Whenever I hear a new upscale restaurant is opening in Vero, I hope against hope the cuisine will be Chinese. Thus far, no such luck. Usually, it’s another Italian restaurant. While I like Italian cuisine as much as anyone, we have on a per capita basis more good Italian restaurants here than they have in Verona.

But for those craving an evening of good Chinese dining, the local options consist of take-out or Chinese buffet. Unless you like your dinner to come in boxes, or prefer quantity over quality, neither really makes it.

So about the closest option we have for a good Chinese “fix” these days is to make the 75-minute drive to the Gardens Mall in Palm Beach Gardens. There, right next to Macy’s, you will spot giant replicas of the horses of the famed 11 th-century Terracotta warriors of Xian, China, guarding the entrance of the nearest P.F. Chang’s.

Please don’t immediately begin writing to tell me that P.F. Chang’s isn’t a real Chinese restaurant. I have had the good fortune to have been exposed to great Chinese food. In the 1970s, I was regularly invited to accompany Grace Chu, one of the first to introduce westerners to the intricacies of Chinese cuisine, to dinners at the new Chinese restaurants just beginning to flower in Manhattan.

It would be great, of course, to have a fine-dining Chinese restaurant here in Vero Beach like the many found in New York, San Francisco, and a number of other large cities. I personally believe there are enough Chinese food aficionados here to support one. Let’s hope that happens in 2009.

But failing that, I would cheerfully settle for a Vero outpost of P.F. Chang’s. A chain operation with more than 100 restaurants sprinkled all over the United States, P.F. Chang’s calls itself a Chinese bistro. While the menu draws from all Chinese regions and cooking styles, the restaurants and the food have always struck me as influenced as much by California as by Peking or Canton.

You don’t have to advance any farther than the appetizer menu to encounter most of these variations.

From Canton comes the lettuce wrap appetizer. While the filling for this dish in China tends to be minced pigeon, P.F. Chang’s offers a choice of minced chicken or minced vegetables, which you fold into a crisp iceberg lettuce leaf, and dip into a mixed-to-order sauce of soy, chili oil and Chinese mustard. This dish is one of my favorites.

From Peking, another great appetizer option is the dumplings. Filled with your choice of ground pork, ground shrimp or vegetables, you can order the dumplings either steamed or pan fried, and they also are served with a special dipping sauce. Yum. From Szechuan province, your appetizer choice might be the salt and pepper calamari.

But an equally tempting appetizer possibility is the seared ahi tuna, which you are more likely to find in a restaurant in Sonoma than in Shanghai. Other items on the entrée menu, like the wild Alaskan salmon steamed with ginger or the Asian marinated New York strip, attest to the internationalization of the P.F. Chang menu.

Another option for starting your meal is with soup. Order the wonton soup, and the waiter brings a tasty bowl of this steaming Cantonese specialty to the middle of your table. An appetizer portion is sufficient for an entire party of four.

Over the years, we have sampled many of the entrees on the P.F. Chan’s menu. Cantonese chefs specialize in stir-frying, and we have enjoyed a variety of these dishes ranging from ginger chicken with broccoli to lemon pepper shrimp to Cantonese scallops stir fried with garlic and snow peas.

Szechuan entrees, stir fried with peppers and chilis, on the whole tend to be spicier (but almost never as fiery at Chang’s as entrées in classic Szechuan restaurants). Among our favorites are the Kung Pao dishes – Kung Pao shrimp, scallops or chicken – which have not only a liberal dose of chili peppers but are prepared with peanuts, a tasty addition that again is not Szechuan classic.

P.F. Chang’s also has a noodle menu, reflective of the cuisine in the north of China, and offers northern specialties such as wok-seared lamb marinated with scallions and sesame, and Mongolian beef, steak cooked quickly with scallions and garlic.

While P.F. Chang’s offers a gluten-free menu and does not add MSG to its dishes, one caveat we would offer is that it frequently doses dishes with too much salt. Mentioning to your waiter or waitress that you would prefer that dishes not be too salty is a prudent idea.

Unlike most Chinese restaurants, P.F. Chang’s does not provide complimentary tea with your meal, but tea brewed and served in a Chinese cast-iron tea pot is available for a nominal charge. And unlike many restaurants, diners can choose between white and brown rice (or opt for half and half).

If you are considering a visit to P.F. Chang’s, we would strongly urge you to call ahead for reservations. If you arrive without a booking between 6 and 8 pm, particularly on the weekend, you could be in for a lengthy wait. But until the day comes when we finally get a good Chinese restaurant in Vero, Chang's is probably the best not-too-distant place to enjoy nouvelle Chinese food.

I welcome your comments, and encourage you to send feedback to me at tina@verobeach32963.com .

The reviewer dines anonymously at restaurants at the expense of Vero Beach 32963.

Hours: Daily, 11 am to 11 pm

Adult Beverages: Full bar 

Address: Gardens Mall, 3101 PGA Boulevard, Palm Beach Gardens

Phone: (561) 691-1610

Review first published: January 1, 2009