Golden Phoenix — Restaurant in Rapid City

The food is just okay, nothing superb here, but the service is what really convinced me to never go back here again. I have eaten here since I was a kid, and I believe that they are under new management (not good management, either). I would recommend ordering from the other popular Chinese restaurant in town, they are far better quality, service, and the food is much better there and never once have they ever messed up my order like they have here. The best thing that I think they have is the Mongolian Beef and the other night I placed my order here, the gal on the phone even correctly read my order back to me to verify accuracy, we picked it up, and they gave us the wrong order, it was NOT the Mongolian Beef. Honestly, it smelled awful as soon as I opened the container and I wanted to gag. Why would any food smell bad like dirty feet? I called them and told them that they gave me the wrong order, she (the manager I believe) looked into it and verified that they accidentally got my order mixed up, and gave me the wrong food (she said it was King Poa Beef instead-fyi don’t order that, it’s gross!) said that I could drive back and get a new one as long as I take the container back in and show them that it was wrong. Nope! Why should I waste my time (20 mins there and back=40 minutes of my time wasted) and gas money to haul around a container of Chinese food that smells like stinky feet back to their restaurant, even when they knew that it was not my fault and they messed up. That is the most ridiculous thing that I have ever been asked to do. I told this to the woman manager, and let her know that they have lost my business (and even though they’re not great, if I was in the right mood I would place orders here about once every 1-2 months) and she said that she would have to talk to the owner to see what they could do. She said that I could come back tomorrow and get a replacement and I wouldn’t have to bring in the stinky container of food that wasn’t even what I ordered back in. Still, even with this, the entire interaction left me with a bad taste in my mouth, I just don’t feel like the customer should have to argue with you (or bring back the container of food you know that your staff mixed up) when you know and admitted that it was your mistake not mine, and I felt like it was not handled properly from the beginning. Who literally asks someone to do something that ridiculous!! When they knew and admitted that it was their mess up!! What I wish I would have suggested in hindsight is this: I wish I would have told that manager lady that since it was NOT my fault, I’m not wasting my time and gas money to run clear across town for them to fix their mistake. They can come to my house and deliver the CORRECT order to me, and they can pick up their wrong order that smells like disgusting feet and is gross since it means so much to them getting it back! Or how about you just refund my card since I didn’t get what I paid for. I won’t be back. P.S. my mom and dad used to order here weekly, I highly doubt that they will continue to order here after I tell them about my experience with them, and how they were not willing to fix their mistake upfront, and ask the customer to do ridiculous things, despite the customer doing...

It had been awhile since eating here so we tried again tonight with family. Very disappointed. No one to greet when arriving because the person at the register was also serving the diners. The unattended phone was constantly ringing off the hook and alarm/timers were going off in kitchen area. I'm guessing they were short staffed in the kitchen too based on no one turning off the blaring timers. It gave a feeling of chaos throughout the restaurant. The frazzled server was so rushed and harried that she would cut us off in the middle of ordering because she had to answer the phones, hand out the to-go orders, and then wait all of the tables by herself. The place seemed clean but the food was terrible. Our fantail shrimp appetizer was an undercooked blob of batter. The wontons were stale, cold, and rubbery tasting. My daughter's lo mein was missing the noodles, my Sweet & Sour pork was pork surrounded by undercooked batter. In fact, none of the breaded fried items were properly fried to a golden appearance. It seems they were in such a hurry to get the food out of the kitchen that the proper and safe cooking time is not being adhered to. Specifically, any of the batter items they served us were so doughy white with no golden crust that they were very unappetizing. My son-in-laws's meal had undercooked scallops - appearance wasn't opaque and they were served cold. We had nice experience in the distant past at this restaurant but either they had a very bad night this evening or quality and service has gone way...

I ordered from here hoping they were better than the last Chinese place but I was let down. I ordered orange chicken, fried rice, lo mein, pot stickers, and garlic shrimp. I asked to sub lo mein for the rice and they said they couldn't... no big deal so i got the fried rice and ordered a side of lo mein. The lady even called me back to confirm what garlic shrimp I wanted and I repeated NO vegetables. Got home and immediately opened the shrimp. It was LOADED with vegetables and it tasted like feet. I dumped it into my container to see if i could just pick out the shrimp... but even the shrimp tasted like feet. Idk what that sauce was but it was NOT garlic. I couldn't eat it. I got only 1 order fried rice (should've gotten 3) which was extremely dry, the fried pot stickers were okay but they were falling apart and soggy, the lo mein was also dry, the orange chicken was honestly the only good thing. I called the restaurant and she wanted me to drive 20 min back to the restaurant (40 min drive total) and give her back the food. Nope. I'm not wasting gas with these gas prices to prove to them that they messed up. Will not order from them again. While taking these photos the shrimp honestly made me gag from the smell. So gross. If I could give them a zero star I would.

*update. Someone else called me back and was REALLY nice. He offered me an in-store credit for the poor food and experience so I raised my rating to a 2. However, I still probably...