Fan Tang

A VERY popular restaurant, Fan Tang Central was 95% filled with people talking, laughing and eating heartedly. Please note that we had only three dishes there and our experience is a limited one. Our order: Chicken Lettuce Wraps. Hong Kong Noodles. Ginger Basil Shrimp. Coke. Cost with tip: $45.00 KUDOs. Helpful hostess with ordering. Easy seating after ordering. CHALLENGEs. Lettuce wrap was the stiffer part of iceburg lettuce, not the usual leafy part that makes eating it easier. The chicken filling was plentiful but not tasty for us. The shrimp dish was much sweeter than expected and filled with more garlic cloves and ginger chunks than usual (photo shows remaining garlic and ginger). Hong Kong noodles are usually egg noodles, rounded and thin. The noodles served in the dish were flat, similar to pad thai noodles.

I was excited for having gluten free options. I got the sweet and sour chicken with fried rice. I knew the chicken would be grilled not breaded but when I received my order it looked like there was no sauce coating the chicken. Even the fried rice just looked like plain white rice with peas and carrots added. It tasted bland and was disappointing. I think a thicker sauce would improve the chicken at least.

The food is SO good! Service needs work. I went to the Montgomery location to order food for take out that I would pick up in a few hours. Two employees discouraged me from ordering in person saying it's better to order online. Since I was already there in person I asked if I could order right then. I was told "It's easier for the cooks because the ticket is sent directly to the kitchen when the order is placed online. If you order here in the restaurant and choose to pick up your order later, we have to REMIND the cooks about it." Again I said "Well, since I am here now can I go ahead and order?" Reluctantly they took my order. NO customer service.

My wife and I were in Albuquerque for an evening performance of Les Misérables at Popejoy on the UNM campus, and decided to have an early dinner in the nearby Nob Hill district. We went to Fan Tang expecting it to be of a similar quality as the other restaurants in the district. A Google search result describes Fan Tang as: "Upbeat counter-service place offering a varied range of familiar & creative Asian dishes." In our experience the counter service was poor; there was only one person at the counter and she was both taking orders and serving dishes from the kitchen to waiting customers. We had to wait nearly 15 minutes before she took our food order. Once my wife and I sat ourselves at a table, the food we ordered came out relatively quickly. Fan Tang's web page reads: "When Albuquerque craves authentic Chinese cuisine, Fan Tang is the ultimate destination ... we cook unique dishes using the freshest ingredients sourced from local and national vendors." In our experience the dishes were ordinary and the ingredients were less than fresh. The food tasted like Chinese fast food and the whole ambiance was much closer to the restaurants centered around the UNM campus which cater to students attending the university. What was also disappointing was that Fan Tang does not offer a dining discount for Popejoy attendees, unlike several other nearby restaurants.

A master of all is a master of none. I would not recommend coming here for the Pad Thai or the Chicken lo Mein. They specialize in cuisine of all cultures and do not do it well. Some breaded and sauce chicken dishes are decent but the best part is the free fortune cookie at the end. The staff does not check in with its customers and gets drinks confused and wrong. I will recommend the Egg Drop soup, that was delicious.