Panda Express

I come here to pick up a quick lunch when I’m feeling like Chinese food. The food is always good, but the employees not so much! I understand you work in the food industry, I have worked in the food industry previously as well. But that is no excuse to be rude and unfriendly towards your customers. You work in customer service! The employees could use some training in how to act towards customers. Thumbs down!

I dont know what happend to this places, its quality seriously deteriorated since it opened. Shame.

I have been getting food from this Panda Express for a few months now, and have never had a really bad experience. On the contrary, I have always found the staff to be very pleasant and the food quite tasty. On several occasions I have asked for a fresh cook of an item where the bowl behind the counter looks almost empty, and they have never refused. One of the things I like most about the PE is that they serve the hot and sour soup. I was in the PE in Sonora a few weeks ago and they had neither the soup or the BBQ ribs. I will agree with other reviewers that the rice is a disappointment, however, the egg rolls, pot stickers, ribs, shrimp and veggies have all been good. Also, I don’t mind asking for condiments as I’m sure too many customers were taking too many packets and wasting them. These do cost the owner money and can be avoided. The Novato PE is very clean and the staff tries to please. Will continue to patronize as long as their current level of service and quality continues.

I take Panda Express for what it is… fast food. That being said, if I could give this place zero stars, I would. I’m not sure who taught the employees here what the food should look and taste like, but their standards seem extremely low. I don’t mind eating at Panda Express, so don’t assume I’m some kind of food snob. It’s at this particular location that the food is just not good at all. The food is always dry and never looks appealing. The fried rice always has hard, uncooked grains in it. The chow mein has more veggies than actual noodles in it. Overall, the food looks looks as if it had been sitting out longer than it should have been.
There’s also an employee here who is unpleasant to come into contact with. Her name is Karen. She seems to Hate her job, and if that’s the case, she should quit. My 8 year old son went to ask her for a spoon, and she looked over at him, but continued to complain to a coworker about certain duties she had to do. After a couple of minutes, she finally decided to help my son. She comes up to him and says «what do you want?». That is no way to greeting a customer, regardless of age.
I’ve tried to give this place chances to change my mind about it, but I’m giving up. This establishment needs to shut down, or train the employees on proper food standards and proper customer service.

Staff don’t seem very friendly. The don’t say hi or anything when you come in and we just stand there waiting. I had the coungpow chicken tasted under cooked so I brought it back and told the employees and they said their temps are set and it’s cook right and didn’t offer me something else. Basically go sit down and eat it. Rude service!

When this location opened, the portions and availability of condiments were pleasant and abundant, and matched the service at the locations in Napa and Petaluma California. Since then, the portions served by staff have dwindled immensely. Furthermore, the availability of condiments such as soy sauce, hot mustard and pot sticker sauce have nearly become non-​existent. It is almost as if the owners and or managerial staff have become guarded with their products. It appears that they are trying to provide the least, and make the most.
Examples: Condiments were moved from the soda machine area which was «self serve» to a guarded tray handed over by register staff.
Example 2: Two entrée dishes once heaped with portions. Now they are substandard by far.
There is hardly a wait at this store. And the reason is, because a meal costs $ 10.00 here, and the portions are skimpy. There used to be a lot of patrons at the Novato store. Now there are harldy any, at least when I visit, which is between 5−7pm, at least 3 times a month.
At least I can say that the staff at the Novato store is friendly. But the managers/​owners here are a couple of things:
1) They want to make a lot of money and spend a little
2) They are too lazy to cook
3) They are just naturally stingy and are bad restaurant owners.

