Noodlebox — Restaurant in City of Langley

Hi everyone! I just had an extremely aggravating and disappointing experience at Noodlebox Langley last night; when I picked up just over 120 dollars worth of food from them. We’ve picked up takeout from the White Rock and Vancouver locations, for years. My partner and I were so excited that they had just opened a location in Langley!

Before I continue, full disclosure! I’ve worked in hospitality for almost two decades.. Corporate restaurants, private restaurants, hotels, pubs and a diner too. So I’ve been on the other side.. A lot. Things go wrong when dealing with food and beverage, I get that. NOTHING prepared me for this experience though. 😳

As I paid for our takeout bill last night, I was told by the Noodlebox cashier that another customer the night before had all her takeout food drop out their bags.. So to just ensure I kept the bag “straight and hold the bottom”. Pretty simple instructions, right? I made sure one takeout bag was straight on the floor and held in place. The other takeout bag I kept straight up against my front seat; and packed it in with my laptop and case, iPad and case, coat, purse and journal. That bag was not moving! It’s 9 pm and I make the 7 minute drive home. As I go to lift the bag, it literally DISINTEGRATES in my hands. There are multiple rivers of curry, sauce and oil on my seat and the liquid has leaked on to all my belongings. Pictures included on this post, so scroll away!

A bit of background too.. I’m a new mother who has a 4 month old and yesterday was my partner’s and my first date night; since having our baby. We spent that night cleaning the car.. To no avail. The car needs to be detailed to get out the stains and smell. As you can imagine, we both were pretty upset. The worst part of the whole situation though was talking to the owner today. WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER!!! 🤯🤯🤯 It was like he’d never dealt with an actual, live customer in his life! He started recording the conversation right away on his phone. He was more interested in trying to trick me into “settling” the situation with ridiculously unfair terms; than actually taking any responsibility for what happened.

I was told that we can’t know “whose fault” this was and that he had “his doubts” for why I would put my expensive belongings around the takeout bags, to cushion his food. 😅 It’s almost like I trusted the takeout boxes and bags to do their job. 😐 He also made it clear that it was probably “my driving” that made this situation happen. Lol talk about taking things to a whole other level and insulting women drivers!

DUDE. It’s takeout!!! It’s not supposed be a NASA mission to get your food back to my home to be eaten. I was told that this happens at other Noodlebox locations too when “instructions” aren’t followed. 😂 What a joke! Do you think that maybe you should stop insulting your customers’ intelligence(I think I know how to deliver takeout back to my home since I’m a 40 year old woman who’s not eating out for the first time lol); and maybe start troubleshooting changing your ineffective packaging/takeout containers and bags, for your food? Or better yet, switch over to plastic bags?? And then avoid these situations completely? Or stop being cheap and triple bag big orders? Any one! Any one of the above solutions!

But I digress! So the owner, while reimbursing our money for the food, tries to blackmail me into saying I was happy and this was settled; on his phone recorder. I said I would do no such thing. He refused to pay for the car detailing he said. Then changed his mind a minute later and said he would pay a hundred dollars towards it. When I said I wasn't going to be happy with just that, and there was still the issue of damaged belongings to deal with; he said he would not pay anything towards the car detailing in that case. 😳 Got integrity? Guess not sir!

Thanks for ruining our date night and taking zero responsibility for damaging our car and...

Terrible experience. I posted a picture to show how much rice there was in my bowl (it was ALOT) and the toppings VERY few and not to mention I added extra tofu. So this is my first time here. I don’t live here, I live in north van and I was visiting my parents and wanted to try some VEGAN options close by. This place turned up in my google search. When I asked the clerk for guidance or tips on what would be good for me on menu she said “just look up there whatever has a V is vegan” I further asked her what’s popular? she sortove assisted me but definitely wasn’t keen on explaining things to me. Then, once I made my mind up I asked her again to make sure the order is 100% vegan and I had to prompt her and ask her are the noodles vegan in this bowl too? which then she said “ohhh actually we’re out of rice noodles those are the only vegan ones.” At this point I was ready to make payment. This was frustrating because It took 10 minutes to properly read through reviews etc and choose accordingly. At no point while I was researching did she think to tell me they were out of rice noodles?! Then I had to rethink what to get with rice because that was the only other vegan option. Now I chose a different bowl. It was actually terrible. I did not like the taste at all (maybe that’s a personal preference maybe others might like it. I got the spicy peanut bowl vegan with rice) in addition to it really sucking there were barely any toppings or tofu which I paid extra for. I also told her I do not like rice so please do not add that much. ALSO, it gets worst the lights are all off on the way to the washroom PITCH DARK huge safety hazard and there was no soap to wash my hands in the restroom. I will not be coming back here and I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND THE MANAGEMENT to fix this place up. Definitely a waste of my...

Update I took an extra moment to call in and tell someone about my experience and the very polite young lady explained that they were short staffed and that they may have had some challenges in the kitchen last night. Before I could really reply much she offered me a full credit for my meal at the Noodlebox. You can’t ask more of any business than to own their mistakes and offer a solution in an effort to repair your faith in them.

That is exactly what they did! I have changed my rating to 5 stars to reflect their response.

I had a great experience the first time at this location about a month ago. So I thought I would try it again.

This experience was completely different.

I ordered Pad Thai with Chicken and Shrimp, no broccoli, no Asian veg, no cilantro and no sprouts. My meal had dry chicken, dry noodles, peanuts, some egg and the shrimp were decent. It was missing the onions and chives on top Considering that I paid an extra $7.80 for my meal… almost twice what the base meal was… I did expect a little more.

If it had been just my meal that was completely off, I could see maybe there is some confusion somehow. 🤷🏻‍♂️But we had clearly made our exceptions known in the comment box.

However my partners meal was also wrong.

She ordered Pad Thai with Chicken, Gluten free, no broccoli, no onions, and no peanuts. Her meal had dry chicken, dry noodles, peanuts (and it shouldn’t have had), and some egg. It was missing the asian veg mix and sprouts and chives on top.

I’d love to hear back an explanation as to why the meals were all wrong. Any response would probably change my review and rating.

I tipped 15%...