Happy Tasty Full — Restaurant in Phoenix

Where do I start?

I have been a very long time customer of The Wok Express (now under new name Happy Tasty Full). Just today I finished my meal with them I felt that I needed to clear up a few things going on with the place.

The last time before my most recent visit to Happy Tasty Full, was back before the COVID lockdowns and before I had moved from this side of town. I remember the old place fondly as my family and I would regularly order from here, at the very least once a month and at the most 4 times a month. The food is great and wonderful and the price was great and the portions were big! An amazing value. I would order the orange chicken dinner meal as my go to and I loved it.

Fast forward to my most recent visit. I was very worried about the change of ownership the menu and the portions. We were greeted nicely and warmly. First impressions on entering the restaurant was the cleanliness. It looked spotless from the front of house to the back of the house. When I received the menu, the first thing I noticed was the reduction of the items. Which I wasn’t too concerned about personally as I was eyeing my go to item the orange chicken dinner combo. I can understand in the current environment some items may had to have been removed, be it due to them being unpopular or even cost. No harm no foul. The person who served us was the owner himself! A very pleasant and upbeat fellow. He reassured me about the changes to the menu being minimal and that the taste and portions are still the same. I went and ordered my food as I normally would. First came out my usual dinner combo sides: Eggroll, egg drop soup, but the one change was instead of receiving the fried shrimp I received crab puffs. This was one of two changes I noticed with the dinner combo, again I can understand this as shrimp has become more expensive and it would be more difficult to maintain a similar price to the dinner combo. The other change was the soup size. I was a little disappointed in how big the soup was. But boy, it made up with being almost identical to when the old owners ran the restaurant. The only minute change was that it was less salted, which is no issue at all as you can always add soy sauce if you wish. The crab puffs also tasted the same to me as we used to get them free online when we ordered from Happy Tasty Full. The eggroll remained the same great tasted I remembered. Everything was great! I loved my sides and many brought back good memories with the food here.

Now, the entree. The portion, was big as I remembered, maybe slightly less boy was it plenty for the price. Now, the big thing. The taste. Was it different was it the same? The rice only thing I noticed was that it was less seasoned, but in my eyes, it was seasoned PERFECTLY. Just enough for if you wanted to add soy sauce you wouldn’t over season it. Now. My favorite, the orange chicken. As soon as I took a bite of that orange chicken, I immediately recognized the taste the Wok Express now Happy Tasty Full had. They didn’t change the recipe one bit! It was the same exact chicken I had so long ago and it was delicious as I remembered. I was so thrilled and all my anxiety about the new owner was washed away.

The owner and I had a wonderful chat about the trials and tribulations of having to take over an established store and some of the improvements he has done. I enjoyed his attitude and his spirit and always being positive despite the negative attention he may have gotten in the beginning. I highly recommend ordering here, the spirit of The Wok Express hasn’t left, it just got better and continues to live on in its new name Happy Tasty Full. I will be returning for more of my favorite Chinese food on this...

The service from the woman with short hair up front was extremely RUDE and unprofessional. We simply asked for a side of teriyaki sauce while dining in. What she brought out was something different. We brought it to her attention and politely told her it wasn’t teriyaki sauce. The reaction from this lady was outrageous she yelled and argued for no reason while repeatedly yelling “yes teriyaki” when it clearly was something different. She proceeded to yell and complain about us in another language to the staff and eventually brought out a side of who knows what sauce and stormed away. We were in shock and speechless (like what just happened). We continued our meal and a few minutes later a very nice gentleman who appeared to be the cook walked by the table. We got his attention and asked if what they gave us was in deed teriyaki sauce or if they still had teriyaki sauce. Who knows maybe they switched up the sauce. The cook then brought out the correct teriyaki sauce. We have been coming here for years and the food is always decent. I get it and understand that the older Asian lady with short hair may have not spoken much English and misunderstanding happen but to react the way she did is totally...

Same thing some people have been saying; the taste, it’s not there. I ordered fried rice with vegetables and dumplings. When we hear “Chinese food” it’s usually because of the taste of their rice and everything inside. But here, it’s just... there, blend, no flavor, nothing exquisite at all. If you are hungry and just want something for the stomach, this is that place. But if you want to enjoy the food because of taste, ... not here, there is none. Not a bad taste, it’s just ... no Chinese taste at all, just normal plain rice with veggies. Egg roll? Literally tasted like right out of the microwave, with a cold section (not too cold, but you could tell the difference.) Dumplings, same... no delicious taste, just blend dumplings but they had good texture.

So, I won’t say this is bad food, because it is noT. It just, doesn’t say anything...