@kimmiemae wrote:

I haven't tried their frozen food or dined at one of their restaurants. After reading this thread I probably won't. I have to say that the best frozen Chinese food I have ever had was the Mandarin Orange Chicken from Trader Joe's. Reasonably priced too.


I agree Trader Joe's orange chicken is great.

I just bought their chicken fried rice yesterday along with some gouda cheese. I don't remember trying their orange chicken, i'll have to give it a go, based on your rave reviews.

Speaking of orange chicken, peiwei has a great deal now, orange chicken dish with white rice for $5.

Funny thing, when I was going to Sarasota, Fl., we'd go to Chang's from the airport always at happy hour, and they had some ribs that were amazing. I never had a meal there, and I know chains are different, but from what
I hear I'm going to pass, since I didn't get one anyway and they sit on the board, I have so many other eating jobs, not a big deal, and I don't want to work for a company that doesn't want me...sorry, your loss...

This thread is hysterical. On one hand, we have shoppers touting the food quality at chili’s and Applebee’s, and on the other hand, people are complaining about $100 dinners at p f Chang’s with the easiest report I’ve done in ages,

It sounds a lot like sour grapes, really.

It sounds like people have different taste buds and olfactory sensors to me as well as basic cultural differences. Besides, everything is relative. The burger I make at home is much better than an Applebee's burger. Relative to the reimbursement amount, fee and easy of call-in, pick-up nature of the shop, it's a pretty good burger. PF Chang's frozen meals are $6.98 at Wally World.

I won't do a dine-in shop at Applebee's or Chilli's, and I won't ever go back to PF Chang's, at least the one in my area. I would do any of the three as a pickup shop, though. For PF Chang's, there was more to it than just the mediocre food. The bathroom floors were sticky and my hubby said that the men's room floor was wet around the urinals and there was an odor. There was food on the floor under most of the tables, our tabletop was sticky and had some small food particulates on it from the previous diners...yes, it was an easy report but a mediocre experience. Now I had eaten at the one in Phoenix with my cousins and it was pretty good. I'd do that one again, but I live halfway across the country.

No sour grapes here.

@SoCalMama wrote:

This thread is hysterical. On one hand, we have shoppers touting the food quality at chili’s and Applebee’s, and on the other hand, people are complaining about $100 dinners at p f Chang’s with the easiest report I’ve done in ages,

It sounds a lot like sour grapes, really.

If the food, atmosphere, or service was consistently lousy i wouldn't go back even if the reimbursement was $1000. Why have a miserable experience and not enjoy it? I'm not that desperate for food.

I have no idea if it's consistently mediocre (I wouldn't say lousy) or not, but my husband refuses to go back even though I am the one doing the report and I put the meal on my credit card. It's just not worth going back for the $100 to find out if it's gonna be another crappy experience, and if he won't go then I have to search for another diner to accompany me when I am the one putting it on my credit card, writing the report, and making a profit of $8. Whoopee. Oh, by the way the server was great, not his fault at all. And those crab meat won tons are spectacular. Irene said she tried some ribs there that she liked. If they had a pickup shop I would do it, then I wouldn't have to deal with the pop music that was playing and take a chance that the dining room and restrooms were not being maintained. I mean, after all, the dining room was less than half full, but there was a table of used dishes and glassware next to ours--it took 7 minutes for a busser to get around to taking care of it.

The wait was over an hour for a table at my location.

That says a lot. Bet the food and cleanliness at your location are pretty great. The lack of business at my location reflects that I am not the only person who didn't think it was worth going back.

It does depend on the restaurant location and how it is run. That is true for any restaurant. But if your husband doesn't want to go, i'm in !

Comparing chains to one another is like comparing apples to oranges. Years ago Chang's in Woodland Hills was always busy, and good. Depends on the chef, location and I think they bring in better employees for the busiest chains, so some may be fine, while others suck. I spoke with the new Manager at our new Cheesecake (not a shop) and was told, this is the best one, they flew their head chef's,employees and management to this one to train, and service is off the wall (in a good way). Trying it once and finding what Jas found, why would anyone go back.

The thing is, it's hit & miss at most casual dining restaurants.

I went to a different location than my disappointing beta test shop last night and the food was much better...and service was decent. Yes, the bathroom was in need of service but that's the point of mystery shopping...isn't it? Or does everyone just want an excellent free meal without ever having to write narrative or provide input that helps the business?

Kudos to the restaurant for at least taking an interest in improving their service and instituting so many shops. Perhaps they will make steps toward returning to the desired locations they once were. The decline seems to have happened when they were working with the previous MSC and then subsequently not having a MS program.

As far as the level of work; I completed the form in 25 minutes. Regardless of price, is there another assignment where you can get two glasses of wine and a sit-down dinner for a couple that gives you more than enough food, the entire menu being available for ordering within the reimbursement limits, and takes so little time to report?

You could go back 20 times and order something different every time until you found a combo you liked...and I would be pretty insulted if my guest didn't appreciate the free meal. I'm glad I'm not married because it makes it easier to dump unappreciative guests....I'll look for a location near Irene next time and bring her.

