Panda Express — Restaurant in Washington

Do not order online. The staff will ignore you if you do.

For the full story, I was at the Wal-Mart next door and recalled the $20 family meal deal. I placed an order in the app at 2:58 pm. Before I hit the submit, it said it would be ready at 3:10. As soon as I submit the order, there's a pop-up saying it won't be ready until 3:28 pm because the store is having delays of some sort. I have ice cream in the car, so this will not work.

I live close by, so I go home and put my stuff away. I go into the Panda Express app and tell them that I'm running 10 minutes late. So, my food will now allegedly be ready at 3:38 pm, as confirmed by the app.

I get to this location at 3:43 pm. There's a window in front where they take orders and a side window where everyone is to get their food. There are two people already standing there waiting. When a clerk comes up to call out for order 2, the guy in front of me manages to catch the retreating form and ask for his online order. He's told it's not ready. He steps back. I go up to the window and am ignored by a clerk making up a large soft drink that he adds to the three orders sitting on the counter. I finally get his attention. He comes over. I show him my order in the app. I tell him my name and spell it out. I apologize for being late and state the exact time the app told me it would be ready. He looks at the 3 orders on the counter from about 5 feet away and tells me my order isn't ready.

To make a long story shorter, I go up to the window 2 more times. I'm told my order is not ready yet each time. The guy in front of me is still waiting on his order. The woman who has been hovering by the side since before I got there is still waiting. The guy with the number 5 slip is getting impatient because they keep telling him his order isn't ready either even though they are on number 12 now. The clerk is trying to find the customer for order 11. And, everyone except the employees realize that number 11 took the number 5. I watched her do it.

The three original orders on the counter are still sitting there and the ice must have melted long since because it's now 4:05 pm. I try to call the store, but long hold. I go up to the window and get ignored by several staff members who have now decided I'm a problem child or something. I finally just call out, "Excuse me, but how do I cancel my order and get my money back?" Now, the clerk who made the drink and has told me 3 times that my order is not ready looks at the app again, asks my name again, and finally looks at the slips on the orders that have been sitting on the counter since before I got there and lo and behold, the first one in the row is mine. He puts it down in front of me, all smiles. I tell him I didn't wait 25 minutes just to get tepid food. He blatantly lies to my face and tells me it just got done. I tell him I've seen it just sitting there since I got there. We both feel the food. He claims it's hot. It's clearly tepid. I ask for the manager. She offers no apologies upon hearing my sad tale and tells me she'll get me fresh food, but it'll take 5 minutes. She has another clerk bring me back the food, still with no apology. It's about 5 or so degrees warmer and the same container still being slightly open attests to this being the same food that was just set on a warmer or something for a few minutes. When I look inside the containers in my car, I'm not surprised to see the congealed gravy, cold noodles, and other signs that this food has been sitting on an unheated counter for over a half hour.

I drove off with my 'leftover' quality food and wonder to this day if the other two online orders ever got their aging food off that counter and if number 5 ever got any food at all. The food at this location has always been skimpy in portions and meat to veggie ratio and low on flavor when compared to the other Panda Express locations in the area. I tended to go to this one for convenience because it is so close to home. In future, I'll drive the extra mile to a location where I can be assured hot food and a...

Usually my home Panda. Did an online order at night... Confirmed a 9:20 pm pick up time. Card went through... All of a sudden the receipt says pick up at ten am. I went in anyway and the manager refused to make me food. Plenty of food still left in the trays even though it was close to closing. Then she started to take care of me and saw that I had PAID for the more expensive entree's. She said " no, I can't do that... Too expensive" lol lmao...ya. I paid for that expensive stuff. Who eats Panda Express at ten in the morning in. She kept insisting I come back in the morning which is ridiculous. It took about fifteen minutes of me trying to cancel the order and causing a scene when I absolutely did not want that. She forced me to beg for food like a homeless man and I paid my hard earned money. She acted like I was asking for it for free. Not till I said, " why won't you just make me food and account for it in the morning, what are you taking all the Angus beef and there Walnut shrimp home with you?". She immediately grabbed a tray and made my good. Didn't say a word. And handed me the tray and turned her head and started helping someone else. If I were an under cover boss. I would have been appalled how my customers were being treated. Specially someone like me who eats there twice a week and recommends people everyday because of the Paleo diet and the options available. I would have fired the manager on the spot. She had no business in customer service. I have always loved Panda for when I don't want to cook. I will drive further and go elsewhere to not give this particular location my hard earned money again. Thanks Panda for making my online order experience a fing...

The food here is hit or miss. Buying a small entree is never worth it because it's not fully filled up and is smaller than my fist. When I've ordered super greens as a side, sometimes the pieces are way too big. There's been a cabbage piece or more and also broccoli that were bigger than my mouth, which meant they gave me less because they only give a tiny scoop each time for half sides. Other times, the veggies have been the right size. They are constantly running out of super greens probably because the pieces are so huge (other than high demand). Sometimes the breaded meats like Beijing beef have too many non-meat pieces (like fried corn starch), so everything is very inconsistent.

Whenever I ask them to try to avoid giving me too many bell peppers from certain entrees, they disregard what I say and act like they don't understand me. When I order fried rice as my only side for bowls, I never know if I'll be getting a bowl that's filled halfway or less with fried rice or a lot of fried rice. When I ask for half fried rice, they only give me a tiny bit of fried rice and whatever my other half side is.

One of the workers always asks if I want to add a drink and donate, which is tiring for me because if I wanted anything else, I would say so. I also didn't get any fortune cookies one time (should have gotten 2 for 2 bowls), but maybe it was a new or not so great worker because I could hear him getting questioned about whether he charged someone else for a bag or not. Also, if they're out of an item you're waiting for that's not coming out any time soon, they end up forgetting about you until...