By Gwynedd Stuart |
PF Chang’s frozen food takes up a lot of real estate in the frozen aisle these days. They sell snacky stuff like egg rolls and dumplings, skillet meals to feed a whole family, and individual frozen meals, which is what we focused on in this particular taste test. What are the best PF Chang’s frozen meals? Welp, we tasted them all and are here to tell you.
Full disclosure: I’ve only eaten at PF Chang’s a few times and I pretty much only get the lettuce wraps and hot & sour soup. Here’s how I’m making myself (and you, hopefully) feel better about my relative lack of familiarity with the source material: A bunch of the dishes you’re about to read about (apart from the pad thai, lo mein, fried rice, orange chicken, and beef & broccoli) don’t even appear to be on the menu at PF Chang’s. So I didn’t judge these meals on how closely they hew to their restaurant counterparts; I judged them on whether they taste good or whether they taste bad.
Currently, there are ten PF Chang’s frozen meals on the market and we were able to find nine of them near us. If you were super interested in the Korean Inspired Pork Bowl, you’ll have to try it for yourself. Here are our reviews of the rest of the frozen PF Chang’s meals, ranked from worst to best.
- Chicken Pad Thai
Okay, before I go off on how truly bad this PF Chang’s frozen dinner is, allow me to say that I’ve yet to taste a frozen pad thai that wasn’t pretty foul. But, woof, this one is bad! I made my colleague Justine Sterling take a bite (our kink around here is making our coworkers taste the worst stuff we try) and she said, “Man, imagine thinking this is what pad thai tastes like.” The flavor profile leans way too hard on tamarind, so it’s off-puttingly tangy. Everything is way too saucy and wet. And why oh why do frozen food brands insist on putting bland bell peppers in their pad thai? PF Chang’s pad thai has to be better than this or I seriously doubt their restaurants would continue to exist. When it comes to PF Chang’s frozen meals, you should steer clear of this one.
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Chicken Fried Rice
PF Chang’s frozen fried rice is entirely too saucy and contains 1,000 mg of sodium, but it still manages to taste like almost nothing. Sure, you get a hint of ginger flavor that’s nice, but it lacks the umami of good soy sauce cooked over high heat in a wok or that tasty bit of smoke you can detect in the best restaurant fried rice. There’s a lot of chicken in this meal and the addition of edamame is a nice touch, but neither thing makes up for this PF Chang’s frozen meal’s other disappointing qualities.
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Chicken Teriyaki
The teriyaki sauce in this PF Chang’s frozen meal is relatively inoffensive (although Justine took a bite and said, and I quote, “Ugh”), but the gigantic, hot pineapple chunks don’t do the meal any favors. Their consistency is weird and wet and they don’t taste like much of anything despite being a centerpiece of the dish. The red bell peppers are unpleasant mush, too. This isn’t the most disgusting frozen dinner you’ll ever encounter, but there are better options on this list.
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Sichuan Style Orange Chicken
If you’re looking for something that approximates PF Chang’s Orange Chicken, this frozen dinner isn’t going to scratch that itch. Okay, no, I’ve never had PF Chang’s Orange Chicken, but I do know that it comes fried—that’s kind of what everyone expects from orange chicken, right? Well, this PF Chang’s frozen meal contains grilled chicken. Big let down. The sauce is very orangey—it tastes like condensed tangerine juice—but it’s very gloopy and just doesn’t cling to the grilled chicken the way it would chunks of fried chicken. The one upside? Of all the frozen PF Chang’s meals, this is the only one that contains a mix of black and white rice. The texture is quite good, especially for a frozen meal. The leafy greens are a good addition, too.
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Dan Dan Noodles
PF Chang’s Dan Dan Noodles are made with ground pork, and there’s just something about the flavor of it that does not work in this microwaveable meal. “That’s a saaaaad pig,” is what Justine said. It’s very gamey, and not in a compelling way. That said, the noodles are nice and chewy and the sauce tastes like it would have been good if it hadn’t been overwhelmed by the flavor of the pork. If you’re starting to get antsy for the PF Chang’s frozen meals that actually taste good, I promise things do start getting better from here.
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Beef & Broccoli
Okay, not quite yet. PF Chang’s Beef & Broccoli is very salty, but somehow still tastes like it needs more soy sauce. The broccoli gets pretty mushy after five minutes in the microwave. And the beef is flavorless and a bit chewy. Still, it’s not that different from beef & broccoli made by a mediocre Chinese takeout place. It’s really not bad, but it does make you feel like you’re eating something just for the sake of eating something. There are worse PF Chang’s frozen meals, that’s for sure.
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Drunken Noodles
If you live in a place where you can’t get actual Thai food, this is one of the PF Chang’s frozen dinners that will do in a pinch. The noodles are decent and the basil sauce actually tastes pretty good. The flavorless bell peppers are a letdown, but the spinach is nice. Justine gave this a very enthusiastic “that’s not bad” when she took a bite, and it doesn’t get much better than that when it comes to PF Chang’s frozen meals.
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Chicken Lo Mein
Chicken lo mein is one of my favorite foods. Hey look, I even talked about it on an episode of Good Mythical Morning. This PF Chang’s frozen dinner doesn’t resemble lo mein from a restaurant, but I warmed up to it as I continued to take bites. You know when you go to a mall food court and get Chinese food and it tastes like the best thing ever even though it’s not very good? That’s what this is like. Honestly, the noodles are great. They’re very springy and have lots of chew. But the sauce is what really makes this one great (as PF Chang’s frozen meals go). It tastes like lo mein. It’s super savory and garlicky. There are wet carrots and sad chicken, but the sauce really makes the shortcomings tolerable. This is one of two PF Chang’s frozen dinners I would actually consider buying again.
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Spicy Sichuan Style Chicken
If you’ve ever had actual Sichuan food, you’re probably familiar with the concept of ma la (aka hot and numbing) seasoning. While this PF Chang’s Sichuan Style Chicken doesn’t really resemble anything you’d get at a Sichuan restaurant, it’s the best of PF Chang’s frozen meals, in part because it actually pulls off that ma la flavor. I swear, you can actually taste and feel the tingle from Sichuan peppercorns. It’s pretty spicy, too (you can see the red pepper flakes throughout). The sauce is savory and smells super mushroomy. And, again, the lo mein noodles just taste so much better than rice in these meals. If you’re hell bent on buying PF Chang’s frozen meals, make sure this is one of them.
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
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About the Author
Gwynedd Stuart
Gwynedd Stuart, Sporked’s managing editor, is an L.A.-based writer and editor who spends way, way too much time at the grocery store. She’s never met an Old El Paso taco or mozzarella stick she didn’t like.
