Panda Express — Restaurant in McHenry

I’ve determined it’s easier and cheaper to just buy my black pepper from one of the local grocery stores. If you think I’ve misplaced my review, let me elaborate:

Looking at their “variety of dishes” they offer, they all look strikingly similar with perhaps only one minor difference of an added or removed ingredient. The only common ingredient all of these items seem to have is; black pepper. Heaps and bounds, domes and mounds of black pepper.

I am a fan of spicy food. I have dumped literal Carolina reaper, ghost peppers, habaneros, you name it in my batches of chili I make at home and I don’t think any of it manages to scorch my tongue as much as a steak and mushroom entree and chow mein from Panda Express. It’s like whatever food they make has a half cup, 3/4ths cup, or two full cups of black pepper in each serving. Even dishes that aren’t supposed to be spicy, IMO. Take note Panda Express, not everything “Chinese” has to be spicy!

Their cream cheese rangoons are usually just tough and filled with a teaspoon at most of cream cheese. Tried their chicken egg roll for the first time tonight since they were out of chow mein and the rice looks like something out of one of those instant cups you add hot water to. Egg roll was about a third size of the egg rolls im used to getting around various places around town and about a third as good, yet still the same 2.00 as elsewhere.

Now what really irks me: The only real reason I went in there in the past was the steak and mushrooms that came with asparagus. It seemed to be the only thing worthwhile but that’s changed to green beans instead of asparagus. Probably the popular choice, but if it came down to me in a post apocalypse scenario with nothing but green beans to live off of, I’d probably spend my final days making sure as many green beans were destroyed as possible.

Service: service isn’t bad but it’s not great either. Your typical run of the mill minimum wage first time jobbers are there to meet, greet and fulfill your needs. They do always insist on telling me that my steak dinner will cost more. I get that, I have no problem with that. I’m sure some people do, hence why they tell people in the first place, but they always say it in this tone that implies they may as well be asking me, are you sure you really want that? Perhaps you might as well default to typical black pepper items people buy in bulk so you can save your dollar? Hmm..

So if you’ve survived through this review and endured a nonsense, blasphemy and insane and descriptive article that nobody should be fed up, revved up over because it’s a “what did you expect to get” type of a place, then maybe, just maybe you’re a cool guy or gal,...

This is really just laughable. Preface… last time I went on a very busy night. I was told 5-10 minutes on an item. Totally cool. 30 minutes later(yes, I waited-busy night) and after watching two other cars go in and immediately walk out with their food, I did the same. Got both of my young children out of the car to go inside and ask for my order. My bag of food was setting on a counter. Still not upset. I open the boxes and my food is nearly cold. Still not mad. A bit disappointed, but worse things happen. I have a microwave plus, it’s a busy night for them.

TODAY. A girl tells me 10 minutes and I say in a very polite tone“That’s fine. Not to sound rude, but I really don’t want to have to get my kids out. They forgot about me last time. Someone will be bringing the food out, right?.” Her response with a snappy tone - “We didn’t forget about it you, sometimes it just takes a while” Me-“It was like 30 minutes…but alright. ” Her-“ Yup, it happens.” All I needed was reassurance my food wouldn’t set and get cold.

PLUS if you know food could take that long. Why not mention instead of leaving people wonder what is going on? And keep your attitude to yourself. ...

The food is good enough, 3/5, you get what you pay for, an american take on Chinese cuisine. But the disappointing part was when wrong food order was mixed up. The restaurant was busy and slow service with rushed interactions was expected for a restaurant at this level, but the interaction with the manager was the most bizarre. The manager was extremely rude and defensive, beyond incompetent as were the rest of the staff. It was clear they did not care to lose us as customers over a few drinks that tasted like nothing due to broken soda machine and a couple wronged meals even tho people had allergies and Marlin the so called manager there agreed to fix the problem “next time” only to deny ever saying that … what a joke! There are other chinese restaurants in that area that may be worth trying before this one. It is not worth wasting your money especially nowadays over incompetent amateur employees so called “management “ that have 0 qualifications in management and customer service! I’d stay away unless you like paying for bad food and bad disrespectful...