Royal Panda Restaurant — Restaurant in Germantown

I wish I had two more hand so I could give this place 4 thumbs down!!!

I spent $15.36 of my hard earned money on Sesame Chicken lunch special and some Crab Rangoon. I came in and paid for an order for myself and another co-worker from my job. When I walked in, I waited over 5 minutes before one of the waiters came up to me to see if I needed help and he said that someone would be with me in a moment. Another 3 to 5 minutes go by and FINALLY one of the wait staff came up to the register. Keep in mind, I've been standing at the front for about 10 minutes at this point clear as day, and while I was waiting, a white lady came in after me trying to pick up her to go order as well. What does the waitress do? She walks and deals with the white lady first, after she clearly saw me standing at the register the entire time. I know she saw me because while she was coming to and from the kitchen area, she looked at me 2 times while she was waiting on her tables. A moment later just after this happen and after I let her know I was there first, a lady came from the kitchen with the food. Guess what she does?!? THE EXACT SAME THING! She went to the white lady first, and I had to give her the same look of frustration and let her know as well I was there first. This is just one thing.

The food was a problem by it self. as mentioned earlier, I ordered the Sesame Chicken and brown rice. It was just about four pieces of fried chicken pieces with the "sesame sauce" on the side. Of all the Chinese places I've gone to, I've NEVER seen this before in my entire life!!! Not to mention the sauce tasted more like sweet and sour rather than sesame. My egg roll, and crab rangoon was cold, and to top it all off, there was not any plastic silverware to eat my food. Fortunately I found an extra fork at my job. I will say the Won Ton soup was pretty good and was made with fresh ingredients.

Overall, the only thing you are going to get from the Royal Panda is a nice "Chinese"-looking restaurant. Just be clear, the food is not it is cracked up to be AT ALL, and if you are another ethnicity (black, latino, etc) even not causing a problem, acting appropriately, and conducting yourself like your have some sense, you will probably experience a slight brush of racism like what I did. Don't let the good reviews or it's rating of being "One of Memphis's...

We visited for for dinner on mother's day and were kind of disappointed with the service. The food was good, but the service was not. The server showed up only thrice in an hour, we had to keep waiting for someone to show up for trivial things like salt/pepper or to-go box. The place was not crowded at all so not sure why the long wait. We arrived just 30 minutes before the kitchen closes and asked them if we can place more orders after our initial one and they said yes. Later when the first course arrived and we thought it wouldn't suffice, we wanted to order more food but were refused saying the kitchen is closed now. The rice which comes as a side arrived 20 mins later, by then the dish was almost finished. And on top of all this, we were charged 18% gratuity saying we were a big party. I don't mind tipping well, but the service has to match the expectations. We narrated our experience to the person at the cash counter, she was least apologetic and said it's mother's day, we were supposed to be home at 9 PM. I understand the sentiment, but that's not the way to treat customers. If you want to be home, just keep the place closed and refuse customers after 8.30 instead of treating them this way. Totally disappointing experience, would think twice before...

This is the second-best Chinese restaurant in the area (the best, by far, is Formosa.) It has a nice, relaxing interior that has been little updated in over 25 years (which I like, though others may not.) I have ordered several dishes over the years, and while nothing I have had is amazing, nearly everything is very good. Among other things, I have tried cashew chicken, snow pea chicken, lemon chicken, orange chicken, vegetable lo mein, and mu-shu vegetables. The mu-shu was just OK, the lemon or orange chicken (cannot remember which) had a terrible, mystery meat-type chicken, but the rest of the dishes were very good. I think as long as you steer clear of the breaded chicken dishes, you are fine.

The reason I cannot give 5 stars is that the prices have gone up quite a lot lately, and it seems like more than most other restaurants. It is by no means a rip-off, but the portions are not huge, so it is a little frustrating. I am able to go only for dinner, but like most places, they have lunch specials that provide more value.

Overall, this is a very good restaurant. I credit them for staying open for dine-in all throughout the...