Panda Inn — Restaurant in Centralia

I can believe the locals here actually recommend this place I lived here for 2 yrs and the only good Chinese food you can get for this area is Olympia or Tacoma dont waste your time on any of the Chinese restaurants in Centralia Washington the food isn't authentic it's very white washed and bland we went here and bought $75 worth of food and got sesame chicken that was sauceless which its a dish with sauce it only has sesame seeds in the crust which you couldn't taste if youve ever had authentic this is not the place the sweet and sour is just fried chicken and sauce no pineapple onion or green pepper it was lacking a lot for flavor unless you like vinegar flavored chicken the general tso's chicken I asked for extra hot it had no red hot peppers onion or any kind of veggie just fried chicken and had a tomatoes based sauce with crushed chili flakes which wasn't much and I'm guessing the extra hot was supposed to be from the pepper they used in the sauce the chow main was just crunchy noodles and canned chowmain makings that looked like snot not what I was expecting the happy family dish I paid $17 for had 2 shrimp in the whole thing and the sauce wansnt very good the almond chicken was soggy and was gross it had a weird flavor to it like you went inside a Chinese restaurant bathroom and cooked next to the urinal because it had the urinal bar scent flavor to the almond chicken I took a bite and spit it out the prawns had raw dough in the center and wasn't cooked all the way the best part of the whole dinner was the rice it's sad to say I've tried this place when I first moved here and tried it it was just as gross I gave it a chance 2yrs later and it still was just as nasty if people like this place or any other spot in Centralia Washington I feel bad taste buds because it is far from what Chinese food is suppost to be in my opinion this place is only good for drinks dont get food because you will feel sick and have food poisoning like we did some places specialize in curtain things for them it's there drinks I've always had good drinks here but I'll never order the food again if you want good Asian food go to Olympia or Tacoma for the closest Asian food that's actually good and...

Ordered takeout. I really wished they would’ve given me the food that I ordered but they didn’t. The food I got was good but not what I ordered. We got the family style B which was supposed to come with almond chicken. We didn’t get any gravy. We got fried chicken pieces that were ok but we should’ve had some almond gravy on the side at the very least. The best almond chicken is a flattened breast that is fried and sliced and served with GRAVY (IMO). Not the case here. The egg rolls are big and yummy. The subgum chow mien is good but the crispy noodles are stale. The sweet and sour pork needs to be cooked longer (raw batter). The beef broccoli is great and the mysterious chicken dish (that we didn’t order) was great too. I ordered extra sweet and sour and did not get this either. The staff were nice but I’d probably dine in (once COVID is over) so I can get what I ordered or thoroughly check the food on takeout. Overall, Big portions and good flavor... Six of us ate for $100 and we have plenty of leftovers. Could’ve fed 7-8 on a family style of for four plus 2-3 entrees ( we got “B” plus S&S pork & beef broccoli). Also, several people in my group mentioned that the egg flower soup is great and want this Chinese food again(they live in Kent). They were pleased despite the fact that we had to go to Safeway to get gravy for the “almond...

Ok, so I didn't get sick.

So let's start with the exterior as that's the first thing you'll notice. The front bushes and the decking leading to the door smell like rat urine. I stopped in my tracks, started to turn on my heels contemplating whether I should complete my purchase of this order and let me say right up front I made the wrong choice.

The inside of the place looks clean and fairly nice. The waitstaff was attentive and prompt. They use modern check out systems making it very easy to pay.

I ordered the Szechuan dinner for two. It was packed well for travel, they even provided a nice sturdy flat box which held all my food safely.

So the rice was probably the worst I've ever had from any restaurant. It tasted like 3 day old cheap white rice over cooked left in the fridge then tossed into a pan with some canola and a spoon full of soy sauce and a spoon full of chopped up bbq pork. Really terrible!

Triple Crown was less than spectacular, but the portion of the meat in the dish was good, the flavor was good, it's just that the bbq was already cooked then cooked again for too long. Overall not the worst dish I've had.

The chow mein was actually pretty good. I order it with pan fried noodles which again tasted like canola oil but overall decent execution of chow mein. Not the best but certainly not the worst...