Fortune Palace — Restaurant in Sparks

TL-DR: Used to be nice, but policy changes and bad attitude of staff really have soured the experience. Try the Thai place on Vista instead. They care about your business and make great food.

I have been a loyal customer of Fortune Palace for more than ten years. Let that sink in a bit. It was a nice Chinese place, that seemed to care about a good meal and customer service. The heavy-set young man that now works the front counter used to peak out from behind his mom or auntie's knee when I first started getting food there.

My how things have changed... It used to be anything you ordered for take-out would be the same as if you ordered it while seated in the restaurant. Then they started removing things like the broccoli from the General Chicken if you ordered it for take out for a simple example. If I'm paying the same, sit-down price then I should get all the same items as though I were sitting there. If trying to justify that difference as covering the to-go packing materials, be up front about it and charge a fair price for them instead of shorting the customer on what they've paid for.

I placed an order for pick-up today and was told they now no longer even include an order of plain, steamed rice with each full entree. I didn't have time to then cook my own before the order would be ready, so I agreed to the extra charge. Now, I've worked in the hospitality industry and I know how many pennies a cup of cooked rice costs, including power and/or gas required to cook it. Charging a dollar for that rice instead of including it when you would still get that same rice for no extra charge if ordering while seated in the restaurant is one of two things. Option A - expenses are being so badly mismanaged that they can't afford to include the rice without going out of business. Option B - they're choosing to scalp the customer as much as possible, simply because they feel they can.

This was somewhat disturbing to consider, but it was the response I got when I picked up my food that has lost them a 10+ year customer for life. I asked the young man at the counter why they're charging for the rice now, his response "Well, lots of other places are doing it so why not?" Option B it is. I wasn't about to get into a discussion of the argumentum ad populum fallacy, or poor customer service in general, and simply replied that if that was the attitude behind the decision then I might not be a customer much longer. His response, while looking about as bored as possible with a Zero-F's shrug "Well, you win some and you loose some." Congrats kiddo. You certainly lost this one, but you didn't have to go quite so out of your way to piss me off and make it obvious how much disdain you hold for customers. I hope others will see this and choose to spend their hard-earned cash elsewhere.

So congrats Fortune Palace. You got $3 more out of me than without that policy, but the bad attitude cost you so much more future revenue....

This used to be our favorite restaurant until today. My granddaughter and I went for an early dinner. We stood for five minutes just to be seated. When we arrived, there was only one table, taken up by a couple. So with me, and my granddaughter of the total of four people in the whole place. We ordered vegetable eggrolls for an appetizer. There was hair in our sweet-and-sour sauce. Then my granddaughters cup had lipstick on the side of it., neither one of us were wearing lipstick and we used straws! Seems like the last couple times we’ve got in here it’s gone downhill. We waited forever just for some water. We finally got our dinner. It wasn’t a quality were used to. Especially for the price we pay. Our bill was $57 for two people. Not sure if I go back. Not worth the price anymore. Especially when you get hair and...

I moved to Reno in the start of 2021 and was looking for a casual chinese place to eat at.

After trying this place, I was sold! Ended up going 2-3x per week for a very long time.

The waitresses/waiters provide excellent service, overall resturant is very clean, including the restrooms.

Food quality is great, they accomodate to changes in your dishes well, and portions are substantial.

Recommend going for the daily lunch special between 11am-3pm -

As someone who was previously working in the chinese food business for 6 years, I highly approve of this establishment!

I didn't visit for over a year, and when I returned recently, the manager greeted me and chatted it up. Always gotta appreciate that kind of stuff