Panda Express — Restaurant in Lake Forest

This is a highly popular Asian fast food chain. As such, it is often crowded, and at common mealtimes (lunchtime and dinner time), you may be asked to stand in line outside. Customers are allowed inside one-at-a-time as other customers leave out the back door. If two people are together, you may be allowed to enter together. Once you are inside, you will see that the restaurant is set up semi-buffet style. But you do not serve yourself; instead, you tell the person behind the counter what you want, and they serve your side dish(es) into a Styrofoam container, then pass it to the next server, and so on. Your choices of entrees has been noted on the container. They have a standard variety of Asian foods such as fried and white rice, chow mein, orange chicken, kung pao chicken, beef broccoli, and several others. I must NOTE at this point--if you don't ASK for condiments, such as soy or teriyaki sauce, hot sauce, etc., you will not get them. I am increasingly finding this to be a standard practice at most fast food restaurants. I am disappointed about this. To me, fast food is all about convenience, and that's why people are willing to pay more for fast food than they pay for home-cooked food. To me it is THEIR job to make sure you have everything you need. YOU should NOT have to REMEMBER to ASK for such normal items as soy sauce, napkins, etc. (By the way, we did get one fork for each meal, with one napkin wrapped together with it, in a sanitary plastic wrapper. But we were not asked if we needed extra napkins.) If I could, I would take away 1/2 star for this oversight on their part. But the food is good, the service is okay, and the prices are okay. Drinks are not included in the combos, so this is an added expense, if you want them. You tell them what drinks you want, and they will serve them up and make them available just before you exit. The line proceeds in the front door, and out the back. One oddity I have noticed that is unique to Panda Express: the meals are described backward to my way of thinking. The most popular combo includes two entrees and one side dish. (HUH??) I can't help thinking it ought to be the other way around. I get around this anomaly by ordering half-and-half: half fried rice and half chow mein. As long as I'm talking about side dishes, I might as well mention the fried rice at Panda Express tends to be on the dry-ish side. If you're like me, you're going to want to ask for lots of extra soy sauce. All-in-all, I would rate this place 4-1/2 stars. I did not want to downrate them a whole star for minor issues, so I gave...

I'm giving this location a 1 star because I will not be returning to this particular store again.

The food and service is not an issue, the problem is that every time I go into this store, the entree(s) I always order (black pepper chicken) is never made, nor is it in the process of being made. Tonight was the 4th and final time.

For some reason this store waits for people to order certain entree's before making them. The last time I went there I waited in line and saw that they had a clean empty dish where the food should have been, I asked how long until it was ready and the girl told me she could have them start making it. I was a little irritated, but I said go ahead and waited. I saw that the other entree I was planning on ordering was already made so I didn't think anything about it. About 10 mins later she tells me that the black pepper is ready, I go to place my order and the other entree I want has a clean empty dish. I ask about that one and she says she can have them start making it. They didn't call out to have more made when it was running low, they just served the last portion and that was that.

Keep in mind that the store is packed at this moment, at least 7 people in line and a full dining area. They don't do this on everything, just certain items, which I must assume means the employees are being instructed to do this...I don't understand the logic, but someone running that store seems to think this is a good idea.

If you are that person and are reading this review, please understand that your "good idea" has cost you at least 1 customer. I will spend the extra time I normally have to spend waiting for you to make the food on your menu heading over to another location that doesn't follow this asinine...

This Panda Express location is a joke. Staff members are rude, especially the cashier. I got two plates tonight(about 15 minutes ago) one with double double Angus steak and the other one half honey walnut and half Angus steak. On the latter, I noticed that the guy doing the plates put 95% Veggies and 5% Steak, so wanted to make sure what I saw was right. When I opened the plate to see if I saw the portion and the ratio correctly, I realized I was right, it was All vegetables and a couple steak pieces So I ask the cashier if I could get at least a couple more pieces, she rudely says "if you need more, I can give it to you on side and you have to pay for it". Seriously?

As you might be aware, they charge more for Angus already, but instead they decide to give you veggies. It's totally understandable that you are not just getting the steak as it comes with the veggies but charging you more already and give %95 of veggies is a big scam which is exactly a case in point at this place.

With that being said, this place has to train their staff to be nice and polite.

If you go to this place, let the cashier know that you will pay for it upfront so you won't...