I had an internet coupon that was only good on Friday for a serving of one of their new menu items. What better opportunity to review a newly opened location. This is one of their newer stand alone buildings. Inside it was arranged differently than an end cap which gave a more open view of the kitchen as you wait. And boy did I wait, the person 2 people in front of me got the last of the orange chicken. The new layout gives the orange chicken double billing as opposed to being equal in chafing dish size in the older arrangement.
The big woks really are not used for much of the cooking until the end. I watched them start several items, including orange chicken, and they are poured from a big plastic bag of frozen whatever into a pan on a scale. Them many of them go into the deep fryer. When they are done then they go into the wok and the sauce is added, quickly tossed then put in the chafing dish. I was surprised to see that as I cook the same way when doing a stir fry, even though I often cook each item in my wok they each will get set aside until all are done and I drain off the oil and put everything in and add the sauce just letting it cook long enough at that point to get hot.
The new item, sweet fire chicken, was ok. In general Panda is ok food that is consistent from store to store. And inexpensive. I think I like some of small strip mall places we have here just as well if not better.
This being a brand new location everything was spotless. It would have been nice if my coupon covered more than $1 of my meal.