I got the same vibe from the egg roll: "They're perfectly..." ?!?! "Fine. What you'd expect from cheap Chinese... perfectly adequate. I don't dislike it."
It’s honestly rather impressive how they manage to fuck the food up this badly when there’s a place that my grandma likes and we often get when I go to visit her called Panda Chinese Restaurant. It is a very similar style, similar menu, similar method of serving, hell if you got most of the items and just showed someone the packaging they might think it was Panda Express. Except it’s actually really damn good. So not sure how Panda Express managed to make their food that bad.
This series has developed some fantastic food critic vocabulary. Highlights for me: inoffensive, perfectly fine, and the obligatory begging for flavor.
I have my favorite one in my highschool's town, but I've enjoyed every one I've tried. I know I have both nostalgia bias and a liking for the family that owns it though lol.
There are two identical Chinese restaurants in my area. Same food, same general design for the interior, same exact pictures on the menu. Neither seems aware of the other's existence. I think every city just randomly generates at least one Chinese restaurant.
What he called the Honey Sesame chicken was not, he was given the String Bean chicken. The Honey Sesame does taste like honey, someone just fucked up his order.
What I learned: Panda Express is apparently cooked differently in various regions. We have some different entrees (different names), and at least one was the same name but prepared wildly different (Honey Sesame Chicken). In our region, the best dishes to me are Chicken and String Beans (though they have to be fresh or the beans turn into mush) and our version of honey sesame chicken (breaded with sesame seeds sprinkled on and a sweet sauce). We used to have Sweet Fire Chicken which was also quite good with flavor, but they seem to have discontinued it. Probably had too much flavor.
I haven't had Panda Express in over 8 years, but I remember really liking the honey walnut shrimp when I was younger. I'm glad that it didn't make you die inside like everything else, so I don't feel like my memory is completely betraying me.
The thing about Panda Express is that it really depends on the chef making the food. It might taste great one day and like an oily spicy mistake the next.
I was gonna say, he ate this at home, possibly ubereats-ed, I feel like as amusing as this video is I'm like "dude have you tried it actually in the restaurant?" Totally valid to not like it tho.
I used to like Wendy's food until I got tired of the vast, VAST difference in quality day to day. I can honestly say the best and worst fast food Ive ever had were both at Wendy's. McDonalds might be poison, but its the exact same every time
I dont like panda express but every once in awhile i get a craving for it, buy it, and am like "Wow, this is bad. I'm satisfied though" And so the cycle can continue the next time a craving hits
As someone who loves "real" Chinese food, I also love Panda. There's room for both in this world. Sometimes you just want some good old-fashioned so-mediocre-it's-good orange chicken
Having grown up on delicious home-cooked Cantonese food every day, I’ve always been vehemently anti-Panda Express…until I lived in Germany for four years. The Chinese food here is some of the most disgusting and sad stuff I’ve ever eaten. It made Panda Express seem luxurious and now I have a new appreciation for it 😭
There’s a Chinese takeout plays close to where I I’ve that has many options similar to Panda Express’s menu. But the food tastes way better the portions are larger and the price is even slightly less than you would pay at Panda Express.
I recently started playing New Leaf and there are certain hours of the day I am unable to play the game because all I hear is you reviewing food in various degrees of pain.
I wish this is how he did all of his comparison videos, where it spreads them out through a few days rather than trying to cram it all into one evening. While it can be entertaining to watch him try them all in one sitting, I think it's better to spread it out. Mainly so he doesn't hate it (all) when he's through, and so that he doesn't feel ill afterwards/during.
Same! I low key love Panda Express, and always clean my plate clean when I get it. Chow mein, Orange chicken, and either the string bean chicken or mushroom chicken. Always gotta Sriracha the chow mein and mix it up to coat. I even prefer Panda Express over the local Chinese take out joints in my area.
For the teriyaki chicken, you're supposed to put their signature teriyaki sauce on it yourself, they usually give you the packet of the stuff when you order that meal.
I actually like these videos better when it’s a food or restaurant the creator enjoys. Hope you do more videos with foods you love! But this is a super fun series overall
I’ve delivered plenty of panda as a DoorDash driver. it’s always slightly humorous to watch the chefs burn the fucking shit out of half the food with a column of fire. Anybody with a moderate notion of heat control, access to a grocery store, and RU-vid can likely cook better Asian food than panda
My campus had a panda in the main dining hall and we could use our college dining funds there. I ate so much orange chicken and chowmein in the years I was there.
