Panda Express — Restaurant in Mesa

I’m really, really, REALLY disappointed in this location particularly. Panda Express is one of my favorite places to eat when I’m in the heart of our small town shopping or running errands, and I’ve just about reached the point where the substandard food and uncaring staff I’ve experienced over the last 3 or 4 visits can no longer be tolerated. If you go to this location anytime they’re slow and the food has been sitting, they don’t replace the food to keep it fresh. They just leave it there under the heat lamp and I’m not sure exactly why, but their food gets hard and dry and is more like jerky than Chinese food, and I’m not able to believe I’m the only one who’s noticed the problem. It used to happen occasionally. But literally the last 3 or 4 times I went the teriyaki chicken looked inedible and old, and I ended up having to resort to eating something else which as it turned out was no better. I’ve had the orange chicken plenty of times before. But this last time it was hard as a rock and once that glaze dries out it becomes rubbery and changes flavor drastically.

Well, I finally couldn’t take it after the last time and spoke to a woman there who refused to take the two item entree of orange chicken back and only offered me a tiny box of teriyaki chicken as a consolation for their failures, which mind you I didn’t order in the first place because it looked like it had been sitting and sure enough, the teriyaki wasn’t right either. What irritated me further was she tried to say that the orange chicken has “always” been made with that same texture and flavor and that it was apparently me that couldn’t taste right, even though I’ve been going to Panda Express since the mid-90’s and surely longer than she’s been working there. She was old enough to know how you’re supposed to treat customers (probably late 40s or more) and I was very kind and didn’t come at her funny or anything. In fact, I never ever send my food back anywhere when it’s bad because I don’t want to cause drama or give anyone heartache. But this happens at just this Panda more and more frequently, and their attitude about it is unconcerned, uncaring and blasé.

So I decided instead of arguing with this woman over a refund for my food, I’d hit the company harder by just not coming back to their store ever again. They can lose what was a really loyal and profitable customer and that’s better punishment than getting my $12 back. But it’s really unfortunate because there’s not a lot of options in this town for quality food and I surely wish they’d get their act together or at least make it right for the customer when they do fail to...

I never write reviews on places but this lady really was so awful and a bad at customer service I figure I'd just let ppl know so they save there money just go to Sakura Japan next door better food and ppl are friendly extremely stingy with the sauces my kids love the mandarin sauce on there chowmaine and when I realized I forgot to grab it for them I walked back up and asked for 2 packs one for each of them and she said no we dont have any were out as im looking at it right behind the counter and after I was already put off by the customer service when buying the food. I looked her dead in the eye and said give me the sauce. Then she stared me down the entire time we were eating in the food court so I began to wave but if ur going to try to make me and my family uncomfortable and inconvenient for asking for sauce. Witch is your job being payed to serve ppl there food let's just say she really really made me want to identify as a woman for a short moment and give her a quick attitude adjustment wish I could...

DELIVERY REVIEW: Very iffy food quality when compared to a stand-alone panda restaurant. All stand alone restaurants include the basic sauces that go with items (think teriyaki is given with teriyaki chicken, sweet and sour is given with eggrolls or cream cheese rangoons) but even WITH THESE ITEMS SPECIFICALLY REQUESTED, they were left out of the order. Requested soy and chili and got none. Ordered premium meat items that cost extra$$ and was given doubles of other items instead. (Meaning I paid for 2 premium items and got regular substitutions instead). Substitutions were made without notifying me, the driver, or refunding the difference. And my order wasn't even during a rush period.. it was an hour before closing on a Tuesday. My annoyance made me want to give a lower rating, but two of the items were hot and fresh.. one being orange chicken and that makes all the difference, getting hot and saucy classic. 3 stars and will Never order delivery...