There seems to be two new trends in
the restaurant business with one being the 'build your own burger' and
the other  sort of a slower fast food place where you put your order in,
pay, sit at a table and, what we use to call a runner in the more
formal places, your food is brought to you . This is basically what Pei Wei (pronounced Pay Way) is.

When
you walk in you are faced with 3 large boards which present the menu
from which you will make your choice(s) . I wasn't really sure of what I
wanted so when an employee walked by I stopped him and asked what he
suggested which turned out to be one of the 'signature' dishes. Both
Allen and I had the honey seared chicken made with honey garlic sauce,
chili oil, rice sticks, scallions, red bell peppers (Allen asked those
to be left off) and served on brown steamed rice. I had water and Allen
ordered Mandarin iced tea. Turned out the cashier was the guy who
suggested what we order. He handed us a large round white and red disk
with a number that you put on your table. The check came to $20.62.
Having been in the restaurant business I will usually look over the
check but I didn't this time and only now do I see we were charged $8.25
for one dish and $9.25 for the other--unable to figure that one out!

You
then walk past the cooking area and pick your table and put your number
in the stand on the table. You then help yourself to your drinks and
silverware at which time I noticed a box of fortune cookies that
customers helped themselves to.

Your food is cooked to order so it takes a little time but not that long. The plate was full and except, to me, a little too much salt it
was pretty good. Allen did say his  tea was very weak. There was a lot
of help cleaning tables and my immediate thought was why didn't they
have servers. I didn't see the advantage of paying the employees full
salary when the owners could have saved money with servers who ran their
own food, served the drinks and bused the tables and would have cost
less.

Another
thing that disturbed me was that there weren't any signs, indications,
regarding tips and I watched people as they left, some leaving a tip but
most didn't. At one table I saw the cashier pass a table and pick up a
tip that was left and though I looked to see if he put it in his pocket
or, maybe, a tip pool jar but he went out of sight before I could
determine what he did with the money.

Pei
Wei wasn't anything spectacular but for a semi-fast food place it was
pretty good. The main thing that would stop me from going back is that
it wasn't full service and for what it cost us we could have gone to one
of the many Asian restaurants with servers, white tablecloths and food
just as good.

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"Believe you can, and you can.

Belief is one of the most powerful of all problem dissolvers.

When you believe that a difficulty can be overcome,

you are more than halfway to victory over it already."

Norman Vincent Peale, 1898-1993 American Writer and Minister