Fan Tang — Restaurant in Albuquerque

First and last time at Fan Tangs I order some crab wontons and spicy shrimp entree and 2 other entrees. We arrived everything was great! I was super excited to try this place. My boyfriend gets the order and the guy tells him that they sold out of crab wontons and tell him that he has to call for a refund. So my boyfriend comes back to the car to tell me and I get a bit upset because why didnt they just offer to replace the item menu, instead of offering a refund that I cant get right there I have to call someone. Which doesn't makes sense to do. So anyways I asked them to just replace it and they did . The guy told me to wait in the car and he will bring my food right out. I waited in the car with my other entrees for another 10-15min and finally my boyfriend went in to see if it was done and to our surprise it was done and it had just been sitting on the counter for a good 5 min and by this time my entrees are already getting cold and I still need to drive 30 min home. So I ignore it because I was just excited to try it out. I get home I open up everything and my entree is missing ! No shrimp its chicken and all our food is already cold. I'm so sad ! So I call tell them what happened and they offer me a free entree and I tell them this is so upsetting and inconvenient I'd like a refund. They tell me if I want a refund it would just be for the entree and id have to go all the way back even though the guy said to call last time. So I'm now so upset I just say whatever I'll take the free entree and I eat my food. I take a few bites and the food is way too greasy and cold to even enjoy so I just end up tossing it out. I am so hurt at how this food is a representation for this reastraunt it was not good at all my stomach hurts now and definitely not worth...

I am writing this review because of the exceptional service by one certain rep, Shayla. I've never seen a server work so hard so fast as she was on top of everything that needed being done. Fill your drink, she was there. Wipe table, she's there. The other servers are good, she's definitely tops. Give her a RAISE, and No, i don't know her.

As for the food, I always go out for Chinese food as it's a traditional New Year's food for New Englanders. Living in ABQ, I heard wonderful things about Fan Tang's food, mainly from a manager, so I chose it as my place to celebrate my birthday, my personal New Year. Craving Pad Thai, I chose that along with Crab Wantons. Both plates were plated like fancy food. I loved the plating of the food. The Crab Wantons were good. I would buy them again. As for the Pad Thai, I agree with Chris Wheeler's comment from a couple weeks ago, and wish I saw it before I went. The Pad Thai lacked flavor and appeared greasy. The shrimp in the Pad Thai was good. I'll be going somewhere else for my Pad Thai. Yet, seeing this is my first visit, I will return here again and order Spicy Shrimp to see if my experience was normal or a fluke. Plus, I loved the atmosphere.

Leaving this comment with a positive, you may have a different perception. Seeing the fact that there appears to always be a waiting list, at least there was the whole time I was there, they get to be doing something very right. So, although my experience with the food wasn't great, I highly recommend checking it out for yourself. It's a beautiful atmosphere that's overflowing for a reason. And, with servers like Shayla, you definitely get great service. So, check it out for yourselves and make your...

Delicious food. Small parking lot. Friendly staff. Weird ordering setup.

The restraunt was small and a bit noisy. But not so much that you couldn't hold a conversation. Just happy noise and kitchen noise.

And so many great smells!

The egg drop soup was light and creamy. It did have chopped tomatoes which we had never had in this type of soup before. But we were able to easily pick them out.

We had the pad Thai, jalapeño beef, walnut shrimp and Hong Kong dishes.

The pad thai was a bit disappointing. The flavor was good but texture wise, I did not enjoy the clumps of noodles. At least compared to the other dishes.

The walnut shrimp was perfectly cooked. They could have been a bit more generous with the serving size especially for the price.

The jalapeño beef was so tender and had the perfect amount of heat.

But the real star was the Hong Kong noodle dish! Perfectly done noodles with crisp vegetables and tender chicken. We did ask for light sauce so I'm curious what the regular sauce would have been like. But we loved it so much we almost ordered a plate to go for a midnight snack later!

There was a nice covered outdoor patio that seemed like it would be awesome in warmer weather. We visited in a 30° day in November and didn't use the patio.

The main cons: Parking was limited to a tiny lot or street parking.

The ordering process was strange. They told us to seat ourselves. We got drinks. And then had to get back up to place our order. The servers who take the drink orders didn't take food orders?

Also not sure if there was a staffing issue or it was just a busy Saturday night but it was slow to order our food at...