The Asian Express — Restaurant in Hope Mills

I had a great lunch at The Asian Express today. I've eaten here in the past, but it had been a while. Here's my take away from today's lunch experience.

Service: Incredible considering the amount of work the woman behind the counter was performing. She was taking orders by phone and in person, bussing the tables, delivering food, bagging food, answering questions... you name it. She was extremely personable and maintained a wonderfully friendly attitude despite being pulled in a million directions. She never seemed flustered or annoyed and she was as attentive to everyone that she could be. She really represents the restaurant well as a front-of-the-house face.

Food is a little slow to come out of the kitchen. 20-25 minutes seemed to be the wait time for all orders. However, you can also tell that there is attention and time being placed into every dish. I'm OK with food not being rushed out as long as the quality is there, which it was. The food at a table by me didn't all come out at once and while that didn't effect my experience I would be a little disappointed if I was dining in with others. It may not always be the case, but that was an observation.

Food: The chicken Pad Thai was excellent. The lunch portion was huge, the spring rolls were fresh and crisp, and my order of pork dumplings were juicy and flavorful. There was a generous amount of chicken, the noodles were sauced well, and overall it was a very flavorful dish. I'd rate it a solid Pad Thai. I ordered it medium heat and could have gone a little hotter, but I'll know for next time. A family eating next to me ordered three separate and different entrees, and they did quite a bit of damage to their meals so that boasts well for the flavor of other dishes in my experience.

Setting/Vibe: I'd say this is primarily a take out destination. Seating in the restaurant was very limited. I wouldn't consider it for a date night, but it's nice for a casual lunch. It was comfortable and clean inside the restaurant. There was a steady flow of phone orders and folks coming in to pick-up and place orders, so it's apparently liked by many.

Food costs and staffing issues are very real issues facing restaurateurs, and I try to take all of that into consideration. I thought the pricing was fair and ultimately the food was very well prepared. It's a place where I'll continue to dine and I'd recommend...

I am making this review to hopefully reach the owner so the necessary adjustments can be made to make the restaurant what it once was. Ive been a loyal customer to this location for 10 years! And in recent years there has been a decline in quality of food and the service. I order the same thing every-time and each time it tastes different additionally there has been 5 occasions I have gotten rice that had a musky taste as if it was spoiled. Had several incidences where I would try to place to go orders and the lady would tell me that they were out of fried rice…. 😑 never believed it but caught her up one day because I called back and a gentlemen answered the phone and said “we’re never out of fried rice we just make more”. Finally them not answering the phone or leaving it off the hook for the last hour. Hours say close at 8. I get off work at 7:00 pm and have tried to be courteous to order my food as I leave work so I am not showing up at 7:25 and placing a order but instead I can’t even get the phone to ring. And then when I do drive all the way to the establishment the store is in the process of closing… This food is not cheap and I have spent a lot of money eating here so It would be great to see a change so I can continue to support, because I recently went to the reilly rd location and it tasted amazing! Its a longer drive for me but I’d do it for quality.

Picture of the establishment closed @7:40 right after I walked in to try to order and was told “we didn’t answer the phone (@7:15) because we are about to close”

In response the picture was taken at 7:40. I went next door to wing company and took the photo as I was leaving the parking lot. I am sure they are allowing customers to pick up their food until 8 if prior orders were made But as said I called at 7:15 as I was otw to ensure I was cutting into closing and the phone was busy and when I got there at 7:30 I asked the employee and she said yea it was because we are about to close and that put a bad taste in my mouth so I left. (This is not the first time Ive called 7:00-7:20 and no one answered or the phone was busy but when I arrive 5 min later nothing inside is busy) I felt if I had ordered in that moment my food would not have been right because everyone would’ve been upset since they already were mopping...

First off, I'd like to start off by saying that the food is great. We've been going to Asian Express for years now and didn't really have many issues until switching from the Reilly Road store to the Camden store. The workers are fine but the owner is awful. We haven't been back since our incident and won't ever return. The last time we were there we were one of the last orders of the night and they forgot to give my husband rice in his meal. Anyone that goes there knows that half of the tray is rice and the other half is meat. Anyways, I called in to see if we could run back and get it and the lady working informed me that the kitchen was closed down for the night and they were getting ready to close, but the next time that we order to let them know that the meal would be free of charge for the mix up. No problem. Very nice of them considering I had to cook rice in the cooker myself when I already paid them for it. The next week we went back as usual and when I went to pick up my order the girl behind the counter informed me that the owner wanted me to know that they shouldn't have comped the meal and I should have just come back and gotten the rice. What? Why? First of all, I couldn't have gone back and gotten rice. The kitchen was closed. Second, why school your customers when it was your business that messed up? We had never complained about anything before or got anything for free from them. The way it was delivered made me feel like I did something wrong. Either way, we haven't been back there and won't be again. They lost a...