Panda Express

Andreas

Great staff, good food for the price.

Roman Lorenzen

Franky is the reason I dropped a 5 Star. Great service, hard working, had patience with slower customers, and all around the type of attitude I appreciate and recognize. If I was a business owner trying to keep a friendly culture, this would be my dude. Thanks Franky your recommended crispy shrimp hit the spot.

The new Panda Express dish called 8 Treasure Chicken Breast is very tasty. The dish has sauteed Bell peppers, Ginger, and Garlic. The service is always fast and attentive. The dinning room is always clean and well kept. The parking is tough because of the location being next to Home Depot and Chipotle. Other than the parking issue, the San Mateo Panda Express location is satisfying.

The place could use more seating. Quick even when they are busy. Above average fast food. Could not find any sauces for my spring rolls.

The food is good but we almost always have to ask that the people that serve respect the portion sizes of the shrimp and meat dishes.

Decent food if you're in a hurry and don't want a burger. I actually really like their chowmein. Gets pretty busy at lunchtime though, so get there early...or later.

No soup here because of the high costs of eggs :-( Otherwise fresh veggies every day. Nice furniture. 12/2016: Hot N Sour soup available again. Free Wi-Fi and outdoor seating also available. Fortune cookie is free. Best parking is on the side of the bldg.

I always buy food in that place, but today I witnessed the bad behavior of an employee, I don't know what her name is but she is a young woman of Indian origin, she was simply humiliating the cook, the man was sad and ashamed, me and a woman We were on the line we witnessed, the woman told me that employee talks too much. He simply told the cook that if he was not happy that he was returning home, that employee should be a supervisor or meneger, in my opinion she is not ready for that position.

The food was great, ready immediately buffet style but they serve you. Great selection and good quality. Fairly priced as well. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because just because I had no credit card, I couldn't order food ahead of time.

Chinese fast food chains of rice. Basically fried rice, chow mein and stir fried dishes, and fountain sodas. The service was pretty quick considering the line. The staff was skillful in scooping the food into plates. They always asked anything else to mane sure you got all orders before payments. We ordered 2 plates (2 entrees and 1 side each). The fried rice was pretty plain and dry, but chow mein was good. I personally liked their shrimps, especially honey walnut shrimps. My husband, on the other hand, preferred the broccoli beef. Overall, except the fried rice, the rest were delicious. Oh, and they give free fortune cookies per orders.

Judy Margaret Chen

Chinese fast food chains of rice. Basically fried rice, chow mein and stir fried dishes, and fountain sodas. The service was pretty quick considering the line. The staff was skillful in scooping the food into plates. They always asked anything else to mane sure you got all orders before payments. We ordered 2 plates (2 entrees and 1 side each). The fried rice was pretty plain and dry, but chow mein was good. I personally liked their shrimps, especially honey walnut shrimps. My husband, on the other hand, preferred the broccoli beef. Overall, except the fried rice, the rest were delicious. Oh, and they give free fortune cookies per orders.

Life is Good

I always buy food in that place, but today I witnessed the bad behavior of an employee, I don't know what her name is but she is a young woman of Indian origin, she was simply humiliating the cook, the man was sad and ashamed, me and a woman We were on the line we witnessed, the woman told me that employee talks too much. He simply told the cook that if he was not happy that he was returning home, that employee should be a supervisor or meneger, in my opinion she is not ready for that position.

Order the family plate. Their orange chicken and honey walnut shrimp are really good. But unfortunately they have shrunk the size of boxes(Shrinkflation). I know inflation is high, so please adjust the cost accordingly. Giving lesser food doesn't make much sense to me . In a large box of honey walnut shrimp, it was only half filled.

Erratic service. Sometimes multiple trays are empty, the line is forever, and it's anything but express. When you get the food, it's usually good. Other times everything is moving well and the trays have fresh food. It's your proverbial "box of chocolates" - - never know what you're going to get.

They’ve decided to charge the same or more even though the portions are much smaller. Also, they’re using a lot of filler ingredients like cabbage and celery in the noodles. The honey walnut shrimp didn’t taste as good as it does at other locations even though it comes in a big frozen bag. Staff were doing the best they could with the long lines. Serving staff wore masks but not the cooks.

