Panda Express — Restaurant in Pekin

Disclaimer: my better half is obsessed with the honey sesame chicken here. As a result I've made multiple trips recently.

Panda Express is actually pretty decent food- albeit a bit pricey. Go in with your eyes wide open -- this is a mass market chain that is recreating recipes that would typically be associated with your local Chinese restaurant. If you go in expecting unique authentic cuisine you'll be disappointed. This is to Chinese food what Taco Bell is to Mexican fare.

That being said-- I've not had a single thing here that was bad. The food has always been well cooked, the staff friendly, and only once did we have to wait for any real length of time. I've had a few menu options now and they've all been pretty decent.

My only issue is that price seems a bit high for the amount you get. Two single entrée bowls, two egg rolls, and two drinks are pushing $30.00. Call me crazy but I used to roll into the local corner Chinese restaurant when I lived in Boston and would get their daily special for under $5.00. That's been more than a few years but still. For around the same money I could go to a locally owned Chinese buffet and enjoy a much wider selection.

Panda Express isn't bad. It's not going to set the world on fire but it's also a decent option when you're looking for some basic fast-food style Asian-esque cuisine. (My better half will disagree. ...

As this is an early review, it is subject to edit. The Pekin Panda Express has been open less than a month, so there are understandably still a few kinks to work out.

The food was excellent, as always. I was so excited to get a Panda in town. I'm a huge fan of their Mongolian Beef and Sweet Fire Chicken. The food was hot and fresh.

The staff was very friendly and they were working their butts off. The drive thru was full and the lobby had a line. The kitchen and serving areas are open to view, so you can see how busy everyone was. Kudos to the staff for an excellent job during a very busy time.

The only detriment to my visit was the wait. It took about 20 minutes from when we walked into the door before we got to order at the counter. The delay was due to them repeatedly running out of one product or another and waiting for the kitchen to cook more.

However, even though it took time to get our food, you could see that the entire staff was working hard to fulfill orders as quickly as possible. The kitchen staff was cooking as fast as possible as well. All said, I'd rather have hot, freshly cooked food than...

I've been to this Panda Express multiple times so far. The food is okay but seems inconsistent. Today my Orange Chicken was really crunchy or hard as a rock for some of the pieces I was trying to eat. I was eating around 3:30pm so maybe I was eating chicken from hours ago? The other issue I see more than anything is the service is incredibly slow. I was the only one in line and waited almost 5 minutes before someone finally asked me what I wanted. There is also an issue I see with certain managers. One got right on things and told me someone would be with me soon and assigned someone to get my order on one occasion. The other manager they have actually pulled the cashier aside to talk about someone that was complaining about how slow the line was.... I wonder why? I stared at them and my food for a good 2 to 3 minutes while the two ladies talked... Management needs a rework and workers need priorities set so they don't have three or four people standing around...