Panda Express — Restaurant in Mesa

Went in tonight and had a group of 3 in front of me. There was one young lady making the orders while simultaneously filling online orders. By the time she got to me I had been standing and waiting for 15 minutes. I did not have complicated order. A plate, bowl and large side of orange chicken and some rangoons. I'm told there is a wait for the orange chicken and chow mein(there was plenty when I asked for it but she used what was left to fill online orders) I say no problem and she has me pay. By this time there were about 5 separate groups behind me that had formed a line who were all served promptly even as more orange chicken and chow mein had come out. I proceeded to wait an additional 30 minutes! And only about half way through that did another worker come out to help the young lady. They finished the entire line plus additional online orders before finally completing mine(rangoons were missing but did not notice until we got home). I think the young lady saw that I was visibly irritated because she offered a free drink which was nice. Now I do not blame the young lady so much as whoever was the manager on shift. You see her struggling and a line backing up and it took a whole half hour for someone to come and help?! Absolutely ridiculous. On top of the missing rangoons some of the food was cold and the orange chicken we had been waiting on was over...

After waiting in line for 20 minutes I was told they were OUT of Orange Chicken ... presumably their most popular item ... at 5:45pm!!! Not that they were making more, but they were completely OUT! I was ordering for 4 people .... 3 of whom were not with me and ALL order Orange Chicken every single time! With 20-25 people standing behind me in line I couldn't exactly call each of them to find out what else they would want! But I wasn't as mad about them being out of the Orange Chicken as I was at the fact that I waited in a long line specifically for Orange Chicken and they didn't bother to announce to the people in line that they were low or out!!! Very pathetic to run out of the #1 item in your restaurant and horrible customer service to not warn the people standing in line that you are OUT of the #1 thing in your restaurant. They just lost a frequent visitor ... very frequent as I don't cook! PS They only got 1 star because I had to in order...

They need to close earlier cuz they don't keep their options full if you come in there past 8:30 at night you'll be waiting if you want anything fresh they won't just keep a little bit on hand I don't know why but I've been buying here for 20 years that I can remember and don't know why they can't keep some fresh food at night or they need to close earlier. Wasn't going to leave a review cuz I don't think reviews mean a whole lot sometimes but let me tell you this is the third or fourth time I've been in in the evening and they were either going to make you wait or they were going to give you like hey you want part of this and part of that for your order instead of what you really wanted to come in there for so after 3 or 4 times I'm done I'm good shopping there at night ain't for me... Stopped by again to day 10-31-22 And they gave 1/2 " Old (left side of Pic) As Well As Not Giving 1/2 Orange...