Medical Unicorn

They’ve decided to charge the same or more even though the portions are much smaller. Also, they’re using a lot of filler ingredients like cabbage and celery in the noodles. The honey walnut shrimp didn’t taste as good as it does at other locations even though it comes in a big frozen bag. Staff were doing the best they could with the long lines. Serving staff wore masks but not the cooks.

Long line, chaotic at 7:30pm. Rubbed my autism the wrong way.

Mikey Pauter

Long line, chaotic at 7:30pm. Rubbed my autism the wrong way.

They fill up the tray partitions with the cheap stuff- By the time you have sidestepped to where the main courses are, the tray bins are all full or nearly full of the cheap stuff like rice or noodles, leaving very little room for the orange peel chicken. I asked the lady if they could leave one tray partition open for the orange peel chicken, and she gave me a cold stare and pretended she didn't know what I meant. Having to explain it to her was very embarrassing. Then she begrudgingly pushed a piece of broccoli slightly aside, with an attitude that was like: "There ya go, now fk off" Seems all Panda Express's do this little trick to save money. Also, the orange chicken was dry and old. I probably won't eat at a Panda Express again. Not worth the frustration.

The white rice is always so dry like rocks at this location. It’s seriously not that hard. A Chinese restaurant that cannot cook rice.

I got the bowl with steamed rice & kung pao chicken. When I got home and opened the box, this is what I got. 3 small pieces of chicken and tiny bit of vegis.

Sidney

The white rice is always so dry like rocks at this location. It’s seriously not that hard. A Chinese restaurant that cannot cook rice.

angani maharaj

I got the bowl with steamed rice & kung pao chicken. When I got home and opened the box, this is what I got. 3 small pieces of chicken and tiny bit of vegis.

In person i saw an employee eating their lunch inside the kitchen and did not appear to wash their hands afterwards. Also experienced a 15+ minute wait time for eggplant and tofu.

Usually like this location. Parking good. Usually pretty quick. New manager? Man and lady had me wait 20 min. Man got upset food wasn't finished. Other lady tried to help, but ended up messing up. Man wouldn't let her finish. Oh boy. Just left with mistake.

This is the 2nd PE that I've been to where the chow mein is dry and has little flavor. Part of the reason here is they use bowls that are supposed to be "environmental " friendly, but who knows if they help, but they definitely help dry food out. 1 and done here...

J R

In person i saw an employee eating their lunch inside the kitchen and did not appear to wash their hands afterwards. Also experienced a 15+ minute wait time for eggplant and tofu.

Annie Roja

This is the 2nd PE that I've been to where the chow mein is dry and has little flavor. Part of the reason here is they use bowls that are supposed to be "environmental " friendly, but who knows if they help, but they definitely help dry food out. 1 and done here...

S. E.S.

Usually like this location. Parking good. Usually pretty quick. New manager? Man and lady had me wait 20 min. Man got upset food wasn't finished. Other lady tried to help, but ended up messing up. Man wouldn't let her finish. Oh boy. Just left with mistake.

Yesterday March 5th I went and bought 3 plates 2 of them with rice and 1 with chomin, my two children shared a plate that had only rice and orange chicken my boyfriend ate the one that had only chomin and some rice with chicken teriyaki and I ate the other plate only with green beans rice...after half an hour 1 of my children began to feel bad and to vomit, then I started and lastly my other son and my boyfriend only had diarrhea and nausea... we had not eaten anything strange that made me think that what we had eaten previously made us sick... I can only say that The food from Panda Express made us sick. I don't know if they didn't cook it well or it was already spoiled.

This has got to be the worst service of any Panda Express I've seen. I'm literally telling the guy while I'm in line that he's putting the wrong item on my plate. They just ignore me and bag everything up. Then when I make them check it, instead of making a new plate they just scrape out the wrong item back into the pan. Left the food out on the counter to get cold while waiting for the right item to be ready. Like ten minutes later when it's finally ready - just scooped back on top of the old, cold food. Nobody cares, acting like they did me a favor just to give me what I ordered and get me out the door.

I went on Friday and a latin girl served me very little like I was a 3 year old. They are getting cheap on the Chow mein because it's more cabbage 🥬 than noodles . This is the worst cabbage mein ever! Not going back unless they change servers and cooks. Gross 🤢

Easily the worst panda I have been to. DO NOT go anytime after 9pm, or they will be out of everything. They stop cooking at 9 and will argue with you if you ask for a specific dish.