First off, I’d like to address the people who claim they have food poisoning. Panda Express is a franchise, and that bs about «daily freshness» or whatever is a gimmick. I can almost guarantee there are more preservatives in their food than McDonalds put in their «real beef» burgers. So, the chances of getting food poisoning are slim to none. So the food is safe, however whether or not its healthy is another story (which I address further on).
Now, while on the subject of freshness, the vegetables at Panda suck. As in, I only get vegetables to try to have a balanced meal to compensate for the orange chicken (which I will get to), however they taste worst than bad. The vegetables have no flavor, and the worst texture a food could have. Most of the time they’re really soggy, and probably over-​cooked.
The orange chicken is meh, when its actually cooked right. But most of the time it isn’t (but hey, how can you blame the cooks when they’re paid so little?), and the orange chicken tastes horrible. It’s not spicy, it’s not sweet, not crunchy or chewy, but rather some wretched, unpleasing mix. Add on to that the kilograms of sodium they pack into every food and before you know it, you’re gonna have atherosclerosis and your cardiologist is going to be scheduling your first carotid artery bypass surgery.
What do I recommend? Instead of going here, or any fast food restaurant for that matter, try making your own food. Make a quesadilla with real cheese and beans and lettuce and real chicken, add some Tobasco (you can never add enough), and throw it in the microwave for 30 secs and boom! Way healthier, and tastier than almost anything you’ll find in a fast food restaurant. You’ll save money too, Panda Express isn’t exactly cheap either, or convenient. Sometimes they make you wait 10 minutes for them to finish the next batch of whatever it is you just ordered. I can make a quesadilla in 2 minutes, and you’ll probably be faster than me at it.
Author’s note: in terms of «Good for kids», I think fast food is probably one the worst mistakes a parent can make. Every once in a while is fine, but twice or three times, or more, a week is simply careless. Either cook food for your kids, or teach them how. The tastes kids acquire during their younger years sticks with them for the rest of their lives. If you get them addicted to sugary sodas and sodium packed junk, getting them off that diet will be a tall order.

While normally o.k., we went to this location at 4:45pm to get dinner. At least 6 entrée bins were empty and at least 3 more were almost empty. The egg/​spring rolls looked dried out like they had been sitting there for hours. Even though we commented more than once about the lack of food, neither employee said anything. So we left and went to another restaurant to eat. What restaurant isn’t ready for dinner?

Stop in to get some chow main to go and after the server place the noodles in the container using the grabber without any attempt to put more in as it look almost full as is unless u press the food down a bit which they normally do without asking. I ask if he could press the food in the container down which he did and behold, it’s now ¾ full but he then closed the paper container top and ask if I want anything else, da fuq?
Dude the noodles already looked like it’s been sitting there way too long to be good but you’re going to deny me in eating a full helping of it to boot? Well thanks a lot billy boy as I should have known better after noticing that chewed piece of gum stuck on the counter near the food and when brought to your attention by the patron ahead of me, you grinned like it’s funny. You want to be a Maverick, just dined regularly at places with less than glowing reviews. The fault is mine.

So I love my Panda Express! But every time I go to this location it seems that the food is old! When asking for fresh veggies my veggies are still hard as a rock! Some of the employees are rude and inconsiderate to customers why I would go there again? Umm nope i won’t

Is it great? No. But for the money is is GREAT! If you want better, go spend twice as much at a real restaurant. But his place is very decent if you buy right.

Food was overcooked. Also i asked for shanghai angus steak and mushrooms were not even cooked neither the green beans. Also i found a piece of the peel of an onion inside my food. When told them they only exchange it to me without even offering me my money back or what i had paid for my food.
Even after the exchange the food was horrible. I wonder where the manager was. This place its the worst panda express. Not quality food and not good service at all.
So if i get sick because of that food or cause of the not cooked mushrooms they will hear from me even the coorporation. I will take this to whoever i need to.
I worked in the food bussiness and if a customer tells u the food its undercooked and overcooked and wants their money back you give it to them no excuses allowed. Instead of giving me my money back they did nothing. So not coming back. I keep calling the 1800 number and nobody seem to answer that line. Where can i make a complaint??? worst customer service. Panda express its a scam!!! By the way im pregnant and if spmething happens to my health for eating that nasty food panda express coorp will hear from me!!!
My email is
in case the coorporation enters here and happend to see my review

