Chef Panda — Restaurant in Surprise

My wife and I tried the place out today, because... Hungry. Its right by our house and instead of going to Panda Express, I wanted to try a different place. We walked in the door, the lady at the counter said nothing, not a hello didnt even look at us. She was doing something with order tickets. We grabbed a couple take out menus and decided to get the Kung Pao Chicken and the Orange Chicken. We both set our menus back down on the counter neatly into the stack where they came from. The lady behind the counter still said nothing, was doing something with the order tickets still. They must be very important. The phone rings, she picks it up and hangs up goes back to writing on an order ticket.

Finally she's ready to take our order. Writes them up and we sit down at a the closest table to the register. Someone else walks in, she says hi to that customer! Takes 2 cokes out of the fridge and sets them on the counter, because its too hard to walk the 3 additional feet to put them on our table. No problem though. Another customer walks in and she says hi to him! I've never been here before but maybe she doesnt like my Donald Duck shirt or something..

The food comes out, we get forks and 2 foam boxes with food. A bag containing 2 eggrolls the size of vienna sausages and a container of sweet and sour slightly larger than a thimble. The eggrolls seemed to be nicely fried to a brown and crunchy texture. I nibbled one bite of the thing to savor it. Was so small I couldnt really tell what was in it, but it wasnt bad for an egg roll.

I open up my food, sort of wishing in the back of my head that I had chop sticks instead but decided just to go with the fork. The fried rice had egg and rice in it, no bits of meat or any other ingredient. It was dark looking like it should be but my first bite of it, was cold and had no flavor. I opened my pack of soy sauce and dumped the entire contents onto one of the two scoops. I located a pice of my Kung Pao chicken in the mostly bell pepper and water chestnut mound that was supposed to be the entree. There was not much sauce left on it because it was so runny it all went to the bottom of the foam tray. I tasted it and had to spit it back out because it was the temperature of the sun. Stabbed it with my fork and quenched it out in the mound of cold fried rice and tried again.

Very little flavor, even after an entire pack of soy sauce was poured in the rice, I could taste nothing. I picked through the rest of it for the next 10 minutes. I'd say the ratio was 8% chicken, 60% bell pepper, 20% water chestnuts 6% carrots 6% peanuts. I looked for signs of a spicy red chili pepper of any kind, garlic or ginger bits, none to be found. I moved things around to get to the runny sauce at the bottom, I did see some flecks of ground red pepper in there and did detect a small amount of spicy after about 10 bites.

My wifes orange chicken was also super hot with cold rice. The sauce on that was mostly at the bottom too, but it wasnt quite as runny. I tried a bite of it and it had a little flavor in it, i'm pretty sure it was a jar orange sauce. The chicken pieces were fried with a puffy round crust, a little different than the fried chicken like breading you'd find on most other orange chicken.

If you're an elderly person that doesnt like salty or spicy food and prefers everything to have more of a bland flavor, this is your place. Located near Sun City, the clientele is readily available. This place isnt for me though, its a sad thing when Panda Express becomes the standard to compare independent Chinese food places too. If Panda Express is better, you are doing it wrong. It also shouldnt hurt to say hi to all your customers and at least pretend like you appreciate their business.

I'm sorry to bash a small business like this, I really dont enjoy doing it but when i get extaordinarily bad food and service I have to be...

The prices are actually pretty good compared to most. It took me a while to find a normal Chinese place since I moved here. Typically, the Chinese places I see around here are commercialized places. Places like Panda House which are the McDon of chinese. Keep in mind that this is Chef Panda, and not Panda House. I dont know why they named it this. People are going to accidently think it is Panda House, which is terrible food. Panda House tends to taste like synthetic food and over priced. However, this place is similar to the typical Chinese places in New York. You know... those great, yet ugly, places where they have a guy in the back frying rice with flames 2 feet tall and grease everywhere and there is barely a place to sit. Yep, that is one of those places. Except they don't even let you in the door to sit down currently, because of COVID. It is not a fancy place at all! Besides, I don't want fancy; I want food! Here are some of the good parts: They speak very fast and just want your order. They give you great food, with absolutely no hospitality. That's fine! If they could, they would just throw the food at you like a football as you run out the door! Typically, when the food is at this quality, they don't even speak English and you have to communicate with your index-finger by pointing like a golden retriever. Those are typically the best places when it comes to Chinese food. When they get a clean-rating from state, they don't care if it is an A,B, or even a C! If you were to ask them, they say.. "It X,Y,Z naw wat you wan? "

