Panda Express — Restaurant in Pasadena

Ever since I heard about the Panda Express burrito, I've been dying to give Panda Express's Innovation Kitchen a try. Definitely an interesting take on the Chinese fast food experience, especially since poke burritos and Chipotle burritos have been getting so popular.

This location of Panda Express is pretty much the biggest one I've ever seen, and is an actual storefront (while most others are usually at a food court). Very modernized and an actual casual fast-dining restaurant experience where there are chairs and booths for you to eat. There's even a dessert/drink area to this location of Panda Express. Located in the same lot as Corner Bakery. Plenty of parking in the super big lot.

So you're able to order the regular 2 combo, 1 main dish (except everything's better packaged here!), but they also offer you the option of ordering the items on a salad or in a burrito form. With the lights shining down on the items, everything looks pretty good - especially if you're hungry. They also offer you the option of sampling their items, so take advantage of that if you want to try a new item.

1 main dish item is around $6 while a 2 main dish item starts at $7.40. You can build upon your order by getting different combinations, starting with a base (scallion pancake wrap, salad, noodles, or fried/white/brown rice) then a main dish, before topping it off with various sauces and crunchy items.

Of course I tried the burrito - a burrito in a green onion pancake loaded with orange chicken? But as soon as the worker started putting the fried rice onto the pancake, I knew this wouldn't turn out too well. I got orange chicken and the eggplant and tofu as the main dishes, before adding a citrus ginger vinaigrette, and some crispy wontons, pickled cucumbers, and green papaya slaw. I don't know if that sounds good to you, but it didn't look too appetizing when it sat out on the table in front of me. I don't know how you're supposed to eat it as the rice is so loose that it falls out, but I basically cut it in half and dug through the burrito before eating the green onion pancake after the inside portion was completed.

My friend ordered a standard 2 item with 1 base along with an additional add on item. That was a much smarter idea. He said that the vegetables had really good taste, much better than the other Panda Express restaurants he's been to.

The soda machine here is also super cool and high tech! You pick and choose which drink you want on an iPad looking machine. They also offer a variety of teas, but the prices seemed a bit too much for a place that doesn't specialize in teas.

tl;dr - Eh, now that I've given this a try, I don't think I'll ever make a drive out here just for this. The orange chicken actually was too soft and didn't have enough flavor as I expected it to have. Mashing everything together in one burrito just tasted pretty strange - super...

I rarely write reviews but I I felt compelled to write a review due to the fantastic service I received here. On this day I was lucky enough to be helped by the brilliant Jasmine, who is amongst the best restaurant managers I have come across in years of running restaurants.

This restaurant should be commended for their excellence, especially the managers, who routinely set an exceptional standard on the line. They set the tone for the rest of the experience, and their friendly and attentive but not fake attitude sets trickles down to the rest of the team for an all around pleasant experience.

This place is not without its issues, though.

My main critiques are;

it’s perpetually busy around lunch and dinner, and for whatever reason they can’t satisfy the volume due to a bottleneck on the serving line. It’s usually just two people and one register for routine lines of 15+ people. A corporate issue, no doubt, which again highlights the excellence of the floor managers, who are almost certainly pulling off miracles with few resources.

Furthermore, thanks to the long line, customers are often faced with the unpleasant trolley problem of packing themselves like into the restaurant like commuters boarding a rush hour train in Tokyo or awkwardly standing outside the door, fending off would-be usurpers of the line.

Anyway, the service and management of this restaurant should be studied by all other chains for how to effectively make a positive impact on the customer. I don’t even like Panda Express that much but I know I can come here and have a pleasant, clean, relaxed experience every time. Other than that, it’s a Panda Express.

Oh and they have bings here, so it gets a bonus for food. Why doesn’t every panda have bings, they are the superior delivery method. Join us in the future Panda...

I consider Panda Express to be a bastardization of Chinese food, and this Innovation Kitchen does not change my opinion. However, it is an improvement.

I walked in with low expectations. After all, it is still a fast food establishment. So, I was pleased to see that it was nicely furnished with wood-ish booths, long tables, and stools. Chili sauce bottles are at every table. The tea bar has more comfortable, low-to-the-ground, individual seats for small groups. Overall, the place has clean, modern decor, complete with multiple TVs and electronic menus.

The food is standard Panda Express fare. The "burrito" is a thin, scallion pancake wrap. You can build your own wrap or order one of the suggested combos. Since the more "innovative" hype was around the burrito, I went for that with orange chicken, chow mein, broccoli, sweet and sour sauce, and green onion sauce. The flavors overwhelm the wrap, so I could barely taste it, but that was expected. There's not much to say about Panda's food, but I wish they had cut up the broccoli and chicken for the wrap. It's not the easiest biting experience, nor are the ingredients evenly distributed when there's large chunks of stuff in a burrito.

I LOVE boba, so I was really excited to try the tea bar. If you order it with your burrito, you pick up your tea at the bar (or, if you're eating in, they'll bring it to you). I had the Panda Milk Tea with honey boba. For $4, you can definitely get better tea in the SGV, but it wasn't bad. The tea flavor was lighter than I would've liked, but otherwise, the boba tea was good.

In summary: Average food, average service, nice...