Panda Express — Restaurant in Lombard

Walking into the restaurant, it was super cold. The temperature outside was in the low 70s. When it was my turn to order, I was asked to hold on so the worker could fill the drive thru order. No problem, as I wanted to look and see what I wanted. The Honey Shrimp was almost gone (as in less than 6 shrimp), I really came for the shrimp but decided on chicken instead. The orange chicken was full, so I ordered that. The food was cold and tasted as if it had sat for a while. I also ordered the Sweet Fire Chicken. This also was cold and was tough from sitting so long. I ordered Lo Mein as my side, and it was cold just like the rest of my food. I ordered 2 spring rolls. Both were lukewarm. I prefer my spring rolls hot so I didn't eat them. I also ordered the apple cinnamon rolls. Upon checking my bag, I was given an egg roll instead, although I paid for an order of apple cinnamon rolls. The cashier greeted me with a smile and even told me to have a good day. The drink station was stocked. The drink station and lobby area were clean. I would have stayed to eat, but the restaurant was so cold I couldn't wait to go outside to warm up. I was traveling from out of state and mixed on if I would...

I sit writing this review eating the very food i am about to criticize, and i can't help but let out a deep sigh of disappointment. Panda Express on Fairfield and Roosevelt has, in my eyes, declined into what it is right now...a shadow of its former self.

If you're wondering why i have given this fast food shop three stars, then all you have to understand is that this store runs hot and cold like plate of deep fried ice cream. Some days the staff are on he ball by keeping the food fresh and flavorful, other days...not so much.

Today seem like one of those days! Today i ordered a Large order of orange flavor chicken $15. I expected fresh, juicy, crunchy pieces of chicken coated in their orange flavor sauce, but instead I get the scraps at the bottom of one of their steam tables.

Hard, dried out husks of chicken that had sat in the heating lamps for too long was what greeted me. I was not happy then and am not happy now. Also as a side note, the side dish "Fired Rice" that i bought was also sub par - some of the rice was crunchy, other parts were cold and once again i could shake my head.

Today's Panda Express gets a 2...

I noticed that the String Bean Chicken Breast pan was almost empty and had only 2 tiny bits of chicken in it (about 1/3" in diameter). The server started to scoop it and then stopped, I assume because she saw it had no meat. I knew I would have to wait for more to be cooked. I paid for my order and it was suddenly ready, even though I knew no more had been cooked. I asked the cashier to open the take-out container, explaining that what I had just seen in the pan had basically no chicken in it. I was correct. The server had tried to cover it over with extra fried rice hoping, I'm sure, that I wouldn't notice it until I got home. An honest mistake is one thing, but I was deliberately served an entree with only green beans and onions. Shame on them! Since they were "caught," they did cook some fresh and it was great, and the server apologized. Makes me wonder if the manager told the employees to try to get away with it when they could. Another entree pan was almost empty and the broccoli and kale were very dried out and off-color. I wonder if some poor other customer ended...