Pagoda — Restaurant in Roseville

1 Visit, would consider returning for special occasions. Overall: 6.5 / 10

Disclaimer: We took part in a promotion, 4 dishes for $40, so long as we took pictures and left some sort of review on social media. That being stated, this review will proceed as though we had paid full price for our meal. Also, they advertise as a dim sum restaurant, which we did not take part in at this time.

Service: 4 / 10 Many of the other reviews tout great service. This was unfortunately not our experience. We gave a 4 out of 10, partially because that is the number of interactions we had with the staff. 1 for greeting and seating, the server's initial request if we were ready to order (we were still looking over the menu as it had been about 2 minutes since it was set in front of us), the server's second attempt to get our order (when we actually ordered), then us paying the bill. When the servers dropped off the food, they were in quite a rush and did not stop to inquire about any needs. Our group had 2 adults and a baby; between us we were provided 2 plates, 2 cups of water, 1 set of chopsticks, 1 spoon, and 1 fork. We were not provided any napkins, and didn't really have a good opportunity to request anything additional. I will acknowledge that the restaurant was quite busy during the latter half of our visit, but the lack of care was quite jarring compared to the reviews I had read. We were seated immediately, took about 10 minutes to order, received food 30 minutes after the order was placed.

Food: 9 / 10 The shining point of our trip. We had right next to no complaints about our food. The flavor was quite good and everything was enjoyable. Our choices consisted of Salt and Pepper Pork Chops ($21.95), Golden Fried Fish Fillet with Garlic ($20.95), Honey Walnut Shrimp ($20.95) Mustard Green w/ Garlic ($17.95). While in hindsight I would have selected a different vegetable dish for personal preference, it was still quite enjoyable. There was some disappointment when informed that pea tips (which is listed on the online menu) were not available at this time.

Atmosphere 8 / 10 There is a nice amount of ornamentation, but not so much that I felt like I was prone to break something on accident. The tables had a good amount of space around them, preventing any feelings of being claustrophic or otherwise being stuffed into the restaurant. The tables themselves were less functional than I would have preferred as the ones we were provided were nice small tables perfect for an afternoon tea and snack, but less suitable for a meal where multiple dishes may sit on the table at once. The front of house felt like it was quite clean and comfortable. The bathroom was a different situation. Situated down a narrow hallway, the bathroom, while clean, felt like an afterthought in that it was quite cramped and gave gray train station vibes. While the aesthetic felt lacking, the absence of a changing table was unfortunate and unexpected.

Value 6 / 10 At $40, this was on the higher end of meals for our small family of 3. If it were full price, it definitely would have felt like quite the expensive outing that we would have had trouble justifying for a regular dinner out. The dish sizes definitely were a bit smaller than I would have expected. The two items that I think brought most food for the cost were the mustard greens or salt and pepper pork chops. Honey Walnut Shrimp, while delicious, is just not a big enough plate for us to feel that it justified $21 right now. Perhaps if we were more well off, or out for a celebration, but this section is about bang for your buck, and this place just earns a lower rating if you're looking for a lot of food.

Overall, if you're looking for a nice place to have tasty food, this place has got it, but if you're starving for big portions, perhaps steer somewhere else, unless you do the AYCE dim sum on the weekend. While our experience may have been abnormal, you may need to come prepared to be more assertive than normal if you have additional needs beyond what you are...

Overall: Fair. The food's quality (which ultimately is the most important) helped counter the other frustrations encountered. I don't think it is fair to them that the Google reviews have a "poor-fair" rating and then 3 variations of good. This was definitely not "poor" and "fair" would be an accurate description.

Food: Since this was my first time ordering from them, I started with something simple, chicken fried rice (to go). The aroma for this was very strong, distinct, and a little nauseating. The rice was seemingly 'lightly' fried as other have noted and was pale yellow in color. The chicken, egg, carrots, scallions, and peas were very finely diced. More veggies and less chicken than other places but good "extras" to rice ratio. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the food tasted much better than it smelled.

Presentation: This was served in a styrofoam take out container as opposed to the traditional Chinese take out boxes that I am familiar with. My rating is not influenced by this but wanted to note it.

Atmosphere: Pagoda has a beautiful interior with ample seating and soft lighting. It seemed like a decent place for a casual date.

Service: Very helpful and friendly over the phone (which was answered right away). This was immediately contrasted when inside picking up the to-go order. I waited and was ignored for 4 minutes while at the pickup counter. There was an employee directly in front of me at the counter who could not be bothered to be diverted from counting his tips. There were 5 additional staff members behind the counter seemingly not busy. 4 minutes is not the end of the world but it is frustrating when:

1. you are not even acknowledged
2. there are so many idle people
3. you parked at a meter.

One redeeming factor - there was another staff member who had been helping another customer (not at the take-out counter) who observed my frustration and as soon as he was relieved of the first customer came over and helped and apologized for the others. I tipped him even though it was takeout and I hope he doesn't have to share tips with anyone other than the kitchen staff.

Parking: They offer free parking behind the building. Enter this through the McDonalds parking lot and ignore the large sign saying "McDonald's Parking ONLY". I wish I had known this before trying to battle the chaos that is parking at a meter in Dinkytown. The parking did not influence my rating as bad parking is expected in this...

I was here last weekend for a friend's birthday and the restaurant looked presentable and was clean. Their menu offers a wide variety of options that are priced reasonably.

The reason why I rated this a two-star was because of the service we received. There was about 10-15 of us, and we were able to combine two tables together with the help of another worker. Most of us arrived by 7:30 PM (time reserved). However, we did not leave the restaurant until about 10:00 PM. The waiter who helped us was really slow despite it not being not that busy. When ordering, I pointed at two pictures that looked delicious, and asked our waiter which dish he would recommend (my first time there). He chose the Spicy Beef Noodle Soup, which was a bright orangery-red curry looking soup. It took about 30-40 minutes for our food to be served (which is not horrible since we were a larger group). However, when I saw my food, it was this overflowing, brown and oily bowl. It looked nothing like the picture. I wish I had taken a before photo but from the after photo you can see how it looks (added nothing to the soup). So either the menu is deceiving or the waiter did not know what he was talking about. My friend also ordered a Beef Chow Fun and said only 1 pepper because her spicy tolerance is extremely low (she thinks Ketchup and Ranch is spicy), and ended up getting it served as "extra spicy". I'm not sure what happened there but she tried her best to finish it despite it being the wrong order.

I really wanted to like this restaurant because all the ads I saw on Facebook made the dishes look amazing, but I was greatly disappointed. I generally like to give restaurants a second chance, especially if they have good reviews, so maybe in the future I'll have a...