They used to have a beef dish that was REALLY good but they stopped making it when the pandemic hit. I assume it wasn't cost effective to make because it tasted like they spent money on actual ingredients
Literally just came back from working at a Panda on my uni's campus, and I have to say, the food tastes MILES better when it is fresh. Being located at my uni, we often have to cook more food when we run out, so it's a lot harder for food to just sit out under the lamp for longer than what is needed. Anyways, it's surreal watching this video while still in uniform. :V
As I’ve watched these trying videos, I’ve come to realize I have a very different taste palette, and I love it. I may not agree with his opinions, but that’s why I like these videos, he brings a different position to the table than mine and I enjoy it
I feel like you have a bad location or unfresh food. The Panda I normally go to is on a college campus and it’s so popular that everything is always fresh out the wok. It makes all the difference!
Everyone has different tastes and every location has a different cook so people’s experiences are always gonna be different- nothing wrong if you enjoy the food
Agree with everyone; I think he also tends to eat really salty and needs strong flavor in his food. For me, most items at Panda are salty and too sweet.
I've always stuck to getting 50/50 of fried rice + chow mein, and egg rolls as a side from any asian fast food place I go. I never like chicken in anything from them, and my taste buds won't do seafood at all, but I was convinced to try the honey walnut shrimp from here. It was surprising fine. Not that bad.
The video hasn’t even started yet, but, as someone who works at Panda Express… I’m very curious to see how you view the food. Will update after watching the video. Edit: Okay, I’ve paused the video at like 10:03 to write here: it appears to me that you actually did not get the honey sesame chicken breast. That is the string bean chicken breast. Honey sesame chicken is breaded and tossed in a very different sauce from the string bean chicken. Chances are, if you went through the drive thru, they probably just misheard you; the headsets we have are garbage. They cost like hundreds of dollars and they’re the worst headsets I’ve ever worn. It’s like wearing those headphones in school that were like really thin on the top and those bad, pasted on foam bits, but with stupidly sensitive mic. Anyways, honey sesame is sweeter. That being said, I agree that the mushroom chicken and the string bean chicken taste very similar; they are tossed in the same sauce, actually, which is probably the reason. Okay, back to the video. Edit 2: Yeah, what he said. Just get the orange chicken. I know how to cook the stuff at Panda Express, and it is definitely not as varied as it makes itself out to be. The stuff that’s supposed to be “spicy” isn’t made with anything super spicy. The Kung pao chicken (which is supposed to be the spiciest) isn’t made with anything super intense; just chili flakes, garlic, and small, whole chili peppers. It’s nothing super intense…for people who know what they’re talking about. I think Panda Express very much caters to the people who’ve never been to a good Chinese restaurant or who cant afford to. I don’t eat Panda Express in my off time, bc I would rather go somewhere else. Also the thing he said about being one note; very true. That’s what panda excels at; one note dishes. They’re perfectly bland. Most of our dishes are made with sauces that are either loaded with preservatives and/or mostly soy sauce. Also, it’s cooked in a lot of oil. I mean, a lot. If it’s not deep fried in oil, it’s probably cooked in up to 5 cups of oil. It’s good for people who are either on a budget or who can enjoy one note hits. If you can afford it, go somewhere else. The experience will be so much better, I promise. And probably have less caloric intake, too. Edit 3: saw this on some other comments and realized I didn’t mention it: get the teriyaki sauce with the teriyaki chicken. Makes it much better, though still very one note. It becomes sweeter, but the flavor of the chicken and the sauce kinda mix together, so you end up with a very one note flavor.
@@tripleb7899 I think the algorithm “boosts” comments with more replies so that more people see them, so that reply is basically like an upvote. Also what restraunts what you recommend as alternatives to Panda?
@@tofu5086 I live in a pretty small town, so there are aren’t a lot around where I live. I have to go out of town to go to any. But, if you’re ever in Redding, California, there’s a place called CoCo’s Mongolian BBQ. It’s awesome!
I don’t understand how the food is so bad compared to local Chinese places. Then you realize the founders went to college for math and computer science but decided to open a restaurant chain instead lmaoo
@@CalebWimble are you sure that all they do? Because I find that adding more water to vegetables like a steam makes them so soggy that they loose all semblence of flavor. Definitely lack of seasoning on chicken is a huge part to play though.
"I would maybe order this again, if there were no other Chinese restaurants in the entire world." I only have one Chinese restaurant nearby other than Panda Express, and it's shit, so every time I get Chinese food it's Panda Express. The orange chicken is pretty good, not a big fan of much else.
