Friendly House — Restaurant in Turlock

Summary: The leftovers were all eventually thrown away, except the Mongolian beef.

Service: nothing noteworthy either way here. No particular praise or complaints. The order was ready in the estimated time.

Food

I'll apply the "Panda Test" here. Basically, asking "would I have rather had the Panda Express version?"

Kung Pao: Mediocre. A little bland (for kung pao), and the chicken seemed dry... Somehow. I might finish my leftovers. They seem like more of a chore than a delight. I'd certainly prefer Panda's kung pao.

Mongolian Beef: Pretty good! I ate this up and went right back for more with leftovers the next day. I would probably prefer this to Panda most of the time.

Vegetable chow mein: Mostly good? This was pretty good, but seemed to have some kind of "under flavor" that I didn't care for. Maybe some kind of spice? If that flavor wasn't there I would easily prefer it to Panda. But as it stands, I would prefer Panda's chow mein.

Fortune Cookies: very stale. I normally wouldn't mention the fortune cookies, but these were very disappointing. At least I liked the fortune I guess. "You deserve special treatment this month. Enjoy dessert."

This first experience seems to tell me that the dishes vary drastically in quality.

I think I'll be back for the Mongolian Beef, and to experiment with other dishes, but probably not anything else...

Previous review.!!!! Delicious food always made to order. Orange chicken is always crispy. I haven't ordered anything that i don't like even after about 8 years of dining here. Won ton soup, chow mein rice entrees. They are all mouth watering.

I'm leaving a new review based on my last three visits here. Apparently the owner now has his brother working who makes jokes about keeping your debit card and running it for a thousand dollars sorry but that is not the way to joke when you don't know a customer. Our most recent visit was tonight 7/8/17 my fiance went in to order to go while me and my kids sat in the car. About 15 minutes later he comes out furious. I ask him what is wrong and apparently when the phone rings it is more important than the customer standing in front of them. He took 3 orders and walked each one to the back. My half spoke up after the third order. He walked to the back put the order in and came back to take our order. Only to have the phone ring a 4th time!!!! So 4 orders were getting placed over the phone before our one order was put in! We were there for nearly 20 minutes without him even taking our order. We will NOT BE RETURNING HERE. Food is always good but, Customer service is...

I wish I would have read the negative reviews first. The staff was very friendly, however, food was not what I expected. Very odd flavors! The first flavor I got from the fried rice was stale, fryer oil. After the first bite, it tasted like they just threw some soy sauce on it; no sesame oil flavor, no ginger flavor, no garlic, just bland. I had to take the bell peppers out of the almond chicken because it was the only flavor I could taste, otherwise it was just bland. The foil wrap chicken had an odd taste as well, kind of soapy or something out of place. Otherwise it was bland as well. So, if you prefer bland food, this is your place. If you like some dimension to your food, I would recommend you look elsewhere. I wish that the owner had been more receptive when she asked how the food was and I said, "meh, it was okay." "Okay" to me means edible but far from...