Cynthia W.
Yelp
TLDR We would have been better off going to Panda Express.
deep breath ok. Where do start?
First of all, we hear that this restaurant has historically been really good, and our family in Fresno has ordered here multiple times in the past. But then, it changed ownership a few years ago, and has apparently been on a steady decline in quality.
Let's set the stage. It was Christmas evening. We called in the early evening (around 5pm) to ask if they were open. They were. Score. We have a family member in a rehab facility and wanted to get take out to bring it over so we could have family dinner. Starting at around 6, we tried calling to place an order. No one picked up. Ok. Maybe they are busy. So we just drove over.
The restaurant was busy, with all tables except one full and there was a line for to-go orders. When we went up to place our order, the hostess told us we had to wait an hour for our food. After a quick debate, we decided that we could work around this and shifted our schedule accordingly, with the expectation that we would pick up the food in an hour. We order, and I leave a nice tip (like, nice for a sit-down meal, which means it's REALLY nice for pick-up/take-out) because I can see they are slammed and this is Christmas. This was 6:25pm.
We arrive back a little over an hour later, at 7:30pm. We walk in, and the hostess tells us 20 more minutes, maybe more. This is where I start to get a bit...irritated. I ask her what happened. Apparently there were ingredients they didn't have or prep they had to do -- what she was saying didn't make complete sense. She kept saying it'll be quick now, but over 20 minutes after an hour+ wait is not "quick".
I asked which dishes were not prepared so we could just get a refund for those. She said she didn't know how to do that because we paid with a credit card (?!). It felt like deflection. I also heard loud arguing coming from the kitchen.
At this point, we felt trapped. So we sat down in the dining room with other customers waiting for food, and we got to talking. Some people were waiting upwards of 2 hours. One person ordered ONE dish and had waited over 2 hours. Another ordered through DoorDash and the order never came, so he drove over -- also close to 2 hours. His kids were over for Christmas and had to leave because the wait was too long. Another DoorDash customer came in, saw all of us waiting, sighed deeply, and plopped down in a chair.
Finally, our order was ready, after nearly 2 hours. I reiterated that I left a generous tip before this fiasco and asked if she could toss in an extra sesame ball or just...something to acknowledge that the original time estimate was BS and our time was not being respected. Her response? She took out a wad of cash and told me other customers were tipping her. Like, what? What even was the point of that?
I think wishful thinking overtook realistic capacity. But if that's the case, be upfront. There is no shame in saying you can't fill orders. Don't con people into thinking you can do something when you can't. This felt greedy -- Christmas Day as a windfall, taking whatever orders they could without recognizing they couldn't actually execute.
Now on to the food. The food was mediocre at best:
* Green beans -- one of the only ok things.
* Salt & pepper fish -- nice flavor, slightly soggy instead of crispy.
* Crispy tofu -- not crispy. Soggy.
* Mushroom chicken -- meh. Extremely saucy, sauce everywhere in the bag.
* Vegetarian chow mein -- CLUMPS of noodles stuck together, barely sauced. Very mid.
* Finally...the orange chicken. THERE WAS NO CHICKEN IN THE ORANGE CHICKEN. It was ALL FRIED BREADING. See the pictures. I almost went back to ask what in the actual f*ck I was looking at.
Most dishes were lukewarm. It felt like some items sat out for over an hour. Honestly, gross.
2 stars because...I didn't get food poisoning? I dunno. There's little redeeming here. I'm so disappointed in the service, the lack of integrity, and the open dishonesty. Serving fried breading and passing it off as protein is just unacceptable.
If you look at my other reviews, you'll see I'm fairly generous and try to give family-owned businesses every benefit of the doubt, so the fact that this review is what it is...
Lesson learned: never pre-tip, and if they say the wait is an hour, that means they don't actually have a handle on their workflow. Either they're conning you into paying when they can't deliver, or they're helplessly incompetent. Maybe both. Shame on me for having faith in humanity.