Well, it beats La Choy (barely).
Panda Express is a fast-food place. What can one expect?
I rarely eat at fast-food places, but on the infrequent occasion that I do, Panda Express is one of my more preferred. (That and In-n-Out Burger.) Their interpretation of Fast-Food-meets-Chinese beats most other fast-food place, which isn’t saying much.
One good thing about Panda is vegetables. There are several dishes available that have some borderline-respectable amount of veggies in them.
Even better if you add your own veggies when you get home . . . especially eggplant. 
Why not arrange an occasional evening during which you and your wife make separate plans for the evening and you can go to a restaurant she doesn’t care for?
This is how I feel- I think Panda is pretty good for fast food. I always get 1/2 chow mein, 1/2 veggies which they do fresh (I know this because my Panda is always telling me I have to wait 5 extra min for the veggies). I think the kung pao, with some added Srircha is better than both of our local Chinese restaurants and I always vary the second choice depending on their special. My only complaint - which is more of a symptom of a good thing for a fast food place- is that the beef dishes especially are dependent on the quality of cook they have that day. Sometimes it’s seared and good and other days the beef might as well been boiled.
The twin cities seem to be dominated by Panda Express and LeAnn Chin for fast food chinese. Both are palatable but nothing you’d go out of your way for.
The really good stuff is found at the off shoot of the chain restaurant Big Bowl.
Big Bowl Express is found in select Lund’s and Byerly’s grocery stores around town. Their pad thai and Kung Pao is excellent and worth going out of your way for.
You need to add to spicy pepper sauce and the spicy mustard for the food to taste like anything.
My wife and I split an meal. We get half brown rice, half mixed vegetables. (The vegetables, mostly broccoli, are barely cooked at all.) Then we get string bean chicken, 2 orders of Teriyaki Chicken and 2 water cups. We just politely refuse the fortune cookies.
Its plenty for the two of us and costs just over $10 (and that is in Hilo, Hawaii. Got to be less on the mainland.)
We love it and go often.
There’s a PE in the grocery store plaza at the end of my development. I do use them for late evening takeout when I’ve worked late and am too tired to cook. I can order and pay online and it’s ready to grab and go when I get there. Easy peasy. I do a lot of oriental cooking when I cook, so I have all manner of spices and condiments at home so I can doctor it up a bit to fix the blandness. And best of all, I can get a quick meal (the veg option) which isn’t nearly as bad for me as most drive-through or take-out in my vicinity. I’m not foolish enough to think it’s high quality nutritionally speaking, but on the spectrum, it’s higher than many.
When you were in So Cal, did you go to City Wok, or was that too franchise-ish for your taste?
My brother and his wife like it,band I like Chinese food, so I tried it. Unfortunately, it made me sick enough to go to the ER. Just a touch of food poisoning, but I haven’t been back.
But it’s so very regional, except the “swimming in oil” part, which seems to be universal. Shanghai and Suzhou food are way, way too sweet, but you don’t get that sweetness in most Chongqing or Sichuan food, or Hunan either. Nanjing food isn’t too sweet, either, but it’s very boring culinarily. Dongbei food is unlike a lot of Chinese food, and Xinjiang food is completely different, too.
Their parent company, Panda Inn, has several locations in Southern California and is actually pretty good. Not the best I’ve had, but I always try to go when I’m in town.
Panda Express… well… I know I won’t go hungry and they generally have Wi-Fi.
I’d compare Panda Express more to Chipotle…not authentic, but decent for fast food. Taco Bell, on the other hand…
You can enhance that by getting mixed vegetables instead of rice or noodles as well.
And make sure you have some hot sauce in your bag, like me and Beyoncé.
It’s horrible. Too sweet. Broccoli bits the size of your fist. Huge hunks of celery and green bell pepper. My experience has been that a serving of chicken and anything contains precisely six bites of chicken and huge hunks of nearly raw and unseasoned broccoli in oily brown sauce. With sugar.
Here is a youtube link about Chinese people trying Panda Express. Small sample size but I was surprised that the younger people were quicker to criticize the food while the older people didn’t mind most of it.
[quote=“OpusThePenguin, post:38, topic:755832”]
Here is a youtube link about Chinese people trying Panda Express. Small sample size but I was surprised that the younger people were quicker to criticize the food while the older people didn’t mind most of it.
[/QUOTE]Yep. We call it “gringo Chinese food”. Like gringo Mexican food. You’d be surprised how successful Panda Express is even in areas where these is a decent Asian population, or where there are good alternatives. I think the “fast” factor is the selling point. It’s not great, but not a terrible option occasionally if you are in a hurry.