Panda Express — Restaurant in West Chicago Township

I placed my mobile order at 830 on a Saturday when they close at 930. When I got there for my order the line was extremely long so I walked to mobile order pickup and had to wait there as they kept taking peoples orders and ringing them up in front of me waiting. After about 5 mins I was finally able to interrupt the employee before she started ringing someone else up, and said I was there for a pick up, she asked for the name, and said they barley received my order and that it be a couple mins wait. I said ok and sat down for about another 10mins. That same employee walked up to me and said they didn't have anymore fried rice because they're about to close and that I could get another chow mein or white rice. I explained to her that I placed my order an hour before they closed and ordered the fried rice bc my kids don't eat chow mein or white rice. She again repeated they were about to close and I could chose another chow mein or white rice. By this time I had already been charged for my food, and waited so I said just give me the chow mein. Mind you it was about 9pm at this time so they still had 30mins before closing! I understand they didn't receive my order till I arrived but if they would have started my order when they received it, instead of continuing to make people's orders and ring them up to get the line down so they could close on time, I would have gotten my fried rice. Because I seen fried rice in the display when I arrived. I also forgot to mention that I'm currently pregnant and agreed to get panda as my kids requested because I was also craving the fried rice. I could have cried the whole drive home😭. In the end, we had a ton of chow mein left over that no one ate. Because it was already past 9pm on a Saturday I was unable to get them anything else to go with our meal. So so...

It's called Panda Express for a reason! EXPRESS... FAST! Don't push your luck here! Plus not respecting social distancing inside the establishment. I placed an order online to avoid being inside for too long. Order was suppose to be ready by 7:17 p.m. I walked in there at 7:22 p.m. I still had to wait a good 12 mins. to have them start preparing my order! With a good group of people. Online orders should be ready on time! There was an uber eats person waiting there for quite a while as well. Stop offering online services if you can't fulfill them by time given. This particular establishment has had this issue for a while. Always late preparing orders. If you have food from another establishment and make this your last stop before heading home you will have others end up eating cold food because this establishment will slow down your trip home! Unreliable! One last thing. Plates have are nowhere served the way they used to and still do at other establishments. As you can see this seving not even to the top. I'm not sure if it shows but in person it looked like...

I’ll make this brief because I felt that I have lost my touch with this being a favorite stop of mine.

Back when it was first built, I was hesitant to enter, because it was a new food place for me. I went in, and it felt like you were actually being served food, and cared for as a customer. There was always food, the employees always greeted you nicely, and if there wasn’t a shortage of something, they’d go straight to making sure the experience you had was terrific.

Fast forward almost a year later, and things have gone downhill: barely any greetings, there’s rarely food made, there’s a long wait of 10-20 people at a time, and the employees rarely know what they are doing. Hell even the food started to taste differently, and of less quality.

Panda, step up your game. You guys use to be my favorite place to eat on a Friday night...