SHANGHAI—P.F. Chang’s may be seen as an upscale Chinese-food restaurant in the U.S. But the chain is calling its debut location in China “an American bistro”—which is exactly how its early customers there see it.

“The food looks similar, but you eat the food and you know instantly it’s not Chinese,” said Zhang Ji, 35, who works in finance.

The restaurant had a soft opening last month in a high-rise shopping mall in a tourist area here. On a recent Saturday night, fewer than half the tables were occupied, and no one was mistaking the Mongolian Beef or Dynamite Shrimp for the Real McChang.

Animation designer Zhang Xue said she came because P.F. Chang’s got a shoutout on “The Big Bang Theory,” the U.S. sit-com popular in China.

“In U.S. films and TV shows, everyone is eating American Chinese takeout,” she said. “They eat noodles out of these paper cartons, slurp the noodles down with chopsticks, and look like they are enjoying themselves very much…it made me wonder what Chinese American food was like.”