888 Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in Ames

Every time I order my food from 888, I promise myself I'll never again come back to this restaurant. Tonight, I make this promise again. I order my food online a few minutes before 6pm. I specify in my online order that I will pick up my food at 7pm, and I know I am going to be 10 minutes late because I have a 7pm appt to pick up some stuff from another business. I Pay for my meal online (it is an option).

I show up at 7:10pm. The guy running the register tells me they don't accept online payments. I say "okay? ummm I paid online." He proceeds to check his internet machine and verifies 5 minutes later that indeed, I paid.

He then walks away, answers the phone, gives 4 other dudes their orders. I'm the last one remaining in the restaurant and it is now nearly 7:20pm. I walk closer to the counter and stare at everyone frying food, throwing egg rolls, carrying ginormous tubs of Gen Tso's frozen chicken.

Register dude yells at workers who start frantically throwing stuff in my brown paper bag. I had my meal a couple of minutes later.

My thoughts: If the food is good, then why not accept the poor service. I can deal with poor service for great food. The truth is, the food is bland, below average for chinese, so why do I torture myself and order from this place? I'm done. Good luck to you. Enjoy your crappy 888 if you...

The food can be good, though it is occasionally inconsistent. I think that the problems most people encounter are as follows: food quality expectations and service issues. The latter is simple to explain. When 888 gets busy, they don't have the capacity to fill orders in a timely manner. I have waited 25 minutes for delivery, and also in excess of 2.5 hours. I believe this bottleneck is the delivery drivers as I have consistently had much quicker service when ordering carry out. As for their food, I know some folks find it good while other not so much. It ain't the world's greatest Chinese food, but it's hot, plentiful and pleasant enough. Being that we're in Iowa and being that their prices are reasonable, I wouldn't expect fresh seafood to be used, especially given the manner in which it is prepared in most dishes. If that doesn't sound appealing, avoid it. If it isn't an absolute deal breaker, give...

I ordered a forgettable seafood medly dish that supposedly contained lobster, crab meat (their words on the menu), shrimp and other seafood. I ordered ahead of time for pick up, and my food was handed to me after a 15 minute wait beyond the agreed upon time. The lobster(?) perhaps it was a half of a tail of a small warm water lobster. It was so tough I could not cut it with a fork, nor could I barely chew it with my teeth. I am not expecting an abundance of Maine lobster in an $18 take out, but I would expect some edible lobster bits. The crab was in fact imitation crab. Again, my expectations were not high, but I was expecting some small portion of real "crab meat" (their menu words), perhaps some eastern blue crab or something similarly modest. I can give 888 two stars instead of one, as the orange chicken I ordered for my wife was acceptable for...