whole fish with pine nuts

spicy: hunan fish, chicken with onion and chilli, dry fried duck, szechuan double cooked pork

before you visit, there are number of quirks that you should probably be aware of.
- the celebrated chinese chef who owns the restaurant appears to have a disdain for "usual chinese fare", i.e. americanized fare. stick with the chef's suggestions and you can't go wrong.
- the food can be very spicy. this is szechuan food at its best, with lots of options with numbing szechuan peppercorns and liberal doses of dried red chillies. if you cannot eathotfoods, avoid dishes marked with chilli peppers.
- the quantities can be huge. portion sizes are so large that a single dish can probably feed two. the best way to go to the restaurant is to go as a group of 4+ and then order family style. that way you can sample a number of different options.
- make reservations. the queues can be long and they don't do takeout (although if you do order food at the restaurant, they allow you to order extra which they'll parcel for you)
- it's one of the best szechuan restaurants in town and actually one of the best ones in the dc/richmond area. however, some very popular chinese szechuan dishes have been modified to the chef's tastes. if you want to see what to expect from a more standard szechuan restaurant, you might want to try evo.

authentic szechuan. peter chang's is the real deal when it comes to szechuan cooking. no americaized chinese food here. the only disappointment was there is no take out. you can see why when you eat there - they are just too busy. just be warned when they say 'spicy' it's not your typical american spicy - more like thaihotin fact. service was friendly and efficient.

birthday work day lunch. food washotand delicious, service was on par for the most part, meals were presented as they were ready in the kitchen so our lunches were somewhat staggered in delivery to the table. one guest in our party ordered the tofu meatballs in hopes of enjoying a meatless vegetarian dish. her entree was the last to be delivered to the table, which was about 20 minutes longer than the other 7 lunch guests. it then was explained by our waitress that this dish typically takes a long time to prepare. that would probably be good to know up front. after our vegetarian friend tasted her first bite of the tofu meatballs, it was discovered that the tofu balls were actually chunks of flounder wrapped in tofu. they were quite tasty and the presentation was beautiful, but they definitely were not vegetarian. the food marked "spicey" delivered on the promise of heat and all of the dishes were fresh and flavorful. the prices were fair and the portion sizes were huge. the atmosphere is okay, a little sterile, but clean and the food is really the star of this show. i would eat here again. vegetarians proceed with caution.

call the cops, we just got robbed!! our spring rolls came out 30 seconds after we ordered them, cold as ice. then after receiving our less than par second app we asked for a glass of water that came outhotand ice free. our entrees were bland and overpriced and before we could even get 3 bites in we were asked to pay the check because they wanted to shut the register down. our waitress was no where to be found throughtout the entire meal and then suddenly appeared once the money hit the table. we were told to take our time and not to feel rushed but that seemed to be untrue as our food was thrown in a box in the middle of her saying that. i don't know how this place has received such a high rating, seeing how the food and service were both disgusting. i would of much rather spent my $70 getting a tooth pulled.

horrible. my boyfriend and i went on a thursday night and it was packed. it took a little over 30 minutes to sit down which wasn't that bad. i was a little surprised that the plates and cups were plastic, but willing to overlook that if the food was good. we ordered the bang bang shrimp for appetizer and it was ok, but by far the best thing we ate all night, which isnt saying much. my boyfriend ordered general tso's chicken and it came out about 10 minutes before my dinner showed up. it was tough and dry and tasted like sweet and sour chicken, which we asked if it had been a mistake, which unfortunately it was not. i got the chicken with chili and onionhotpot, and it was disgusting. the chicken was dry, it was overpowered by cilantro and cumin and did not taste like chinese food whatsoever. i've had better chinese food at the local mall. overall a very disappointing experience. will not be going back.

first experience was a let down, but i will try it again. i went for lunch last week and ordered the servers recommendation- pork schezuan. thehotand sour soup was good and spicy. however, the pork schezuan had so much salt in it that it must have been a mistake. i like salt. i put salt on everything, even watermelon. this tasted like someone spilt a salt shaker on the dish. i wanted to ask my server if it was a mistake, but i just paid and left, as it was busy. i'll go again and give another review soon...

pretty good food!. i know this type of food is supposed to taste pretty spicy... but i mentioned to the waiter that i wanted an either mild or just a little spicy entree and the it tasted really good. i got the shrimp with wood ear mushrooms/snow peas. but i also ordered the crispy pork belly appetizer and that thing was blazing hot. i would give it a 9 out 10 for spicyness but it tasted really good. just thought the waiter would warn me about howhotit might be.

disappointing.... thursday evening and the place was packed. they don't take reservations for two, so we went and waited about 30 minutes, which was fine. we ordered three apps and two entrees as we wanted to try a lot of different things. apps were bang bang shrimp, shrimp toast, and scallion pancakes. all of the appetizers were ok with the scallion pancakes being the most interesting. we had two entrees... seafoodhotpot and bamboo fish. the seafood dish was quite good, but the bamboo fish was so spicyhotthat it verged on inedible. it was very thin breaded pieces, not much fish to it frankly. granted, i love spicyhotfood, but this was at the point where you couldn't taste anything but cumin and heat, and i love cumin. we couldn't eat it, it was that hot. service was good, our waiter was very friendly and on point for most of the meal. my only complaint w/ service was that our table was not cleared of even one dish after food was boxed and we were clearly finished, despite his three trips back to the table when he could have picked up a plate. and just to note, even though our waiter was aware that we did not enjoy the fish, no manager ever bothered to inquire. they're obviously packed every night, and couldn't care less. overall, we both found it disappointing, especially considering all of the hype surrounding peter chang's and the fact that at $16-$20 an entree, this is not cheap food. perhaps our expectations were too high due to all of the hype surrounding this chef, perhaps not.

there is so much talk swirling around about this place. those who love it, fine, love it then. but unless you ate with me, you don't know what my food was like. so keep the condescending comments.

bottom line, it just wasn't all that and i wouldn't return.

definitely authentic. this is the place to go if you want authentic szechuan cuisine. i am pretty sure this is the only place in richmond to go if you want authentic szechuan cuisine. i would recommend making reservations though. we got there pretty early and the line was out the door. i will say that the wait was well worth it. the food was delicious; however i would not recommend the wonton soup inhotchili oil. i love spicy, but that was a little overkill. also, they bring your food out as soon as it is ready, so if your meal ready before others at the table, they will just have to wait. in our case, my meal came 10 minutes before my husband's. all in all, i would definitely give this place a try. you will be glad you did.

a must for anyone who loves chinese food. i have two issues. one is the ventilation. the sechwan spices are extreme cause thehotplates come right to the table. everyone in the restaurant is coughing like crazy. secondly, the awful cafeteria feeling you get kinda sucks. once again other than this the food is simply amazing!