Fortune Cookie Express

Anyone that knows me knows my style of review requires a lot to give 5 stars. I really really wish I could have given Fortune Cookie express 4 stars, but aI have my reputation as a fair and honost reviewer to look out for. I wouldn’t want readers questioning me as to why I awarded them 4 stars instead of 2. The reviewers that gave Fortune Cookie one star must have been here on an extremely bad night. The fact that they had people trickle in the whole time I was there speaks volumes. I will start with what I didnt like first since the shorter list. The biggest issue was no free refills on drinks. I could accept a one free refill restriction. But there is NO excuse for no free refills in my personal opinion. Anyone that follows my reviews knows what Im about to say next. I didnt like ordering at the counter. I liketo sit down and order like a civalized person. I didn’t like the looks of the hot oil. I gave them the benefit of doubt, and told myself this was thier recipe and it was supposed to look like that. I was too closed minded to try it. Lastly I didn’t get the name Fortune Cookie Express. I’m sure if they put a little thought in it they could have come up with something better. What I did like. As I mentioned this list will be a little longer. When asked for suggestions the young man gave me personal favorites and customer favorites. I took his suggestions and ordered Barbecue Pork, Orange Chicken, and another Chicken Curry I think. The Barbeque Pork was my favorite. The sauce was amongst the best I’ve tasted. The orange chicken was good not awsome but good. I really liked the curry chicken. It also had a delishious sauce and just the right amount of vegetables to go with it.
The resturant was clean. The staff wiped tables as soon as customers left. I cant report on the restroom, as I didnt use it. I will say that noone tried to engage me in conversation any deeper than what I wanted to eat. NO ONE asked me if I enjoyed the food. The young man that gave me suggestions did not acknowledge the fact that I thanked him for the suggestions. I don’t recall he thanked me for the order or said to enjoy the meal. Over all it wasnt a terrible experience. I do believe that the folks that said it was the best Chineese restaurant in the area may not have much experience with other Chinese restaurants in the area. I will say that the food was filling and portions were large enough to have some leftover for lunch. Oh the check in offer for two egg rolls was part of the deciding factor for my visit tonight. Along with all the good reviews. If you are in the area wanting Chinese I would recommend you try them one time and write a review. I’d be interested in how your thinking compares to mine.

Nasty Chinese food, they changed their food and it tastes awful!!!
It has so much oil and grease and they raised their prices… Never coming here again!!!

Ooh hell no the person who served gave less meat in my Kung poa chicken I got bunch of celery eww the dish is call Kung pao chicken not celery chicken Recommend quick Chinese better service and food.

I love the Orange chicken here. I just hope it really is chicken though lol. Come get your China on at the fortune cookie express.

Love their wings… placed an order for Sunday only to find out they aren’t open on Sundays… they picked the time for my pick up on Saturday to reheat the next day. I knew I didn’t have to have them today so «whenever» I got there it would be cool! NOPE! They sold them. Whatever… I get it. When I asked how long I needed to wait, I was given the «shame on you speech» without any sort of time frame… felt that was rude… left without the wings… kinda sad that they were more disturbed by me showing up later than expected. even tho, they tried to call me… which I never got a call… I’ve always come here for their wings, just thought MAYBE they would have more consideration for the patrons… guess not!

I work down the street and was looking for a new place to eat lunch at. I stumbled upon this place and I’m so glad I did!
They serve great portions, fried rice is nice and fluffy, the quality has always been great every time I’ve come in.
The customer service is great! I think it’s family owned and the two young men who usually work the front are very polite and excel at customer service. I’ve seen one of them speak Spanish to Mexican customers.
Plenty of seating. Good soda selection. Even offer baggies of cookies and crispy noodles for sale. I love spending my lunch hour in here.

Hands down the best fast Chinese food. Most items are made fresh every time I go in. I have no problem with fresh hot food lol very friendly staff. I live near 3 other Chinese food places and I’d much rather take the trip to go here! That’s how great it is. && the wings are GREAT!

The chicken wings alone are what makes this place five star. The hot bar food is ok but the wings… Amazing and very inexpensive. I get them for every potluck.

Some of the rudest service I’ve experienced at a chinese takeout. I came here with my family, ordered a pretty decent amount of food. First off, the lady behind the counter rushed us through… no biggie, the usual for a place like this. But after she served our food, the guy behind the counter went behind her and added scoops and sauces to our order since her version of serving us was pathetic.
As I paid I asked for extra teriyaki sauce, personal favorite of mine, and very necessary since I had ordered teriyaki chicken. The lady basically rolled her eyes at my request and acted like I had committed the ultimate sin against her chinese takeout. She made a huge production of giving me the tiniest little cup of teriyaki chicken drippings that would have been to small to feed even a baby hummingbird. Since I figured I’m already on her sh** list at this point… I asked for a little bit more since I knew what she gave me wouldn’t have been enough sauce for even a single chunk of chicken. Again with another huge production but finally I knew at least one bite of my food would have sauce!
If that was all I probably would have let it go and not have written this review. But after we sat down to eat… we needed refills. I already knew that a fine establishment such as this would not offer free refills, so I sent my 10 year old son up with the cup and a dollar for a refill. Again this lady strikes again!
She sends my son back… acting as if we were trying to steal from her because apparently it wasn’t enough to refill our drinks. After all the money I just spent on food and drinks? Really? To act that way over less than a couple quarters? I have no problem paying for the refill but man is it really necessary to treat people like that.
Food was mediocre at best. Probably would have given a 2 – 3 stars if it weren’t for the disrespectful service. I will not ever be back at this establishment and regret giving them any of my money is the first place. There are much better chinese places around with much, much better service.

