The Hawaiian Telcom Yellow Pages list almost 60 Chinese restaurants in Honolulu — and those are only the ones that paid for the special listing. Most of these are smaller, family operations with first- or, at most, second-generation chefs, serving a local audience that is knowledgeable, value-conscious and opinionated.

Which means a Mainland-based chain like the new P.F. Chang's China Bistro is up against some serious competition.

Add to that slightly higher prices — family-size plates in the $8 to $14 range (with some higher-priced fish dishes), compared with the more typical $6 to $12 for local Chinese spots.

Then there is the dreaded "P" word: P.F. Chang's offers valet parking only, at $3 a pop plus tip. Otherwise, you're on the street. And if you can find parking in the Ward/Ahua/Queen area (without cheating and parking at one of the Ward Centre lots), you must have a special dispensation from the god of parking. I'm wondering how long this valet thing will go on.

All this sounds as though I was gunning for P.F. Chang's before I set foot past the towering horse sculpture at the front door. Truly, I wasn't.

But I'll admit a prejudice: I would be more happy about the number of franchise restaurants that are moving into Honolulu if they appeared to be inspiring local businesses to improve. Any restaurant experience is made up of three quadrants: 1. The way the food tastes; 2. The way the place feels (ambiance, cleanliness, service); and 3. Whether the bite it takes out of my pocketbook seems justified by 1. and 2. Local restaurants often score big in categories 1 and 3 while the Mainland imports do well in category 2, where many Isle places really need work.

P.F. Chang's is a case in point. The food, though OK to quite good, didn't make me want to abandon my old favorites. But the service and surroundings are seductive — not to mention, it's nice being able to have a glass of Guenoc sauvignon blanc with your beef broccoli.

The place is well-designed and stylish, with a banquette curving like a wave around the walls, stone warrior sculptures gazing serenely down at diners, a mural that resembles a silk scroll painting, splashes of color against sophisticated black furnishings and wood and stone surfaces.

The waiters are well trained, and there's no language or culture barrier for a haole-face English speaker like me. There's a cocktail lounge with an attractive wine, beer and cocktail list (rare in most Chinese restaurants here). And there's an honest-to-God dessert menu with some killer selections (especially the lucky 8 — deep-fried won ton sticks filled with chocolate ganache, laced with warm caramel and peanut butter; $8.95, but you can get half for $5.95; banana spring rolls, cut into six bite-size pieces, are equally decadent at $6.50).

While I'm willing to pay something for ambience, in the case of Chinese food, I think I'd still rather just pick up takeout at a favorite spot — Golden Duck, Dew Drop Inn or Little Village, for example — and enjoy the ambience of my 28-inch Sony and digital recorder at home.

Still, I enjoyed my meals at P.F. Chang's. And both servers — Angela and James — were gracious and attentive and knew how to banter and inform without being intrusive.

A couple of dishes were memorable. Among these were tender dumplings stuffed to bursting with fresh-tasting shrimp, four little square pockets for $8.25; and a generous serving of double pan-fried noodles, thicker and not quite as chewy as cake noodles, swimming in a rich, slightly tomatoey sauce flecked with vegetables and your choice of meats, $9.95. Orange peel beef ($13.95), though not as spicy or saucy as I like, boasted scads of chewy dried orange peel.

Elsewhere, however, the problem for me was flavor, or the lack of it. Both on the menu and in the presentation by the waiters, you're given to expect pyrotechnics, but instead, pretty much everything tasted sort of shoyu-salty. An example is a signature dish, the vegetarian lettuce wrap ($8.50), which had amazing texture (I don't know how they get cubed tofu to attain the mouth-feel of chicken, but it worked for me), but even with a squeeze of lime, these wraps just didn't sing.

Ditto the northern style spare ribs ($8.50), a criss-cross stack of a half-dozen small but meaty ribs that were exceptionally tender but lacked the layer of spice or sweetness I craved. This may be a case of our generally sweeter local palate clashing with preferences elsewhere. The ribs come with a ramekin of five-spice salt, but salt is the last thing these ribs need.

Every table at P.F. Chang's is outfitted with a flavoring and dipping station consisting of bottles of shoyu, vinegar and chili oil. In addition, you receive little ramekins of chili sauce, a soy-based dipping sauce and hot mustard.

Of those I tasted, the least successful dish was wok-seared lamb ($14.50), highly recommended by our server. I kid you not, this very thin-sliced lamb with a drizzle of creamy-looking sauce tasted to me exactly like a Big Mac and its "special sauce." Not a bad flavor, but definitely not the lamb marinated with scallions and cilantro that the menu describes.

All in all, I think they're going to need some big visitor business to make this place pay. I heard similar arguments made about E&O Trading Co. when it opened here, but there, I didn't agree. Yes, they were charging a lot for plain old kal bi, but if you focused on the dishes you couldn't get anywhere else in the Islands (except maybe Green Door), the place was pretty darn exciting. The problem for P.F. Chang's is that, with a few exceptions, they're serving the same sweet-sour/fried rice/mu shu/moo goo as most other Chinese places.

Reach Wanda A. Adams at wadams@honoluluadvertiser.com.