Panda Express — Restaurant in South Carolina

My wife & I have eaten at this Panda Express on Kilian Rd. in N.E. Columbia about 5 or 6 times over the past year & a half. Unfortunately, the only thing that has been consistent is an unpleasant eating experience. In fairness, some of the issues may be contributed to the time of evening we have visited. It has been late afternoon to evening, both weekday, & evening. Today's visit was around 7 p.m. They close @ 9 p.m. Again, in fairness, on this visit, it was my order alone that was in question. 1) The fried rice was almost out, but I was told that it would be a few minutes, and more would be ready. It was 2) in other visits, our orders were take out, & the rice, brown rice on those occassions was mostly hard & crunchy 3) This evening I ordered Terriyaki chicken, & asked for some extra sauce on the chicken, & on the rice...I was told there was no sauce available, & none was going to be made. I do not believe this to be acceptable. Granted, it was late, but if you are going to be open for business, then you should be willing to have what goes with the order available. This has been the case in my experience on other occasions @ this same location 4) The server offered to put some sweet and sour sauce on my rice. I had never had that from Panda Express. I realized, after the first taste I did not care for it, however I chose to eat it. 5) I have never drank iced tea in my other visits, usually having a soft drink instead. This evening I ordered unsweetened tea, which I choose to sweeten w/available choice of sweetners most restaurants have on hand. When I asked for Splenda, I was told all that was available was Equal, that was it. I declined, remembering that I had a few packs of Splenda outside in the glove compartment of our SUV, which I retrieved.

Again in fairness, my wife & son's orders were fine. On our other visits, only a couple have been acceptable. Also, my wife has eaten at other Panda Express locations in Columbia, & she has never had a bad experience. We live in N.E. Columbia, so this location makes for the bulk of our experience. I felt in this case, to make my observations known. I believe most of the issues we have experienced in the past, as well as this evening, as my wife said, are management oriented. If you are going to be open, then you need to have the food on the menu, & other accompanied items (in this case standard sweetners...Splenda, Equal, Sweet & Low, Truvia...etc.), if you are going to offer unsweetened Tea.

I have tried to be fair in my review. Hopefully, this will help others, and possibly the restaurant itself, become aware of issues that could make others who go there avoid the negative issues I have...

Visit this store often via drive thru. Today, I needed to use my Apple Pay. Their machine does not reach to the window and I was told that I should be able to “do my face id” and then give them my phone to scan. That is not secure nor is it how my phone works. I ended going inside to pay for my order. I go inside to pay and speak with Tammy (person in charge). I express my concern about this bc during this pandemic, the safest option is to purchase food from the drive thru to limit possible exposure inside of the restaurant. She was very dismissive and did not acknowledge the suggestion. She told me that I was the first person to have an issue with this. I told her that doesn’t matter, that this resolution should be considered. When I asked to speak to a manager, I was told there was none on duty and she was the “person in charge”. She refused to give me the number to speak with the manager or call Jordan, who she says is the manager. I ended up returning my food. She refused to give me the receipt back that had the survey line and store info on it. I sat in the parking lot and called the corporate complaint line to file my complaint.

These stores need to do a better job in training their employees on customer service. A simple suggestion turned into a complaint to corporate. Working during the pandemic does not give employees permission to be rude or dismissive of their customers. If customers were not spending their money with these establishments, there would be no job for you to work. Hopefully, corporate will be able to address this, ESPECIALLY the issue of ensuring the pay machines are able to reach the customer through the window to decrease the amount of folks coming IN the establishment. That was really my issue. Everything else was extra and unnecessary....

Peor servico al cliente hoy! I went in today through the drive thru, and I go in Panda Express often and I always get fresh Sesame Chicken. Thats one of the ONLY reasons I go, along with chow mein. This isnt the only time customer service had been VERY BAD, but I always let it slide since the food can have its good days. Some days its ok, but most days its decent. Now today, I ordered the bigger plate with 3 entrees of Sesame Chicken along with Super greens and Chow mein. I paid, recieved my food and drove off to the parking lot to make sure my order is correct. Yes it was correct but today that Sesame Chicken looked DARK and barely had seeds on it. I tasted it and it was BURNT, ALL OF IT. And anyone with eyes can see how dark it was. So I get out, walk inside and tell the lady my Sesame chicken looked burnt and didn't taste right. So she went to the drive thru lady and told her, and they both came back to me and told me to look at the Sesame chicken and said thats what I ordered. Omg , I looked at it and they ALL looked BURNT 😂. Like WTFF? Everybody was looking shocked and looked at me like I was CRAZY. I came in the day before AND the day before yesterday, and the food was AMAZING, thats why I came to Panda Express. How are you to tell me "The customer who works hard for their money" to take that dark, burnt looking Sesame Chicken???? And she had the audacity to ask me if I wanted something else (Meaning, Im not cooking a fresh batch for you) And there was NOBODY inside or outside the place, so I just kindly asked for a refund and left. Worst day at that place. Why waste my hard...