PANDA INN
ADDRESS: 201 N Maryland Avenue, Glendale, CA 91206
WEBSITE: https://www.pandainn.com/
Ever since I learned that Panda Inn was the sit-down restaurant parent of Panda Express, I had always been interested in giving the place a try. After all, I do enjoy a plate of double orange chicken with chow mein from time to time. The opportunity came up when my wife Cami and I met up with my brother Kevin and sister-in-law Alina at the Glendale location for lunch on a Sunday afternoon.
The restaurant itself is pretty large on the inside, with multiple dining rooms and a waiting area in the front with some comfortable seating. The aesthetic itself felt modern and elegant, with plenty of tall windows to help let in a lot of natural light as well. It looked like there was a large party with some sort of banquet or celebration in their main dining area, so we ended up getting seated in one of the smaller areas closer to the entrance.
Food-wise, there were plenty of options available on the menu, ranging from meats to seafood, rice and noodle dishes, along with small plate starters and soups. It reminded me of when I was growing up visiting Chinese restaurants, with the menus listing so many options it was difficult to even know where to start. We ended up deciding to get three meat dishes and then one rice dish to share amongst everyone: the orange chicken, sweet & sour pork, cashew chicken, and roast pork fried rice.
Our food ended up taking a bit more time to get out to us, whether that was due to the banquet going on or just that they were trying to serve all of our dishes around the same time. I was most curious to try the orange chicken first, especially since that is one of the signature dishes from Panda Express, just to compare how it was. I have to say, the Panda Inn version is definitely superior. The thing that stuck out to me was that the orange flavor in the sauce tasted more natural, and also wasn’t as strong as the Panda Express version. Paired together with the roast pork fried rice, the two dishes complemented each other very well.
The sweet & sour pork was also made well, not being too chewy of a texture and the sauce having a good balance between both of the sweet and sour flavors. The cashew chicken also tasted good, with the green and red peppers providing a nice crunch (I’m not a big fan of water chestnuts in general, which were also in the dish). It was definitely a dish that leaned more on the savory side, as a contrast to the two other dishes we got that were on the sweet side. The roast pork fried rice definitely had some large roast pork slices mixed in, which was nice since other places may sometimes skimp out on that, or give you smaller roast pork chunks instead.
It was cool to experience the original restaurant that Panda Express was based off of, after having it on my list for quite some time. The food was tasty and had good flavor, with plenty of different options to choose from on their menu. The décor style of the restaurant was just the right blend of modern elements, but wasn’t too upscale. For the pricing, the dish portions were certainly plentiful, and we finished with a good amount of leftovers to take home. If you’re like me and interested to get a glimpse at the roots of where Panda Express started from, check out one of Panda Inn’s four SoCal locations (with the original located in Pasadena).
Let’s now take a look at the Panda Inn Dish Spotlight. Asterisks (*) below mark my recommended dishes.
Cashew Chicken
Chicken stir-fried in a sesame soy sauce with roasted cashews, water chestnuts, and bell peppers.
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** Orange Chicken **
Crispy breaded chicken tossed in an orange sauce with scallions and baby corn.
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** Roast Pork Fried Rice **
Slices of roast pork tossed with eggs, scallions, and peas.
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And finally, here are my rankings for Panda Inn:
Food: 4.5 / 5
All four of the dishes that we tried had good flavor, and the portions were certainly plentiful. There’s also quite a number of different options on the menu to choose from, depending on what you’re in the mood for that day.
Atmosphere: 4.75 / 5
The blend of modern and elegant décor elements made the restaurant feel more on the upscale side, and each of the dining areas definitely had their own vibe.
Service: 4 / 5
It seemed like there were a few members of the waitstaff that were working our area and stopped at our table to help us. But other times, there wasn’t anyone around for extended stretches. Overall, the service overall felt more on the average side.
Price: 4.5 / 5
For the amount of food that we got, the prices definitely felt pretty reasonable on all of the dishes we chose.
Overall:
17.75 / 20
(89%)
Categories: California, Restaurants
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