But no worries, this place has English speakers with the good food. Let's put it this way, if you walk into a Chinese place and everything is nicely organized and clean. LEAVE! The food is going to taste terrible. I want to go to a place where they don't have time to clean. I want the greasy walls, the stink of oil cooking, and the rough personalities that come with it. This city is loaded with plastic commercial places. Finally, a breath of fresh-air from an actually normal restaurant. The good places are the places where there is grease everywhere and they barely have time to clean or even listen to your order, but the food is good and cheap. The uglier the place, the better the food! I want it cheap! I don't want to pay for anyone's stupid fake flower arrangements and crown molding. I want to see good-ol' food production! The fried rice is good - Priced well. Sesame chicken good. Priced slightly too high, by about 50 cents. The egg noodles are gross, in fact terrible! The Egg Rolls are actually spring rolls. The Lo Main is good. The fortune cookies are BS. I don't even bother, they are all lies. The portion sizes are really good. They sometimes don't pack the rice well in the carton. C'mon guys! its just rice! it cost like 2 cents to make when purchased in bulk! The price is really good. Which is very important! They don't charge you $20 for the Sesame chicken. It's just $8. You can feed a family of three for about $14 You can replace the white rice with fried rice for $2. Extra. They forgot my Fried Wontons and I did not notice until I got home. Don't get those, they don't even resemble fried wonton. They are a joke, and too much money. Trust me! Unless, if they were drunk when they made mine, that day. At which, I will never find out because I will not order those again. In fact, I threw them out. I never do that; I'm fat! I tried to be as honest as possible. The food is good. Don't worry about stupid things, like if...

Just wanted to do a Fresh Update; We have had Chef Panda several time since my update. Not much has changed since the first update unfortunately. Now the offer double the meat for an up charge, and it would be worth it of the flavors where as wonderful as they where a long time ago. They however haven't updated or gone back to their original sauces. Still looking for an exceptional Chinese restaurant.

Update: I am really sad to do this, but I have to downgrade my review. For a good while now my family has frequented this establishment, and we have always enjoyed our experience. However, as of recently, they have changes their menu, and not for the better. The portions are considerably smaller now, but the price has remained the same if not more. As if that were enough, they have also changed their recipes. The once amazing orange chicken tastes like store bought orange chicken. It does not have the same scratch made taste. The Egg Fu Young patties are different, smaller, and the gravy has way less of the stuff that made it great. I used to be able to get out of there for under $25 and feed my family of 5 with a little left over. I am currently trying to find something to feed the rest of my family as the smaller portions now equate to less food over all. And our three Goto meals cost me just over $28. I am sad to say, but my family and I will now be looking else where for our Chinese food fix.

I find the poor reviews on yelp interesting, as I have frequented this establishment half a dozen times now, and I have had nothing but excellent food, and great service. The first two times, I had the food delivered, and it was within a reasonable time for a Thursday and Saturday night. I've had the take away, and the food has always been hot and fresh waiting for me when they said it would be. I have eaten in with my daughter, and she loves the Orange Chicken! The orders have always been correct, and hot and fresh. But it's about the food here! The Orange Chicken is excellent, crispy, not sogged out by the sauce. Tons of flavor, and is now always an order for us. The egg foo young was exceptional; large patties, firm, with tons of large chicken pieces in the gravy. I've had the chicken, the shrimp, and the Combination, and all where full of meats and vegetables. My wife loved the broccoli beef (I'm not a fan personally, but it was good). I have also had the Chef Special Happy Family, and oh wow! Pork, beef, chicken, shrimp, in an excellent sauce! One of my favorites! I have a list of their Menu items that I am working though every time my family eats out for here. This has become our go to Chinese food place, and even though it's further than the other two closest Chinese food establishments, this is the best place for us! I even recommend it to all of my friends! The portions are always large, the have to tape the container to keep all of the food stuffed inside!

My wife and I are currently waiting on an order of Cashew Chicken, the Orange Beef (really excited about this one), and Chicken egg foo young! I will update with the tasty descriptions as soon as...