Abacus Inn Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in Phoenix

To preface my review, I had my order fulfilled through Uber Eats. I ordered 2 lunch combos, the orange chicken and the Abacus Special Chicken as well as the BBQ rib. The orange chicken sauce was very flavorful and the chicken used was nice and tender, not dry. I can tell the sauce here is not some generic orange chicken sauce, they definitely added some extra spices to it and it among the most flavorful pieces of orange chicken I have had. My only problem with the dish is that the chicken wasn't crispy anymore. I understand that with fried chicken that's covered in sauce, the timeline to where it loses it's crispiness is fleeting the moment it is boxed up, but I have had chicken at other places like June House and Liyuen that have survived 30+ minute journeys that still maintain their crispiness.

This leads me to the Abacus Special Chicken, it's another fried chicken dish tossed in sauce. The preparation of the chicken is different here as it appears to be filets of chicken that's been fried, cut up, and tossed in sauce. Unlike the orange chicken, the integrity of the crispiness remained intact and the sauce is more of a savory sauce than sweet, but I didn't find it as flavorful as the orange chicken. Both dishes to me are about a 4/5.

The spring rolls and the fried wontons (just fried wonton wrapper, no cream cheese inside) as part of the lunch combos were really good, although as they are pretty common staples of an Americanized Chinese restaurant I didn't expect anything less than good. 5/5

Lastly is the BBQ rib. For 11 bucks I got 4 pieces of rib, 2 smaller pieces and 2 bigger pieces. Not the best of value in my opinion, but how was the flavor? If you came in expecting char siu flavor, it's definitely not that. It's sweeter and has a bit of a sour taste (ketchupy) that I don't find present in traditional char siu. Authenticity aside, I think it's a interesting take on Chinese BBQ and if you go in not expecting anything authentic, it was ok, but there's better places if you are wanting Chinese BBQ, 3/5

Overall I will return but will probably skip the...

I used to love this place, have spent lots of money there, however when I dropped in for a late lunch early dinner I was shocked by the Service and Food: When I got my spicy soup it was more like gelatin, I asked why was it so thick, server suggested I add water? Then when my crab puffs came they were brown, burned actually, I asked for another order server explained he couldn't give me another order of crab puffs asked for fresh wonton for soup server told me he can't get me fresh wonton chips because they cook them ever 2-3 days ahead and I was being served on the bottom of container!? I wouldn't eat those, the server assured me this is the way people liked them, I assured the server that's NOT the way I like them he then proceeded to ask if I'd like to cancel my order, said no, but then I re-thought and wondered at what point will the food become better? So I cancelled my order asked the server what's happening here, why is the food so bad informed him I've eaten at Abacus numerous times and had never been treated so badly, I was uncomfortable, told server I'm not paying for gelatin soup or burned crab puffs, I walked over to front desk spoke to a young girl, she apologized profusely, told her I didn't eat anything asked did restaurant get a new cook, she said yes, asked for manager or better yet an owner, however no owner or manager available, asked to please explain to owner that he lost a good customer the worst Chinese Food I've ever almost had..Server gets a -0 food -0 Good...

I ordered shrimp fried rice and my friend ordered chicken fried rice. Friend said her rice was burned & hard, she called and they said they would replace her meal, just bring in the bad food. Next day my friend went to get her free replacement entree, this time she ordered chicken chow main and bought me an order of chicken teriyaki which was the worst that I’ve ever had, the chicken was hard and seemed old, my friends order didn’t meet her expectations. I called and spoke to the lady, I explained that we ordered two days in a row and weren’t satisfied with the quality of our meals. I told her we’ve before without issue. I asked if we could replace this order with Apps, but she offered a full refund if we brought back the food, I said my friend would be back in 10 min. Once there she said she ate too much chow mein and said she refund only the chicken teriyaki which I had barely touched. She said the refund $12.25 + tax which my friend agreed. Later my friend checked her bank and discovered the refund to be only $9.50. I would not recommend this restaurant they don’t keep their word nor value...