I’ll eat at PF Changs with you I won’t complain and I’ll even check the restroom

@SoCalMama wrote:

I’ll eat at PF Changs with you I won’t complain and I’ll even check the restroom

No stepping on my toes, Steve owes me one...like an elephant, I never forget... I'm always available Steve, and driving nowadays, let's do it.

@Steve, your right, if every restaurant is great, they don't need our service, so, helping make it better is our job.
I used to dislike Applebee's (they closed in my town), but did one and found something I loved, won ton chicken, amazing, half the menu doesn't rock my boat, so, find what works and do the job, after all, these are chains, some need improvement, some not as much. CA has an A in the front window, more for cleanliness, they have food inspectors, and I really have not found many dirty. Restaurants like "Chinois on Main"...Wolfgang Pucks is an amazing place, has the best of the best, not needing our service. Many are in this just for food, many for quality of food, so telling our views on these chains will differ.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/02/2018 09:55PM by Irene_L.A..

It's true. The objective of the shop is to evaluate the location and provide constructive feedback help them improve. I will have to leave that up to someone else in my area for Chang's, since knowing why we are doing a shop there doesn't make my husband any less reluctant to go. If the fee were higher than $8 I might be able to make him budge and give it another try, but he makes enough money where he would rather just take me out to somewhere he likes to go and pay for it himself rather than take the chance again on a place he didn't like the first time. Plus he loves my cooking and would rather just eat at home most of the time. I like not having to cook and do dishes occasionally, though most of the time I don't mind it. I will have to stick to take-out shops where it's easier to "doctor" the food after taking the photos and tasting it (if necessary).

You or anyone else in this forum can come on over and we will give it a try

@7star wrote:

It does depend on the restaurant location and how it is run. That is true for any restaurant. But if your husband doesn't want to go, i'm in !

Sounds like you did a different shop than I did...in my area, there was 1 beverage per person, and the entire menu was NOT available for ordering...no sushi allowed from what I could see, the only appetizer allowed was from the street food/dim sum menu, and only 1 appetizer allowed for 2 guests to share. Otherwise it appeared the shopper and their guest each could get any entree and 1 dessert to share. So that much was the same. And I agree, reporting was a breeze.

@SteveSoCal wrote:

As far as the level of work; I completed the form in 25 minutes. Regardless of price, is there another assignment where you can get two glasses of wine and a sit-down dinner for a couple that gives you more than enough food, the entire menu being available for ordering within the reimbursement limits, and takes so little time to report?

I admit to sour grapes. With this shop, I felt like I was in that commercial where the (insurance?) guy has the fishing rod and is dangling money above a person trying to grab it. I kept trying to grab it (submitting request for shop) and they kept pulling back (cancelling my app.) Enough already, lol.

This MSC is infamous for letting applications hang. Most likely, the shop has already been assigned. I suspect that applications are kept as an insurance policy, in the event that the assigned shopper cancels, flakes, or flubs the report.

I'm glad to see PFC's shopped. Long overdue. Their quality of food, service, and atmosphere has declined the past three or four years.

@JASFLALMT wrote:

Sounds like you did a different shop than I did...

Same shop...I just didn't have a sushi option so everything else was in the appetizer range, and by 2 glasses of wine I meant one glass each.

IMHO it's too much food even with the smaller appetizers, but a bummer you can't order sushi if they have it. I guess it's to normalize the shops across all platforms since only some PFC's offer sushi.

I probably wouldn't trust the sushi there anyway. Take the Nobu shop if you want sushi. I couldn't hit the generous reimbursement there either! Fly to somewhere with a Nobu and take the shop if you don't have one nearby. It's that good.

@Mert, the available shops are not assigned elsewhere. This client is somewhat tightly controlled by the hotel scheduler since they want to be sure to get them done by known evaluators in the beginning phase, from what I understand. I imagine with the quantity of shops that they will soon be begging for new evaluators to take them.

I'm not making excuses for the poor scheduling system at the MSC. It's a hot mess even for me....

Steve, I'd rather go to Nobu, just saying.....

Interestung you say that, changs corp,headquarters is in phoenix/scottsdale. So those loactions tend to be in tip top shop

Which location did you do, anyone doing south south cali?

With the competition in SoCal (lots of non-chain great places to eat), I would imagine that their restaurants are well-run. I am in NE US.

It looks like they are assigning some of the June shops today. I just got one.

I got one too and it stats that we can't take our leftovers home. What's the reason for that?

So you don't over order and you are 'made' by staff. That food woul have been unrefrigerated for more than 2 hours anyway and would likely give you the runs or worse

I had an application remain on the board for well over a month. The start date was this Thursday. It was dropped today with no word from the MSC either way. I see none listed now. I assume that kept it as an open app in case another shopper flaked. I know sone of you don’t agree that they do this but I cannot come up with any ither feasible explanation. Not a good policy on how to treat experienced, reliable shoppers but I’ll move on.