I remember going to Panda Express to pick up food for my family. It was about half an hour before they closed and there was a long line in the drive through. I got my food, pulled into a parking spot, checked it… not only was nothing close to what I ordered, but there were two more dishes than I had ordered and half the food wasn’t even combinations that they had on the menu, it was just random stuff. I think what happened is that they had a bunch of customers and didn’t want to make more food, so they just threw a bunch of random shit in containers and called it good. Of course, since the drive through had at least a dozen cars and the inside looked packed too, I decided that Panda Express wasn’t worth going all the way back through xD
I work at Panda Express, the sauce that we use for the broccoli beef, mushroom chicken, and string bean chicken is just soy sauce, stir fry sauce, corn starch, and water
I don't think I've ever gone to Panda Express. It does look tasty to me from the window I'll say, but yeah, I think I'd certainly trust a mom and pop Asian-style food establishment over them. 😆
Its really weird but I've noticed that Panda Express can be wildly different depending on where you get it... I've had it in some areas where it was awful and would ruin my mood for the next few hours. But I also know of some locations (mostly in affluent areas) where they knock it out of the park. And I've discussed this with a few other people and they agree that it seems to be a factor that does indeed exist.
i work at the Panda Express at my college and i absolutely agree with this sentiment. do not eat here, go support a local restaurant that serves quality Chinese. cause this ain’t it chief
I like to think of this as Sung-won realizing how shitty it is when bigger channels do the “everything in the menu” challenge and do it all in one sitting and the staff having to make all that shit all at once, he chooses to do it in multiple days to make it easier on underpaid fast food workers
I eat Panda Ex often, it’s not too bad. Most of the local Chinese places are just too overpriced. My go-to is always orange chicken and chow mien. I like mixing the 2 so I get both flavors going.
Sungwon.. I survived 4 years of college eating Panda Express as my only meal of the day (because the only food places on my campus were Panda Express, Chik-Fil-A, and the shitty campus food buffet whatever). Do not MOCK my only source of sustenance. Edit: Did... did you eat the teriyaki chicken WITHOUT the sauce?? The sauce is like 90% of eating the teriyaki chicken!!!
I love the chicken teriyaki but they never add the sauce or forget to put the sauce packets when you order for deliver. It's always gonna be missing the sauce unless you ask for it specifically. I don't know why, but when you dine in, they add it just fine.
Panda Express is the La Croix of ‘chinese’ places. Somehow still in business for all the lack of flavor. Teriyaki chicken “its like someone whispered the word “teriyaki” in a room next to where they cooked this chicken” Orange chicken: “the white dude classic. The only flavor in the restaurant. Of course y’all like it”
The thing about *American Chinese food* is it’s meant to taste super similar no matter which shopping mall you usually go to. Panda Express is just that if it’s been frozen in a bag. The honey walnut shrimp is a stand out for me, it’s the only thing I get excited for when my wife wants to go there.
There's a panda express in my local grocery store. I get it occasionally out of convenience. Kind of like how your local burger joint is leagues better than McDonald's, but you're still swinging through that drive thru anyway.
Not even a close comparison. McDonald's burgers are delicious and better than most burger joints, if you ignore the fact they're twice as unhealthy. Panda Express is of course terrible, though.
The panda Express close to me seems to be better than his. The chow mein tastes a bit more like cabbage and isn't burnt, the broccoli beef isn't leathery and has more of the sauce, and all the ones near me will give you a little tub of teriyaki sauce for you to put on the teriyaki chicken, probably because corporate tested letting people choose the amount of sauce and it sold better. The pepper chicken tastes mostly of pepper though
We moved to HI almost 4 years ago and my husband noticed lots of Panda Express but seemed reluctant to go there. Now I don't feel like I'm really missing anything. Both my husband and my Uncle have dietary needs but he would always ask me if I wanted something special for myself. Maybe that is a good thing because I don't crave fast food that much but every now and then it does hit the spot.
"why would you get panda Express" it's the closest thing to Chinese food in my area 😭 as someone who grew up in California I miss real Chinese food every day. I think panda really thrives on people who eventually forget/don't know what proper Chinese food tastes like
@@AJJ129 some of the small to middle size metro areas/cities, especially in the US midwest, can lack many actual Chinese restaurants. where I live you can actually get basically every other asian cuisine (Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, etc.), but just not genuine Chinese partly bc those other asian restaurants sell their versions of Chinese food making a lot of competition that blocks out actual Chinese places. But, of course, their versions aren’t as good as the authentic Chinese food we could have 😭
There's this Restaurant Franchise at a few of the malls in my town called "Ta Wan" I swear to God, they are one of, if not the best Chinese food franchise in my city. The quality is good and the food tastes amazing, reasonably priced too not too fancy but not too cheap. Me and my family usually go there if we have the time and money
