Pick Up Stix

Ask for NOT spicy chicken. Super spicy and burned chicken. Terrible. Never again!

This location makes the best Fire Cracker Tofu. Fried crispy and hot.

If you really want some American style Chinese food then this is the one to go. But if you really want some good Chinese food, recommend you go somewhere else…

My wife and I used to go here all the time. Hadn’t been in about 10 years and decided to give it a try. It was slow, bland as hell and I regretted it. How do you screw up noodles?

3.5 — 3.75. Wow, we’d nearly forgotten about this location, which offers more seating than the one on Jamboree. Staff is pleasant and efficient. An order of 1) Grilled Teriyaki Chicken with Vegetables and 2) Mongolian Beef — each with a generous serving of separately-​boxed steamed rice — came in just under $ 20. Although I found the vegetables bland, both the chicken and beef were flavorful for fast food take-​out, but visibly reduced in portion size, especially the Mongolian Beef entrée.

My husband picked food from here today, salad and 4 boxes of food, salad was at the bottom so of course the heavy boxes tipped over during the car ride! Our food was covered in sauces, I would go to Panda Express over this place anytime

Garbage food in the guise of Chinese or Oriental food. This is not an Americanized Asian food. I don’t even know how to describe this fast-​food chain. All I could say is it’s just terrible. The taste is a mixed bag of sweet and sour crappy flavor with messy ingredients. Cooks behind the counter are all Latinos. I don’t know what nationalities of this fast chain’s partners, because the way they cook, the flavors and the tastes are neither Chinese or other imaginable Asian, it just tasted so bad. We got a group of ten people at different ages from elementary to retired and with different ethnic background, Chinese, Lebanese and American, but after several bites, everybody spitted the food out and acclaimed at the same time: «YUCK!!!». All of us didn’t finish the food we ordered and left hungry, a willingly decision to better stay hungry than eating these garbage.
In Chinese we got a sentence to describe such lousy food biz: «Hang up the Goat head but actually selling the Dog meat挂羊头、卖狗肉!» Pick Up Stix is a fast food chain identified themselves as authentic Oriental food, but they are not, the only thing to claim they are oriental is the Chopsticks they provide with the food. The horrible food they offered are the worst kind, only with soy sauce to related themselves as oriental but nothing further. Furthermore, their prices are not cheap either. This joint making Panda Express more like gourmet, even they suck too.

Again worst place to eat, this place is going downhill. My order is almost always wrong, it took over 40 minutes to pick up a phone order and the food is bland with no sauce. Now I don’t really expect too much from a fast food Chinese food place, however I have experienced really great pick up stix before. This one on Alton every time is the same I will now stop going there. If you do order food make sure you ask for extra sauce on the side or your food will be extremely dry.

Got orange chicken with chow mein and an egg roll. Honestly didn’t eat it because it was way too heavy, greasy, and kind of flavorless. If I would had eaten it my stomach would have really hurt. This review isn’t only for this place, but the chain pick up stix in general.

Absolutely the worst kung pao chicken I’ve ever had! The chicken was almost tasteless, not fresh, and there was not even a hint of kung pao flavor to it. No sauce and tons of green squash chunks (something that does not belong in this dish). And the rice, which should have been light and fluffy, was a gooey mess.
We quit going to Pick Up Stix about 15 years ago when Pei Wei’s came to Irvine. What a huge difference in quality and taste.
Gave them another chance, but they failed miserably.

They serve American-​style Asian food here. The staff is very nice. At this location, they have some built-​in tablets at the front of the store so one can play games. They have a fountain drink with standard flavors, although it also has Fresca, which I don’t see in a lot of drink dispensers.
The sauce here is overloaded with the flavor it is supposed to taste like. The pad thai is super-​sweet, not like Thai Spice’s. It’s tolerable but one might want to consider getting more rice to dilute the flavor some more.

Came over on my lunch break. I had a strong craving for some good Chinese food. I ordered to go and it was ready (that was a plus) however the beef and broccoli was very sweet and the meet looked and tasted like processed beef and the broccoli was very dehydrated and not good. The shrimp chow mien was very sweet and UGH not so good

The food is boring!!! Panda express is way better. The food lacks taste.
I had the fried rice and it was mushy, the kung pow chicken lacked severely chicken, and the Wong tong soup tasted bland

Really good service here and the food is awesome. They have a rewards program that let you earn free meals too.
Call in to pick up your order and things are usually done very quickly.

Great food & service. Wish it was a little more affordable, but that’s a corporate issue. Going back soon.

I just couldn’t eat it. I ordered an orange chicken and the cause tasted like ashes. At first, the dish of chicke, was good, but half way, everything tasted burnt.
Maybe today was an off day for them but I would never eat at this establishment again.

LOVE Pick Up Stix! My favorite dish is the bourbon chicken w/​brown rice & a side of cream cheese wontons. Chicken is always cooked perfectly & hits the spot every time!

With no time to cook can’t get wrong with the house special chicken. I forget whether its the lunch or dinner portion but I opt for the house special with brown rice in a pint a u get a decent portion for under 9 bucks.
I usually call in too — takes 10 minutes for pick up and they offer specials periodically.
Nice.

I don’t know why so many people hate on this place as I am a huge fan. Granted when I go, I always tend to get the same thing… House special Beef or chicken. Especially during lunch when they include a cream cheese wonton, you can’t go wrong. I am very thankful that these are still around as they seemed to have closed them all in Vegas.
Anyway, if you want not so ethnic Chinese food and want a step up from Panda, this is the place to go.

After a long day in San Diego, my family and I did takeout from here for a quick dinner. We decided to order the red thai shrimp and the kung pao chicken.
For a little less than $ 20, the portions are pretty generous (it was enough to feed a family of four, albeit we weren’t starving). Obviously, the flavors aren’t going to be authentically asian (and the food was expectedly overly salty), but it still tasted pretty good. They were decently generous with the shrimp and beef, and there was a decent amount of vegetables as well.
I like how they offer the option of having brown rice instead of white. For someone who’s health conscious, this is a godsend.
Again, would never go here for authentic asian food but it’s great for a quick, relatively cheap, filling meal. 3.5 stars.