Terrible service. Got a to-go order just to get home and find out they did not close any of the containers properly! All the food was spilled in the plastic bag and not eatable. Straight to the trash can. Waste of money and time.

Tonight I was treated by YING the worst customer service experience I've had a despotic and poorly educated woman. She almost insulted me because I was not clear about the size of a menu item. I am a pilot of a commercial airline that often visits the restaurant. after this experience I will never visit you again.

The worst. Every time I order from here it’s never fresh & it tastes so stale. I called one time to order for pickup and they said they were out. I still went there and they had plenty of what I wanted. Service sucks here too.

I ordered a rice bowl and there was only 2 pieces of chicken and a sparse amount of green beans. Such a stingy portion. This is not the first time. I'm going to stop ordering at panda express

I eat at Panda alot. Definitely was the worst one I've ever ate at. Food didn't taste good. Rice was hard. And the teriyaki chicken had a weird texture to it.

The least they should do is NOT CALL THEIR SPRING ROLLS VEGGIE SPRING ROLLS SINCE THEY ARE FRIED IN THE SAME OIL AS THE CHICKEN AND MEAT! If there’s a person who buys the spring rolls, they don’t even Tell them this and this is concealment of facts! It’s not just making money. There are people who don’t eat chicken and meat and this is total breach of facts. Hate this place. Will never visit it again. A BIG NO FOR ALL INDIANS!

Horrible service , staff cleaning kitchen area while place is still open and serving food. My order took 20min to come out due to various mistakes and inadequate staff. And to top off they didn’t believe i had paid my food. Completely unorganized and incompetent.

DO NOT COME HERE FOR YOUR OWN HEALTH! the servers get the order wrong then walk all the way back to put it back in! Touching other food. If you have a food allergy that's a good way to die. Joyce is the name of the employ who does that! She is extremely rude, but her knowledge of health code violations are beyond that! Then she has the guts to say stuff in Chinese, most likely cussing up a storm.

Perhaps not safe. It’s November 2020 and to my knowledge there’s still a global COVID pandemic. One staff member out of the five I could see that were cooking or serving was actually wearing gloves. No hand sanitizer that I could see. Two staff members were taking their break INSIDE, where customers were lining up, at at table that was taped off saying “do not eat here”, without their masks on, eating drinking and talking.

Usual Panda Express...! Nothing different. I was served a hot sample today that burned my mouth. The server did not have a computer of letting me know how hot the sample could be. Moreover, no apologies from him. Changing to 1 star.

I just have a very bad experience with one of the female staff(Sharmila).She misunderstood my original 2 plates order. I wonder why only 1 plate to the following staff. And 2nd staff tells Sharmila that he order 2 plates. And Sharmila complained about me by speaking how she asked me anything else and I did not response to her when I ordered. And she shows her very impatient face in front of everybody. It makes me feel like I am an idiot and insulted. Right before my lovely dinner. I totally loose my appetite. Sharmila definitely needs to learn more about service. However,the food is delicious. And that is the main reason why I come back this time. I don't want to see Shamila next time when I visit Panda Express. Because it is a very bad memory.

I have been going there for 10 years I was shocked At the portion he was giving me I asked him if that was it. He said that’s the way it always is in an arrogant way. I said no thank you keep it and left will never go back very rude.

The worst location ever! Extremely slow. No one knows how to work. You can tell the staffs are very new and not properly trained at all. The wait time makes me feel like I’m waiting for a Michelin star restaurant lol, I guess you just can’t expect too much from Panda Express level restaurant. Don’t waste your time here and go to another location if you really want to eat.

Service is good, the lady behind the counter put the food , however the orange chicken was just crumbles of panko , no meat , small pieces, saw me in a work uniform though im the right person for the small pieces.

ordered through the mobile app at 9 pm for pick up at 10. ordered a plate: half fried rice, half chow mein, orange chicken and chicken with strings beans. picked up the order but it was in a small bowl. didn't think too much since I had to go home. when I opened it they just threw all the food together, the portions were off-more chow mein than rice and I didn't get the orange chicken! if they had ran out of it they should have told me. service at this location is getting bad.

Today I told SHAMIRA you can give me half rice on a plate and in another don't put anything on this side and I'm sure she listened to me but she didn't care and she made both dishes the same then I told her you can put me roast chicken But she does not care about me and she took the order for the box, the truth is that sometimes it is understood that everyone is stressed because they have a lot of work but if we go for food at least we want them to give us what we want but she did not pay attention to what I asked him and I told myself what the hell is happening if you don't like the job, leave it and let them hire someone who needs it ...

