P.F. Chang's Food is Good. There, I Said It.

Over at our sister publication Newsweek, economics editor Dan Gross notes that P.F. Chang's China Bistro (PFCB) is an outlier in the casual-dining sector. It's actually doing OK. No store closures, no massive layoffs, no desperation pricing. Sales are down, but only a bit, and profits are way up.

Nothing magical here, Gross explains. The chain, which owns the P.F. Chang's and Pei Wei Asian Diner brands, has wrung out costs and improved efficiencies at its 190 stores. Rather than slashing prices wholesale, as some other chains have done, it has made judicious, value-oriented additions to its menu.

But Gross is a bit off when he declares that the reason for the chain's success is "[p]robably not the food."

He explains: "Just as saxophonist Kenny G provides jazz for people who don't really like authentic jazz, P.F. Chang's peddles Chinese food to diners who might not cotton to authentic Sichuan fare."

There may be some truth in that, but only to a point. P.F. Chang's food is pretty good, and sometimes even close to "authentic," whatever that might mean, though Gross is surely correct that nobody's going to walk by your table with a cart full of steamed chicken feet. It's good in that there is a baseline, consistent quality to the food that is absolutely crucial to the chain's success.

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, perhaps the capital of "authentic" Asian food outside of Asia. But I, and lots of other urbanite Bay Areans, eat at P.F. Chang's fairly regularly. There's an outlet near me in one of the "upscale" minimalls that Gross notes are often the homes of P.F. Chang's. It's home to a multiplex movie theater that is popular with both yuppies and arty-boho types. The restaurants there, including P.F. Chang's, are always packed.

You simply can't appeal to such a demographic with sub-par food. I'd wager that many P.F. Chang's regulars also eat at more "authentic" Asian restaurants, and they surely know the difference. They also know that "authentic" is not tantamount to "good." The Bay Area is loaded with authentic Asian restaurants that are just plain awful.

Further, many of these yuppies and arty bohos have families, just like their suburban counterparts. And just like them, they often need quick and simple dining solutions that will appeal to the kids. But the food's gotta be good.

Gross quotes Jennifer 8. Lee, author of The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food. P.F. Chang's, she says, "is very consciously designed to cultivate an appeal to mainstream America."

But that notion is belied by the fact that P.F. Chang's doesn't open many stores in common suburban strip malls, across the vast parking lot from the Jiffy Lube. The chain is aimed squarely at urbanites and denizens of upscale suburbs, who have relatively sophisticated palates. Few are fooled into forgetting that they're eating at a chain restaurant, but few complain about the food. Most love it.

For proof, take a look at the message boards on Chow, a Web site for foodies. The overwhelming sentiment there is that P.F. Chang's is good stuff. When one person denigrated it as corporate/suburban/whatever and compared it to the Olive Garden, the response was generally along the lines of what poster "Big Bad Voodoo Lou" said: "Chang's is a chain that happens to have good food. Guess what? Lots of locally-owned Italian and Chinese restaurants aren't that good, and I'll take an above-average chain (they're out there!) over a below-average local joint any day."