Panda Express — Restaurant in Apple Valley

This is the closest PE to me, so this is the location I visit most often. I've been frequenting this location ever since they opened about 20 years ago. We used to only go through the drive thru, but the last couple months, My husband and I will come here to dine in about once a week, or so. All the workers there are incredibly nice. I would rate them 5 stars if I could. The food is kind of hit or miss. One time my husband and I dined there, and on our way out, we ordered a large container of Orange Chicken for our (teenage) kids. The orange chicken we ate at the restaurant was great, but the box we brought home to our kids was actually inedible. I tasted it, and the only way we could describe it was that it tasted like chemicals. They had just made a new batch of orange chicken, so my husband and I ate the old batch at the restaurant, and the new batch is what we took home. Another time I ordered the mushroom chicken and all of the bigger mushrooms were completely raw. So the food is fairly inconsistent. The biggest thing keeping me from rating this restaurant 5 stars is the fact that even though they close at 10pm, the close the bathrooms and half the dining room at 8pm. They also stop cooking many dishes around that time too. I understand that the manager likely does all this to save money, but from a customer perspective, it makes you wonder what else they do to cut corners and save money? My other complaint is that they have amazing sweet tea, that you can get if you order inside, however if you order from the drive thru, they won't walk over and get you the sweet tea, they will only get you whatever drinks they have behind the counter. So now I can't go in the drive thru anymore, cause that tea is too good to pass up. (Though that is inconsistent too, and sometimes it's nasty. 🤷‍♀️) The restaurant is usually kept fairly clean. We usually have to wipe down our own table before eating, but that's not a huge deal. I can't comment on the bathrooms cause they always close them soon...

After ordering our food we asked an employee by the name of Summer what their hiring age is? She looked at my daughter and said how old are you? My daughter said I’m 17. Summer replied back saying it’s 18 and then she asked another employee by the name of Cin who also looked at my daughter and she confirmed that the age was 18. So my family went to find a table and eat. When we sat down after a while my daughter said to me, I’m pretty sure the age to work here is 16 with a permit, I think they just didn’t like the way I look. That bothered me to know that my daughter felt that way. I decided to call the other Panda in Apple Valley just to check and see and to make her feel better. I called and the young lady told me that she was sure the age is 16 with a permit and they even work around the kids school schedule. I asked her to please confirm with her manager or please put her manager on the phone so that I could confirm. The manager confirmed. I went back up and informed Cin of what I learned. The shock was all over her face. I informed the manager and asked for corporate’s phone number. My daughter is a senior in high school making straight A’s and intends on joining the National Guard after graduation. She’s a well rounded good kid. How dare anyone discriminate against her. There is no acceptable excuse for not one but two employees to lie about the company’s hiring age. I plan on showing my daughter first hand how to deal with ignorance. Horrible. We will never spend another cent eating at this place and I’ll be sure to tell everyone I know how my kid...

Paid extra for a LARGE box of the Honey Walnut Shrimp; as I had ordered several times before. I watched a lady (throughly the drive-thru window) put the last of the shrimp that she had in the pan into a large container, put it down, still open, another person came by closed it, put it in a bag with another large container (orange chicken), and it was handed out the window to me, after someone whispered something into the ear of the lady at the window. When I got home, the box was only half full. Needless to say, I called, and the lady on the phone (rudely) says, "there's only 21 shrimp in the large"...I said that my previous experience, a large box of shrimp was as full as any other entre. To which she said, "Then they shouldn't have filled it up that full, it's ONLY 21 shrimp, maybe a few more IF the customer complains, but NO MORE!" The conversation went on, just as rude with her repeating herself. Anyway, needless to say, I will not be returning, and I will be telling all of my friends and family (some that have eaten there several times a week) to choose another...