Panda Express — Restaurant in Jacksonville

Terrible experience! Every time I go to this location it’s horrible but today TOPPED IT! My husband loves panda and works outside and specifically requested panda I did NOT want to give you a penny! However I’m a sucker and I went for him. As a former RGM this place is a HOT MESS to say it friendly! The only person I saw in the building to have a sense of urgency was the girl starting the meals (red tattoo on neck) and an Asian girl, there was a whole line of us customers held up for teriyaki chicken. Why do you ask for teriyaki to be cooked once you’re out? Shouldn’t you have told them prior to the last piece of chicken??? I heard the lady say 8 minutes but not once did anyone tell the customers - the girl with the orange and yellow yarn hair decided she would ring me up first before getting my food, fine - whatever, maybe it will help me get out of there quicker NOPE. As she is ringing me up she is patting her head the entire time and going back and forth dealing with food with NO GLOVES ON! I had to tell her she was missing items when ringing up my order. I paid, then stood and watched a TOTAL train wreck! Why in the world is no one moving?? The “manager” was simply on his phone standing at the computer the entire time. The other 2 ladies were swapping out pans to clean pans in the middle of a rush with at least 8 customers just WAITING. The guy in the back “cooking” the food moved slower than a snail & just stared at customers like it was an issue to be there! Finally 18 minutes later the chicken comes up & the “manager” decided to “work” and grab the chicken and bring it to the line. The girl with the yellow and orange yarn hair decided she was going to “finish” my order. She didn’t give me my 3rd entree and decided to argue with me, an already ANNOYED customer. Why would you go back and forth with me about the order I placed & you rang up??? At this point I’ve spent damn near 45 minutes here …. After arguing with me she puts it in the bag and misses my side entree and my 2 orders of wonton, so I have to ask another employee to put it in my bag. I ask her for soy sauce she gives me 3 PACKS - I spent $30 plus here. No one wants to work anymore I get that, but why hire people who literally do not care, do not want to be there, & have no sense of urgency?! Whoever is “running” this place really needs to be retrained, the employees need to wash their hands! I’ve seen several health code violations and the lack of “customer service” is horrible! I will not ever return to...

EDIT: 7/18/2024

i feel the need to bring to attention the fact that over the last few weeks, when arriving at this location as early as 9:25 p.m or as late as 9:35 p.m, i have been greeted with 'What you see is what we got.' unfortunately i've walked out more often than not because there really wasn't anything left i was craving.

is this corporate policy? 30 minutes to close means nothing else is going to be cooked?

~

normally a quite enjoyable experience with friendly staff and delicious food. however this visit had me walking away feeling underappreciated and scammed.

i ordered a bigger plate as I do every visit, and the same older woman (see video) more often than not takes my order. on this occasion, she asked me about my order 3 times, to which I specified 'bigger plate, fried rice, all three sides orange chicken.'

it wasn't until I paid for my order that I noticed something was off...the price was slightly lower than usual. when I got to the table and opened my tray I realized she had given me a big plate instead of my usual bigger plate. when I went back to the counter to ask if I could receive my third side and I would pay the difference between plate sizes, she insisted that I ordered a big plate (or whatever the medium sized plate is called) and told me that if I wanted my third entree, I would need to pay full price which is over $5!

she insisted that there was absolutely no room for error on her behalf, and promptly returned to chit-chatting with the line cook.

I don't feel this is how a regular customer, really any customer should be treated. i paid over $5 just to receive my 3rd entree serving of orange chicken, all because this lady couldn't admit she may have made a mistake.

a truly...

Just picked up my order after being interrogated about whether the order was mine or not. Ordered on the app, went in to collect my order and was initially asked if it was DoorDash or mine, I stated that it was my food ordered via their app. I was asked for a name and then advised that the order was being made. A few more minutes went by and then I was asked for the name again with the last initial. Even after that I was still asked to provide proof, upon doing so, I was told that they needed to see the email confirmation even after showing the order in the app. It took 3 people to search for an order after racially profiling me stating that they didn’t want to just someone’s food away but how could I give an accurate name for an order that wasn’t even sitting on their shelf. Eventually after all the hassle they made the food trying to apologize for something that was long past an apology. Definitely won’t be going back even if they were the last restaurant on earth, I’d rather starve to death. I’ve been a GM for a local restaurant for a little over 4 years and NEVER would I ever treat a customer this way or say the things they said as their excuse as to why they couldn’t just make my $12.47 meal. I could understand if I looked like a transient individual, nonetheless, this establishment will NEVER get another...