Panda Express — Restaurant in Arlington

Got takeout today as part of a T-Mobile Tuesdays promotion and the lady at the counter was extremely rude to me and kept repeating that only one of my two orders (that my brother and I ordered separately because I paid with two different cards but both orders were under my name for pickup). She refused to hand me my second order. She forced me to show her my order history which I did and I went back and forth on showing her both orders and she still refused saying I was lying. Unfortunately, this is a norm at this Panda. I actually used to work at Panda Express at my first job in one of the highest ranked locations in Texas. We would make fresh batches of food every 2-3 minutes during heavy traffic hours. The mall this Panda is at is always busy, and Panda always has a line. However, their quality is AWFUL and this location should be evaluated and put under new management with new staff. Food quality: 1. Food is always soggy x3 amounts of vegetable over the meat ratio, which isn’t the standard for other Panda’s. I’ve gotten food poisoning from this one at least once to the point where I avoid this location. The quality is far below Panda Express standards. THE SERVICE: AWFUL! No one that is there wants to work there. The DMV doesn’t have the best customer service, but for a busy mall you would at least expect a bit of humility from the employees. Online order pickup is a mess because the employees just tell you to get in line and cause havoc with other customers already in line and embarrass you in front of them even after you tell them online order more than three times. They are so condescending and not properly trained. They don’t really seem to follow health protocols as I’ve seen their surface counters dirty many times and employees not washing their hands every so often after touching new things. When I worked at Panda, I washed my hands so often that they would crack because how on top of higiene the manager there was. Avoid this Panda if you can. If you can’t, expect to be treated poorly and low...

The Panda & the Pentagon: a Flavorful Feast at Panda Express

We were spoilt for choice at the food court in the Pentagon City Mall, but Panda Express Chinese Kitchen won out, as we don’t eat Chinese food in the U.S. very often.

The mall was heaving (Fri, May 30, 2025) and seemed to be full of (well behaved) teenagers. Service at Panda Express was swift, despite the long line, and we didn’t have time to even consider what we wanted before we were served.

We asked the server to surprise us but he wasn’t having it, saying: “It’s all good!”

We chose:

🍜 Bigger Plate: Chow Mein plus Orange Chicken, Kung Pao Chicken and Black Pepper Chicken = $12.00 🍜 Plate: Chow Mein plus Orange Chicken and Black Pepper Steak = $12.00 (inc. $1.50 upcharge for the steak) 🥤 Diet Coke (m) ‎ =  $2.30 🥤 Watermelon Mango refresher (24oz) = $3.20 😢 Tax = $2.95 💰 Total = $32.45

We took seats in the food court and enjoyed our large meals. We were impressed at the reasonable price considering the location and the portion sizes. This was probably too much food for a lunch, but we knew it would see us through the rest of our busy day exploring Arlington National Cemetery.

The fortune cookie messages said: “YOUR LOVE LIFE WILL BE HAPPY AND HARMONIOUS” and “SPEAK FROM THE HEART”, which we have done with...

I did not get what I ordered. I asked for fried rice and instead they gave me noodles. The rice was the only thing I really wanted from Panda Express so I was extremely disappointed when I wasn't able to get it. They didn't run out though, they just didn't listen to me. Another problem I faced was that I had to pay for someone else's food. While I was still upset about not being able to get my rice I looked at my receipt and realized it was not what I ordered, it was the person in front of me's order. I had a coupon for Panda Express and what I ordered would've been covered completely. However since they gave me someone else's order that was larger than mine I had to pay out of pocket for the rest. This would've been all fine if I wasn't a high schooler visiting Washington D.C. I was more upset than I would've been. This overall left an extremely bad taste in my mouth for my trip and I hope that Panda Express can get their stuff together if they want...