Pagoda

Reviews 5

JA

James Ishungry

Overall: Fair. The foods quality (which ultimately is the most important) helped counter the other frustrations encountered. I dont think it is fair to them that the Google reviews have a "poor-fair" rating and then 3 variations of good. This was definitely not "poor" and "fair" would be an accurate description. Food: Since this was my first time ordering from them, I started with something simple, chicken fried rice (to go). The aroma for this was very strong, distinct, and a little nauseating. The rice was seemingly lightly fried as other have noted and was pale yellow in color. The chicken, egg, carrots, scallions, and peas were very finely diced. More veggies and less chicken than other places but good "extras" to rice ratio. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the food tasted much better than it smelled. Presentation: This was served in a styrofoam take out container as opposed to the traditional Chinese take out boxes that I am familiar with. My rating is not influenced by this but wanted to note it. Atmosphere: Pagoda has a beautiful interior with ample seating and soft lighting. It seemed like a decent place for a casual date. Service: Very helpful and friendly over the phone (which was answered right away). This was immediately contrasted when inside picking up the to-go order. I waited and was ignored for 4 minutes while at the pickup counter. There was an employee directly in front of me at the counter who could not be bothered to be diverted from counting his tips. There were 5 additional staff members behind the counter seemingly not busy. 4 minutes is not the end of the world but it is frustrating when: 1) you are not even acknowledged 2) there are so many idle people 3) you parked at a meter. One redeeming factor - there was another staff member who had been helping another customer (not at the take-out counter) who observed my frustration and as soon as he was relieved of the first customer came over and helped and apologized for the others. I tipped him even though it was takeout and I hope he doesnt have to share tips with anyone other than the kitchen staff. Parking: They offer free parking behind the building. Enter this through the McDonalds parking lot and ignore the large sign saying "McDonalds Parking ONLY". I wish I had known this before trying to battle the chaos that is parking at a meter in Dinkytown. The parking did not influence my rating as bad parking is expected in this part of town.

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MI

Mina Park

I wish this google review posting would allow users to give a negative rate. I would rate this restaurant the lowest possible score. The worst customer service ever!!!! This restaurant should rank the 1st on the “Customer Service Hall of Shame” list. We were seated after waiting long time which was understandable but what happened afterwards was not acceptable and they should not be in food service industry at all with that attitude. Once we were seated after waiting for more than 40 minutes, it took 15 minutes to get the menu, another 15 minutes for getting our hot pot orders in to the kitchen, 15 minutes to get the hot pots with broth only, then …..Waited another 20 minutes but nothing served to our table. We literately sat there watching our broth boiling to reach the bottom level of the pot. Our server came just once to take the order sheet then never showed up. We asked the other server passing by and the manager about our food and they told us they were busy. After wasting more than 2 hours in this Pagoda hot pot place, we finally decided to cancel our order and told the manager. The manager was very rude and he didnt even apologize nor try to fix the situation. Well, he just wanted us to pay (remember, we only received broth, no ingredients to cook in) and leave. We left this place very frustrated and we will never go back! I will let everyone I know that this restaurant has no concept of customer service or what so ever.

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YO

Young An

Bad service, bad food, and bad management of conflict with the customer. We got there with a group of people. It was a busy night, so we asked if we could sit separately. My kids got the seats first after we waited for 40 mins. However, they just showed us the table, didnt escort us to the table. The host was just busy with the phone getting to-go-orders. Even after sitting we were not given enough seats to sit in, and had to ask another table for a chair ourselves. No menu board was given, no table setting, no utensils for another 15 mins. Finally, the table was set with the boiling pot on the real potable gas stove. The table was so small, it looked so dangerous to my kids. The boiling pot was sitting there without any food for another good 15 mins... Food quality... terrible.... the soup base seemed came out of the can food. All the meat was worst quality, some mushroom actually came from the can not the fresh... Once the adults get the table, we still didnt get any food on the table for another 40 mins. We didnt even know who is the main server for our table. When we complaint about all this situation to the manager, his response was so surprising. He didnt want to hear, didn’t care how hungry we are and treated us as a bad person. He just said pay the kids and leave.

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KA

Karen Wang

We decided to try the dimsum here and were a bit disappointed. There was just something a bit off in each dish that made the overall experience less than average. Shrimp dumplings (蝦餃): thick skin (which I actually prefer), well seasoned, but all the dumplings were broken. Lotus rice (糯米雞): dry, everything was dry. The rice was dry (but not crunchy, which Ive had), the meat inside was dry (no sauce), the skin of the sausage was dry (and not warm?), and the egg yolk had a skin and was wrinkly. Steamed BBQ pork buns (叉燒包): filling isnt as meaty or sweet as I prefer. Salty fried dumpling (鹹水餃): I actually liked theirs, but Mike thought the meat was odd and too little of it. "Lotus paste" pastry: Never seen this type of thing before at a dimsum place, but Mike wanted a lotus paste dessert, and the server pointed this out. After he bit into it we realized it was red bean. Service was fine. I found everyone attentive and friendly. Mike was very annoyed that we specifically asked for a lotus paste dessert and not red bean and still ended up with a red bean pastry. All the food was okay (hence three stars: "Its okay"), but I didnt really leave feeling satisfied.

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DA

David Zhang

Pagoda is great for having a "family-style" dinner with friends much like the kind you would see in Asian and Southern-European cultures. Your culinary experience depends on 1) what you order 2) the friends you share your meal with. The dishes that I enjoy at Pagoda are the Mongolian Chicken and the Beef Hot pot (spicy). Some say that you go to a Chinese Restaurant for Chinese food, but the chicken wings which are the best, most well-seasoned foods I have had in quite some time. They also do a promotion that makes it half off like everyday (from 6 to 9 maybe?) Look it up to be sure. The other foods Ive had are hit or miss. Sometimes it can be good and sometimes it would taste like I made it. Since Minnesota is 75% Winter, 15% Death Valley and 10%Spring/Summer, try there All-you-can-eat Hotpot when you get the chance for winter. Nothing is better than a filling of warm, tasty food on a cold winter day. Choose the Chicken broth, it never goes wrong. Choose meats like the beef meatballs, the sliced beef, noodles, bok choy, and tofu. Overall, this place is the place on campus that you would bring your parents if they came.

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