This is one of my husband’s favorite chinese fast food restaurant. Favorites are salted chicken wings, bbq pork, thai curry chicken. I recently tried the salted fried shrimp and I must say I’m a fan.
The staff is friendly and helpful… you can sample items you want to try. The food is hot and the trays are normally full. However during dinner its busy and you may have to wait for some items to be refilled.
I can’t rave enough about the chicken. It is perfectly cooked golden brown with just the perfect amount of salt with jalapeño. If you want a large portion of salted chicken it’s best to call ahead and place an order. This is the number one item and it goes rather quickly.

After seeing the sign, I had to check the place out. I must admit, I was hoping to find a shop dedicated to fortune cookies, but it’s just as well as I was starving and had to get some lunch anyway.
This is a great shop. I had the Lo Mein with teriyaki chicken which was a great price and very flavorful. The restaurant is small, but well kept and laid out nicely so there is plenty of seating.
Most important to me, the staff were very friendly — great customer service. Since the Mysterious Galaxy bookstore moved and is now located just across the parking lot from the restaurant the Fortune Cookie Express will be on my list of places to stop at.

Am I missing something? There are lots of pretty good reviews about this place, but I don’t understand why. The food is not good. Repeat: not good. I was highly disappointed. Advertisements are not clear. They should input the word «or» instead of «and.» To top it all of, a random woman with her child came in and begged all of the customers for money, and the staff did nothing about it. I had to say «go away» very firmly to her. I ate less than half of my meal before I threw it away. Would absolutely not return. Actually, I would tell people to stay away. Can I ask for my money back?. Bleh.

You have to think of this place like a fast food restaurant, and then it makes sense. Is the food amazing? For the most part, no. But for the amount you pay, it’s ridiculous value, and the people are nice.
This is a guilty pleasure place. An «I have eight bucks and I want to feel full for the rest of the day» place. This is not where you take the girlfriend, the parents, the picky eater friends.
And as much as it sounds like I am trashing this place, I love it. My go to is a 3 item combo with half & half Fried Rice /​Lo Mein, Black Pepper Beef, Orange chicken, and cashew chicken.
With no drink and a bag of almond cookies? Under 9 bucks. Boom, done, out the door and off to somewhere where no one can judge my questionable life choices: D.

Soggy. Terrible service. Old food. Terrible everything won’t go again. Just go to Panda Express.

I loved the food and quantity for the price. The lunch special one item is what I got and I also had some wontons from my friends order. It’s a little mom and pop shop in a corner of the Balboa International Market. Its décor is a bit dated but it seemed clean. The food is what I was here for and I had kung pao chicken which was just the right amount of spicy and had lots of veggies in it. I liked that I can choose between white, brown or fried rice. My friend ordered the orange chicken and said it was really good. I give it four stars cause this is an upgrade from a chain Chinese restaurant but minus a star because I got the moody lady at the counter today others have mentioned. Too bad she was my first impression of the place but, the food more then made up for it.

Very good for fast food. Got the chicken n veggies with rice and noodles. Love! I also like that the to-​go box is smaller than the usual. Just the right amount

I had high expectations for their chicken wings based on previous reviews, but they’re just too salty. I have to give it up to them for their orange chicken and lo. mein though.

Hidden little gem in Clairemont. It’s in the same shopping center as Coco’s, but in the back behind the karate place and a couple doors down from the Balboa International Market (which is amazing, you should stop by there for some Persian food too)
Fortune Cookie is my favorite place to get Chinese food in the area! Their food is so so so so delicious. I love their BBQ pork, sweet with the right amount of sauce, same goes for their orange chicken. Some bomb a** orange chicken. Not a huge fan of chow mein, but will never leave here without it. Not too oily like most places and neither are the noodles too soft or too hard. Their wings are good! Salt and peppery, garlicky, crunchy… yummy. Must try them and the BBQ pork. Other options that I would also recommend would be their chicken curry and mushroom chicken.
The consistency of their food is a plus. Every time I go there, whether the time of day, the food is always fresh and tastes the same! They always make more right before they run out and if you request them to make a new, fresh batch of something, they do it with no hesitation.
Service is a hit or miss. Friendly some days, other days. Not really. Depends on who is working. Sometimes the ladies are peachy and sometimes they are moody and just want to give you your food. I guess I don’t mind, it’s more like a Panda Express thing where they just put your food in a to go box, as long as they’re not serving me with attitude, no complaints!

Fortune Cookie is located down the row from Balboa International Market, but I go to the market and never realized it was there. I’m glad we Unilocaled restaurants in the area, and decided to try it.
I wanted to order the BBQ pork, because several reviews mentioned that it was good. Unfortunately they were down to the dregs, and it was all fatty left (bonus points to them for warning me about it ahead of time). The 3 item was $ 8 with a drink, and we shared it.
The orange chicken tasted good, but it wasn’t very hot or crispy. The lo mein was good, quite a bit of cabbage, green onions, etc.
The superstar was the chicken wings! I’m not a fan of buffalo wings, preferring the asian or bbq wings. These wings reminded me of kettle corn, being salty, peppery, & sweet at the same time. I’m glad we got double wings on the combo, because we would have been fighting over them if we only had a few.
The décor is very basic, but that’s not a big deal. It’s family owned, so I’d rather they put the money into the food. I will be back for BBQ pork and more wings. I’m still pissed at Trader Joe’s for selling BBQ pork for 2 months, getting me addicted, and then getting rid of it!

I am a regular here and I seem to ALWAYS order the fried chicken wings because its the best wings here in convoy without having to drive far down to National City. I would pick this place over Panda Express or Rice King. They have alot of options and are always busy during lunch hour. I also really like their fried shrimp, fried rice, chow mein and bbq pork ! They also give very generous portions at cheap prices !
P. S. Be sure to ask for a frequent visitor card for stamps for free meals !