Georgio Atana

Service is good, the lady behind the counter put the food , however the orange chicken was just crumbles of panko , no meat , small pieces, saw me in a work uniform though im the right person for the small pieces.

Wilson Balanga

ordered through the mobile app at 9 pm for pick up at 10. ordered a plate: half fried rice, half chow mein, orange chicken and chicken with strings beans. picked up the order but it was in a small bowl. didn't think too much since I had to go home. when I opened it they just threw all the food together, the portions were off-more chow mein than rice and I didn't get the orange chicken! if they had ran out of it they should have told me. service at this location is getting bad.

Jansy Serrano

Today I told SHAMIRA you can give me half rice on a plate and in another don't put anything on this side and I'm sure she listened to me but she didn't care and she made both dishes the same then I told her you can put me roast chicken But she does not care about me and she took the order for the box, the truth is that sometimes it is understood that everyone is stressed because they have a lot of work but if we go for food at least we want them to give us what we want but she did not pay attention to what I asked him and I told myself what the hell is happening if you don't like the job, leave it and let them hire someone who needs it ...

Im not a fan of paper to go containers and wooden utensils. Why are the chow main noodles chopped in to small pieces? The servers seem to be in a bad mood all the time. If I experience a better visit I'll change my review.

I have been coming to this panda for years and its always been fine but today the orange chicken was extremely spicy and the chow mein was not fresh at all. No offer for anything to fix or make the situation better.

The manager here is rude one of the worst experience it was cold and not up to par when I wanted things to be fixed she was rude and raised her voice at me who does she think she is to be rude in such a way. Proper etiquette and kindness goes a long way. When I returned the next time she gave me a sideways look like I was the problem. Also when she’s dictating her employees she is screaming in front of the customers. A messy look on Panda Express they deserve better management. The food quaility is good but i don’t how much she deserves credit for that. I believe she is an Indian descent. Being that I’m Indian I think that is even funnier. Also when being served they would communicate about my situation like they were discussing about me. It made me feel uncomfortable and it made me feel unwelcome. That type of environment is toxic and she brings her toxicity to the customer. I urge a change in upper management at this location.

I went in there and got a plate with chow mein, white rice, broccoli beef, and chicken teriyaki. I asked if they could change the broccoli beef because I saw that the bowl was basically empty and they said no because it’s already in the plate. The employee was rude and food was cold.

Chris S

The manager here is rude one of the worst experience it was cold and not up to par when I wanted things to be fixed she was rude and raised her voice at me who does she think she is to be rude in such a way. Proper etiquette and kindness goes a long way. When I returned the next time she gave me a sideways look like I was the problem. Also when she’s dictating her employees she is screaming in front of the customers. A messy look on Panda Express they deserve better management. The food quaility is good but i don’t how much she deserves credit for that. I believe she is an Indian descent. Being that I’m Indian I think that is even funnier. Also when being served they would communicate about my situation like they were discussing about me. It made me feel uncomfortable and it made me feel unwelcome. That type of environment is toxic and she brings her toxicity to the customer. I urge a change in upper management at this location.

Kenneth Sanchez

I went in there and got a plate with chow mein, white rice, broccoli beef, and chicken teriyaki. I asked if they could change the broccoli beef because I saw that the bowl was basically empty and they said no because it’s already in the plate. The employee was rude and food was cold.

Alfa168 Fan

I just have a very bad experience with one of the female staff(Sharmila).She misunderstood my original 2 plates order. I wonder why only 1 plate to the following staff. And 2nd staff tells Sharmila that he order 2 plates. And Sharmila complained about me by speaking how she asked me anything else and I did not response to her when I ordered. And she shows her very impatient face in front of everybody. It makes me feel like I am an idiot and insulted. Right before my lovely dinner. I totally loose my appetite. Sharmila definitely needs to learn more about service. However,the food is delicious. And that is the main reason why I come back this time. I don't want to see Shamila next time when I visit Panda Express. Because it is a very bad memory.

John A.

Im not a fan of paper to go containers and wooden utensils. Why are the chow main noodles chopped in to small pieces? The servers seem to be in a bad mood all the time. If I experience a better visit I'll change my review.