Current Events > Is Panda Express as terrible as it looks?

(+) Yeah! (+)

It's fast food, it's fine for what it is

I've only been to like 2 or 3 Panda Express's as it's not my jam, but the food is generally good and it's more akin to Chipotle than a taco bell.

How would you compare it to Pei Wei?

TBF, a lot of local Chinese places are trash.

Surprisingly good for being "Chinese" fast food.

It's pretty good for fast food Chinese. Lo Mein and Sweet Fire Chicken is the bomb.

Every now and then, I get a craving for it, so then I get it and I always feel like shit afterwards.

It's good. I get it for lunch sometimes cuz there's one next to my job.

It's easy to get sick of, though.

MC_BatCommander posted...

It's fast food, it's fine for what it is

This. Your Taco Bell vibes are because that's literally what it is, the fast food version of foreign cuisine

It's fine for what it is. I've also never seen a dedicated Panda Express building. Only ever seen them in malls and places like that.

Bass posted...

It's fine for what it is. I've also never seen a dedicated Panda Express building. Only ever seen them in malls and places like that.

My city has one, it's got a drive thru and everything

The entrees tend to be good. The chow mein is hit or miss.

Bass posted...

It's fine for what it is. I've also never seen a dedicated Panda Express building. Only ever seen them in malls and places like that.

Theres one thats the exact size of a Chick-fil-A that I see constantly from the drive thru of a Chick-Fil-A.

Bass posted...

It's fine for what it is. I've also never seen a dedicated Panda Express building. Only ever seen them in malls and places like that.

My city has quite a few. I can think of 2 in my area of the city which is known for being deprived of things, such as no Best Buy, Costco, a Sam's Club we barely got 5 or so years ago, no mall (used to have one, it shut down many years ago), no Barnes & Noble, no fancier restaurants, etc.

divot1338 posted...

Theres one thats the exact size of a Chick-fil-A that I see constantly from the drive thru of a Chick-Fil-A.

Ha, one of the ones I'm talking about is practically right next to a Chick, I think it's actually literally right next to a Wendy's, though.

No, but that's only because it doesn't have enough flavor to be terrible.

The founder of Panda Express Andrew Cherng was a Chinese immigrant from Jiangsu. He was smart enough not to try to sell authentic Chinese food as fast food to Americans.

His son is the celebrity chef Ming Tsai (Cherng).

typical overly processed fast food. but pay extra attention to the sugar content, especially in stuff like orange chicken -- that sauce in particular is extremely high in sugar

Its fine. I remember some YouTube video where they had a bunch of young white people try it and they all went on about how it wasnt authentic. Then they had Chinese people try it and they were just like yeah its alright lol

Its basic but its good. I can order the same thing at a sit down Chinese restaurant and think its so much better but in reality its the same food but with better presentation.

divot1338 posted...

get a distinctly Taco Bellish vibe off this place.

That's what it is. It's to Chinese what taco bell is to mexican. But I like it. The orange chicken is good

only good thing is the orange chicken and the teriyaki chicken

you're terrible, murray

It's in the top half of fast food places.

I wish they had brought back their firecracker chicken for Chinese new year, but in general Panda Express is delicious if you can get it fresh.

I think its a bit pricey though.

BlueBoy675 posted...

Its fine. I remember some YouTube video where they had a bunch of young white people try it and they all went on about how it wasnt authentic. Then they had Chinese people try it and they were just like yeah its alright lol

That makes sense. Mexicans did that with taco bell too. They put taco bells in Mexico and white Americans heard about it and complained
But those Mexican taco bells were huge hits to the Mexican people

It's decent enough for fast food. Way better than Taco Bell, that's for sure.

Does Teriyaki Boy still exist? I haven't seen one for a long time. At least they had good dumplings.

Id put it on the same level as chipotle.

It's neither good, nor bad. It's just mid. The vast majority of American Chinese restaurants are better than Panda Express, but on their own they're only okay.

BB_mofo posted...

The founder of Panda Express Andrew Cherng was a Chinese immigrant from Jiangsu. He was smart enough not to try to sell authentic Chinese food as fast food to Americans.

His son is the celebrity chef Ming Tsai (Cherng).

They opened up the Panda Inn in Pasadena, a sit down restaurant which is still there. When that was a hit, they expanded as Panda Express.

I won't say no to Panda if it's offered to me. It's not my favorite by a longshot but the food is decent and it's made fresh so that's a plus.

The noodles and rice are garbage, the entrees are Delicious. Honey walnut shrimp is the best things on the menu so try that and if you don't like that then you probably won't like anything else.

Their orange chicken and egg rolls are honestly just about as good as most regular local Chinese take out spots.

The fried rice isn't that great...but it's ok.

Overall, pretty good.

Panda is ok

Back when I used to eat out I tried it once when it came to our area. I thought it was average but seemed higher in price and smaller portions than our local Chinese non chain places.

Weirdly enough even though I live in the Midwest in an agricultural state that is very very white and having just a 3% Asian population in the state our local Chinese restaurants are all owned and operated by Chinese people. Even in the small communities with low populations.

So we have better options even in Iowa which is honestly kind of surprising.

The walnut shrimp is good. I would not eat there for anything else personally but you should try it out all the same.

its super americanized chinese food lots of sugar and low quality

Its only good at the airport.

It's pretty decent for what it is but definitely far from top to your Chinese food

Very 'meh' don't expect anything special but it's not exceptionally bad either. I haven't been to one in years but in college I loved their Teriyaki Chicken and Walnut Shrimp.

LeoRavus posted...

Never been there, but isn't it the same as every other Americanized Chinese food place? The menu looks the same as all the others.

Other American Chinese restaurants typically have much larger menus. Your options at Panda Express are very few. But of the options they do have in common they're very similar in quality.

The other restaurants also tend to give much larger portions for less money too. It's usually cheaper for me to Uber a Chinese restaurant than to go out and buy Panda Express myself.

do they have crab rangoons and are they any good

Fluttershy posted...

do they have crab rangoons and are they any good

They have cream cheese Rangoons which is the same thing but without the imitation crab. They taste like the frozen stuff you can buy and microwave yourself

I hate their cabbage ass spring rolls. What I want from a Chinese food place is spring rolls with bean sprouts inside.

wanderingshade posted...

Sweet Fire Chicken is the bomb.

agreed 100%. not sure why panda gotten rid of that entree at my local spot. it was one of my favorite.

tankboy posted...

Does Teriyaki Boy still exist?

maybe. if it doesn't he lives on in us all.

They have cream cheese Rangoons which is the same thing but without the imitation crab.

this sounds acceptable, as i'm really just in it for the cream cheese anyway. the worst thing you can do here is over-onion the rangoons.

As someone who grew up in Hawaii, surrounded by the best Asian food in the USA, Panda Express is absolute garbage!