Sesame Hill — Restaurant in Austin

It pains me to write this review as we have been loyal customers for a while now. On February 20th, we called in an order to be picked up. I ordered sweet and sour chicken with fried rice, sesame beef, a kids sweet and sour chicken, and crab puffs. The man who took my order accidentally wrote down the order wrong. When we went to pick up the order, he mentioned it was sesame chicken instead of sweet and sour chicken. He was very apologetic and tried to correct the order. However, the owner refused to correct it since the order was already made. Although frustrating, we let it slide. We get almost home and they called me back to let me know the crab puffs are not in the bag and asked us to turn around to pick them up. After the day we had and the frustrating mix up with chicken, we saw no point in turning around. We asked for a refund and the woman on the phone proceeded to argue with me. She was appalled we didn’t want to turn around and how dare us ask for a refund. She abrasively told me she would give me a credit for the next time we ordered. Being pregnant, I took it personally and haven’t ordered from them since. Until attempting tonight. I made my order and let the lady on the phone know we had a credit for the crab puffs. She told me she didn’t know anything about that and I had to take that up with the owner. Then proceeded to try to get my payment information. I was in shock! I asked her to try to look into it and she put me on hold. After about 3 minutes, who I’m assuming is the owner got on the phone. I explained what happened to us the last time and said we wanted the crab puffs we paid for with the order we were about to place. She argued with me for a bit and finally told me she would make an exception this time. However (in her best mom voice) she would not allow it to happen again and it’s my responsibility to get the name of the person I spoke with. WHAT! I did my best to explain to her it’s not my fault that we paid for an item that we did not get. She kept arguing with me that it’s my fault and she knows I’m not telling the truth because they have a record. Again what? She wouldn’t let me get a word in and finally hung up on me. I’m in shock that they went as far as accusing me of lying and arguing with me. Before the unfortunate mixup in February, we ordered from this restaurant once a week, minimally $30 orders, and tipped well over 20%. Instead of the taking the $5 loss, she lost a customer entirely. I work in a restaurant myself and know how things go. I just can’t believe she wasn’t willing to correct a mistake...

I have to say that I am deeply disappointed ! The fried chicken was the worst chicken I ever paid for (some looked bitten off.. is it even chicken?) the chicken shocked me & I was kind of scared to taste it but my husband tasted it for me and disliked it ( this man eats anything lol) & the shrimp fried rice was delicious but had too much salt! The rice is white rice mixed with a lot of soy sauce which makes it brown ( soy sauce has a lot of salt ). I dealt with a great migraine 45 minutes later after eating the delicious yet secretly salty rice ! The shrimp in the food was well made and big ! Also, spoons and forks are optional and the lady ( very nice ) was nice to give us a plastic spoon set and one of the set was open ! Also, My husband ordered orange chicken but received sesame chicken and the side rice for the sesame was middle size .. I believe brown rice ! Sesame chicken was delicious but it was still the wrong order ! We didn’t know that the order was wrong until we drove off ! We were so hungry that we just ate out hunger ! Always check your food as soon as you receive it at any restaurant you attend ! Hope this...

My wife and I have ordered 100+ times from this restaurant in the last (5) years. So why only (3) stars?

While we agree with many of the comments about how good the food generally is, we have had the odd unfortunate experience. Specifically two.

The first time was a tofu and vegetable dish that was clearly cooked in old (rancid) oil. My wife could not eat her meal at all that time and put her off ordering from Sesame Hill for a few months.

A couple years later we ordered a delivery and the white rice had a fly in it. A fly.

We realize that something like this can happen but it speaks to us of the inconsistency of the quality of preparation. The Cook/preparer should be able to tell if oil is rancid and keeping flies out of the kitchen, while a challenge, is a requirement for us. To have a fly make it's way into the actual delivered product is not a thing we can stomach (no pun intended).

Sadly, we will no longer be able to order from...