Panda Express — Restaurant in West Valley City

Update: this location seems to have improved quite a bit. I've been through the drive-thru a few times in the past month and they have been far faster than before. I'm changing this review to 5 stars until proven otherwise.

... Previous experience below...

I AM SHOCKED AND AMAZED at how slow the drive thru is at the 3051 S Colt Plaza Dr, West Valley City UT location.

It all started when I pulled into the back of the long drive thru line at around 7:20 PM on Saturday (11/13/2021). After about 10 minutes I realized the line had literally not moved an inch. I considered leaving and going to another restaurant, But ultimately I decided to park and go inside the store to see if my luck would be better.

Once inside, I still had to wait around 20 minutes to get my food, but this was nothing compared to the pain people in the drive thru were experiencing. While waiting in line, I kept an eye on the blue van that had been in front of me in the drive thru. I knew it was the same van because it had a handicap sticker on the license plate. As I slowly but surely moved forward in line, I was astonished to see that the drive thru line still did not move.

I soon noticed that the workers in the restaurant were moving at a snail's pace and giving very little attention to the drive thru customers. I believe there was only one girl in charge of all drive thru orders while everyone else was clamoring uselessly around the kitchen. Imagine my amazement when I walked out of the store with my food only to see the van which had been in front of me was still not even close to ordering. My astonishment compounded when I finished my entire meal before that van EVEN RECEIVED THEIRS.

What I saw at this store today was an utter lack of organization and utter laziness on the part of the workers in this restaurant. The people in that van could have gone to a sit-down restaurant in the time it took to even get their food.

To the owner: You're not lacking workers, you're lacking people who know how to do their job effectively. You're lacking management that will push the employees to perform and serve the customers in a timely manner. I'm extremely disappointed in everyone at this Panda Express location. As a customer my interests are aligned with the franchise owner and/or corporate. I want to receive my food in a timely manner and you want my business. So pleased, for both of our sakes, fix this problem. Thank you.

...

And now, after having spent over an hour writing this review and contacting corporate, that this problem might be solved for those who will come after, I look across the parking lot and see 6 Panda Express employees hanging out by the dumpster, one worker pushing another in a shopping cart. This really...

Horrible! As my girlfriend and I walk in we noticed how disgusting the floors and tables were. Obviously no employees had cleaned anything in a while. Not very busy at the time either. We wait in line for 10 minutes or so until it's out turn to order. As we walk up to order we are not even acknowledged. Finally the lady walks up and just stands there staring at us. So I just start ordering my 2 entree with fried rice. They don't have any rice. So we have to wait ten minutes. I always get Beijing beef. They don't have that either. So we wait. My girlfriend order the Pacific shrimp which cost 1.50 extra. No big deal until they hardly put any shrimp in it. The whole time we are ordering we have to yell so she can hear us. We had to lean over the glass just so we could hear her because she couldn't even speak loud enough. She spoke in such a low voice all the people in front of us had to repeat every thing two or three times. It was very annoying. We asked for another side a Beijing beef with one of the 2 entrees so we could have spring roll, beef and shrimp. She kept trying to make a whole other entree. We're trying to explain to her, no! We just want a side of the beef not a whole other meal. It's nearly impossible cause it's so loud, we can't even understand her. So we get this all established after my stress level has risen even more. So she puts our meals by the cash register and walks away. Unfortunately we were not done ordering. So the cashier finally gets off her cell phone and starts ringing our food up. I tell her were not done ordering and the other lady just walked off in the middle of it. So now I'm beyond pissed but I'm not showing it. Finally were done and ready to pay. My girlfriend asks for soy sauce. So I'm paying while my girlfriend is getting drinks filled. She then ask if we need any soy sauce. I tell her again that we do.. so I pay and she hands me the bag. With no soy sauce. I then ask for it again and she finally hands it to me. It's was the worst service if had. I won't be going back to that location again. The employees just didn't care at all about anything. If corporate had seen this I guarantee everyone there would be looking for new jobs. This place...

The last few times we have gone to this location have been very unsatisfactory. We ordered two 3-entree plates and the food that we got was all old and almost stale. (it wasn't even close to closing time). Not only that, but they barely filled up the containers. There was hardly any orange chicken, despite the fact that we ordered a double order and there was barely enough chow mein to give everyone a sample. Another time, I went through the drive-thru with my children and my son was having a hard time deciding what he wanted. We had a coupon for a free kid's meal and I inquired if we could get the honey walnut shrimp with the kid's meal. I was told yes, but it would cost an extra .75 for only 4 pieces. My son still wanted it, so we went ahead and ordered that. Finally, he couldn't decide if he wanted rice or chow mein and as I was trying to ask him about this, the employees over the speaker started laughing and mocking us. They were laughing so much they could barely give me the total amount needed to pay for the order. After getting home, we realized that we got orange chicken instead of shrimp! But, we were still charged the extra .75 for the entree. (I ordered another entree also.) My son was very disappointed to see he didn't get the shrimp that he was looking forward to. Had the employees of Panda been paying attention to their job, we probably would have gotten the right order that we wanted. It was very unprofessional and rude. I called in to complain and the "manager" who sounded like a teenager, did nothing but place blame on her employees and acted like my complaint wasn't very important. We love Panda, but after these two experiences, it is possible that I may just go to a different location. I don't appreciate feeling mocked and laughed at, only to get the wrong food that I paid extra money for. (I know .75 really isn't that big of a deal, but the concept is.) Likewise, we have 4 kids, so we are spending close to $20 whenever we go there so we are able to feed everyone. If I am not even getting enough food to fill the container, it is not worth the money that we are...