Pei Wei has been a family favorite. Quick and tasty. However, today was less than adequate. We ordered our food at 1:27 pm and received our food at 2:12 pm. I watched as other patrons ordered and received their lunch. I approached a worker who seemed to be the one "in charge ", but all he could do was say, "sorry, we are understaffed". Then proceeded to say, "there's really nothing else we can do." I mentioned I have worked in the food industry before, and understood sometimes you get behind; however, they hadn't even "dropped"my food to complete the order. I asked for a manager and was told that he was in the back. It seemed as though I was inconveniencing their lunch. When I received my meal it was messy and incomplete, lacking your typical complete Pei Wei meal. 20 minutes later a young staff member returned to comp our meal. This was not my intent to have a free meal. The initial interaction of a simple apology seemed less than an act of quality customer service. I find that because we were still unsatisfied with the meal quality, they felt an obligation to "fix" the complaint.