Panda Express — Restaurant in Mansfield

I used to go to Panda Express often when I lived in Arlington. I stopped going because there were other ethnic food restaurants to explore nearby. Now I’m in Mansfield. There aren’t as many ethnic food restaurants nearby. But the local Panda Express is much closer. So, I thought I should check them out. I worked as a contractor at Frito Lays for a few months. I did the same at Pizza Hut. So, I’m familiar with how fast-food franchises operate. Panda Express is a rare bird in the sense that it's independent. Its owners and co-founders are husband Andrew Cheng, wife Peggy Cheng, and Andrew’s father, Chef Ming Tsai Cheng. Peggy was a software engineer, working for defense contractors. She brought a systems analysis perspective to logistics and standardization necessary to scale up operations. Back to the review. My career before retirement was in software. I was born in Southeast Asia. The first thing I noticed was the tables were all occupied by customers who were not Asian. In a true Asian restaurant, this would be a red flag for me. But Panda Express is Americanized Asian. The recipes have been adjusted to American tastes. Real Chinese food is full of thick sauces. Panda Express food is lighter. Most likely healthier too. I also noticed that the kitchen staff were not Asian. It doesn’t matter. The recipes are simplified. Remember that Peggy Cheng turned it into a systems approach. I ordered their most popular dish: Orange Chicken. Since I had a coupon, the other dish I ordered was their new Spicy Orange Chicken. Both dishes had a lot of fresh chopped vegetables. Unlike real Chinese food, Panda Express always had fresh vegetables that were not overcooked. Yeah! Both Orange Chicken versions were delicious. And the service was fast. I think I’ll be ordering from Panda Express more often. I...

Went to the drive thru at 9:30, last I checked they close at 10pm and waited for 10 minutes until finally asking multiple times if someone was there they finally answered (nobody was infront of me and lobby was closed) finally do get a girl to answer so I tell her what she wants, she then tells me that they only have one order of the item so I said I would wait. Her response was that they won't make anymore so I asked her if they closed at 9:30 then since they are refusing to make anything on the menu and she said no they close at 10 so I asked what's the problem, she then proceeds with another lie that their cook won't make anything then she lies again and says that they shutdown their kitchen, she then lies again and says they are short handed (all if this with an entitled attitude) so I told her that they need to put somewhere that panda shuts down at 9:30 since they are refusing to do their job or serve anything on the menu. After she tells me that she's done with me I pull off to drive away and she proceeds to open the drive thru window and yell what my problem is, I told her that you close at 10 so do your job and stop feeding customers bs excuses because you want to leave early. I've had several issues with this particular panda along with the entitled attitude and bad quality like cold food and forgotten items. Management sucks here and so do some of the employees. If I'm paying for something then I expect to get what I pay for not bs attitude after a 16 hour work day from an entitled brat that's puts in minimum work and complains over doing a job that they willfully...

This place was so cold inside that several people actually walked in, stood behind me and walked out complaining about how cold it was inside!

Two servers behind the counter simply laughed it off and shrugged their shoulders! Every member of the staff, ALL FIVE OF THEM, we're wearing jackets!

I asked if they realized how cold it was inside and that's why several people were leaving. That's when they shrugged their shoulders and laughed again. That's when I left and walked next door, literally 50 feet away, to In-N-Out Burger, where I sat down comfortably for an hour and enjoyed my meal.

As a bonus, I even saved an additional $10 on what I would have spent if I stayed at Panda.

Not only did Panda lose my initial order, they also lost several other customers that night.

What's even worse than what they lost on a single night from me and others, due to their poorly trained front-line staff and horrible customer relations, Panda will now experience what is known as the cost of "future lost opportunities" as a result of this review.

It was too cold to eat inside, but their lack of customer service was even colder! OUCH!

I've been to the original Panda Express, and my wife and I have been customers for more than 20 years! DOUBLE OUCH!

Hopefully someone reading this is higher up with management at Panda Express and cares more about losing revenue from poor reviews than the public-facing frontline derelicts losing them money and costing them...