I have had Panda Express before and had an enjoyable meal. This visit was anything but enjoyable. The Associates showed the least amount of interest in helping. Neither Associate smiled during the interactions. My son and I were not greeted when we came in, I had to ask twice for a sample. I took my food to go. When I got home I sat down to eat and I was so disappointed. I got the stirfry veggies which were dry, limp, and tasteless. One of the entrees was the Kung Pao Chicken, there was hardly any chicken and WAY to much sauce. My second entrée was the Shanghai Angus Steak. The last time I had it it was so tender it practically melted in my mouth. This time it was chewy with stringy bits. I spit out two bites and then gave up because I was feeling unsettled by the meat. After I finished ringing up I went to leave with my son when I decided to get a soda. I stood by the register and waited. One Associate in green shirt walked by my twice, stopped nearby and did not even acknowledge me standing there. The other associate was assisting a customer which I could understand, however when her and the customer approached the register, the customer pause a little away from me, but the associate walked right passed me without so much as an,“wiill be withyou in a minute.” She finished with the customer and then aaid to me,“did you want something?” She sounded almost annoyed at my presence. Then when I went to get my soda she got to the soda machine first and took her time filling her soda while I waited to fill mine. This visit was aweful. I was very disappointed and felt like I wasted my money.

Bringing the Orient right here to our little town in Novato fast, convenient and many healthy choices to choose from. for me this is some of the best comfort food around a very welcome addition to our little town.

Went here a couple weeks back for lunch. Three people, choosing several different combinations and every one was bland, pasty and disappointing. Out of all the Panda Express franchise’s we’ve eating at, this one has found a way to screw up each and every entrée the serve. Even the fried rice was tasteless and pasty. Go to any other Panda Express.

I’ve eaten here a number of times and have enjoyed the food and service. I don’t know who the nay-​sayers are who wrote bad reviews about this place. The prices are very reasonable, and the seating and interior is very clean, as well as pleasant. This Panda Express is worth coming to for a pretty good meal.

Where to begin. I went to Panda when it opened. Line was out the door but we went anyway. It was a novelty at that time, wow new chain restaurant opening in my city. So that’s what my life has come to. The most exciting thing is a new nationwide chain opening.
Food was ok that first time. It’s basically chinese fast food so there’s not a lot they can do wrong. You’d have to be a complete idiot to mess that up.
The second visit was about one month after it opened. By now the novelty has worn off and the employees no longer smile at you. Food is getting worse. My biggest issue at this point was that the orange chicken was soft. Don’t ask to make a new, crunchy batch because you can just eat what they give you.
My most recent [and last visit to this dying chain] was last week. They have this manager named ‘BOB’ who is a complete and utter jerk. If you want to ruin your dinner, go in there and make some special requests to BOB. He will tell you no, with an irritated look on his face. What did we request you are asking? How about more of that special sauce on my meat? I mean the juice from that particular dish that is at the bottom of batch? Bob says no, they can’t do that. They can’t put the serving spoon into the bottom of the batch and try to get me more sauce. Too expensive? Too much hassle? We didn’t get an explanation, except for ‘what do you need that for? The sauce is already on the meat”. Ok then I don’t need the sauce that’s fine.
We had the displeasure of BOB’s snarky, obtuse attitude a couple more times that evening but I don’t want to bore you with all the gory details. Let’s just say that anything we asked for, whether it was for more sweet and sour sauce for our crab rangoons, or extra plates, he was a jerk. And the biggest complaint I won’t even mention here as once I state that, he will know who we are. I do seriously worry for my well being posted negative stuff here on Unilocal.I have heard business owners tracking down customers [in the Unilocal forum] and this scares me. So I’m going to leave the biggest complaint out of it. You have to trust me on this.
Bob is not customer service oriented. He is concerned with the bottom line. How do I know this? His attitude told us this. If you want to charge us .75 c for something go ahead, I don’t mind. But telling me no to something I want and being a jerk about it is not the way to get me or my family in the restaurant again.

Very low quality food.

Still a decent amount for the price, the food is alright, but they have by far the absolute worse fried rice I’ve ever eaten, and will not be returning due to that.

What would you expect from a Chinese fast food chain? Yep, pretty much that. Sweet stuff too sweet and everything mediochre. That said, the staff is very friendly and eager to please, and you can see cooks along the back wall, cooking up everything fresh.