Panda Express — Restaurant in Albuquerque

I have never been to a Panda Express because I thought they were a sushi place then I saw an advertisement and realized it was one of my favorite kind of places however I have a slightly different experience

Back home in Pennsylvania where I came from we had Malls and every one of them would have one of those Chinese food places you'd get a big plate of fried rice or chow mein and then you'd pick what you know protein topping you wanted on top of it bourbon chicken general tso's chicken etc

When I saw Panda Express was that kind of a place I got excited and then I went to one and the excitement kind of died a little bit it wasn't a horrible experience it wasn't that bad it just wasn't very good

My analysis here of course is based on my previous experience at those shops in the mall if you have ever been to those places the first thing you're going to notice is you're going to get about 1/2 to 1/3 of the amount of food and you're going to pay about 30% more for it

That alone isn't the end of the world these places after all have employees while those small shops in the mall typically have one to three tops so there's a different cost benefit ratio involved here and I get that

However the food was also not very good the cream cheese rangoons were actually the best part they were delicious the rice was okay at best it was not the best fried rice I've ever had better than the Chinese place I have in my town of Edgewood here but not by much

The entrees are where it really suffered first you don't get very much second you really don't want very much the problem I ran into is that this is hard to describe imagine having orange juice from concentrate but you don't mix it with enough water so it's too strong too thick if that makes sense that's what they're on trees tasted like like they were too concentrated too thick the flavors while pleasing became unpleasant because of how strong they were I don't mean strong like in spicy or flavorful I mean imagine an orange flavor and now triple the orange flavor you can have too much of a flavor and that's what these tasted like almost like whatever sauce or seasoning is on them should have been spread over twice the amount of ingredients which would have reduced their intensity

I tried four different of their entrees they were two of us so we tied each other's food and they were all the same just too strong almost like they were making this food from a concentrate and they used too much concentrate

When you're paying more you're getting less a lot less and it's way too concentrated and strong and the quality is okay at best

Will I go there again? Maybe food wasn't bad it just wasn't very good will I go out of my way to go...

2 stars for inconvenience even though we love the food here. I noticed that when we use the drive through we get very little food. We get half portions on rice or chow main and hardly any meat. Last time we got 2 small peaces of chicken and all green beans and onions and 2 pieces of steak from the Angus beef and mushrooms. I didn't think that was fair because we have to pay extra for the beef. Today I got out of the car with my baby so I could order inside the restaurant to make sure we got appropriate portions. I didn't have to say anything because the girl did a great job at serving good portions. A regular scoop just as expected with the rice and noodles that almost fill out the half tray. BUT I noticed that it's the manager that handles the drive through and he is the one that gives out scraps. What a bad example because I'm sure that's not what corporate would want. I will let corporate know if this continues because I shouldn't have to get out of the car with my kids to make sure we get what we paid for. I'm taking pictures next time to show how little food we get when using the drive through. I hope this problem doesn't continue though. And of course the food was...

Been going here awhile and the service gets worst everytime through drive thru. They don't add condiments on the side unless you ask. I ask and they still give the wrong stuff. They give an attitude when you ask for hot sauce, chop sticks, mandarin sauce or soy sauce. I specifically asked today for all these things at the order spot. I still had to ask for it. I set my bag on the side of the window and the young gentlemen had a big attitude about it. He couldn't even hand me the bag back. It's not hard to quit your job if you don't like it. I did fast food for 8 years as a supervisor. The point of the headset is to listen. One person was taking order and the other charging. How do you miss the basic fundamentals? The girl who took my order was kind and friendly. She had glasses on. The gentlemen need re-training on their attitude. If he doesn't like it he can become a cook so they don't deal with customers. Or a janitor or perhaps quit! THROW A pebble and I'm sure someone would love your spot. Some of us have the weekend off and don't want to cook because it's our day off. The food was delicious the cooks are awesome. Don't let your drive thru times affect...