Panda Express Beijing Beef and Kung Pao Chicken Meal
All the Entrees and Appetizers from Panda Limited, Ranked
Where does the famous orange craven stand?
Design past Chineme Elobuike for Thrillist
Panda Express is an always-evolving celebration of American Chinese food. From the iconic woks of Orange Chicken to the Sichuan-inspired Kung Pao Craven to classic Broccoli and Beef, there's something for everyone. But amongst the 12 unlike entrees and three appetizers, there are clear winners and losers. Here are all 15 of those items, ranked, so the side by side time you visit the fast casual chain, yous'll know exactly what to order.
A annotation on selection: Each Panda Express location has a different menu, so this ranking is based on the selection available at a Pasadena, California location. This ranking is missing Black Pepper Chicken and Sweetfire Chicken Breast, and in its place are the regionally available Eggplant Tofu and Blackness Pepper Angus Steak.
xv. Cream Cheese Rangoon
There's something mildly off-putting near snacking on warm foam cheese globs, lest it be stuffed in a jalapeño. In theory, a fried basket of scallion cream cheese should rock, but actually eating these from Panda Express felt a little flake icky instead. Perhaps it's the lack of fresh scallions, or the want to accept bits of crab meat or really any other flavor aside from sour cream cheese. Either way, I'd rather salve my foam cheese for bagels.
14. Veggie Leap Whorl
The veggie bound rolls are and then soggy that the experience of consuming them is akin to eating warm, flavorless coleslaw wrapped in a wet newspaper towel. In that location are much improve ways to get your veggie set up at Panda Express, and so skip this titbit.
xiii. Beijing Beef
Of all the incredible entrees served at Panda Express, I'm always amazed at people who order Beijing Beef (which, absolutely, I've witnessed maybe once). For starters, it'south so, so sugariness—cloyingly so. Although the beef bits are fried, the unabridged affair is overly sauced and therefore super wet. The redeeming qualities is that the onions and bell peppers maintain some bite, and the onions are surprisingly acidic—almost pickled—to provide some relief to the sugar content. Despite that, this is my to the lowest degree favorite entree of all the entrees.
12. Mushroom Chicken
Mushroom craven is like a worse version of the String Bean Craven or Kung Pao Chicken and here's why. Instead of cutting the zucchini into chunks like the Kung Pao Chicken, zucchini is sliced into thin disks and therefore gear up to be floppy and soggy. The mushrooms are meaty but compete with the chicken for superiority. Like the aforementioned entree, mushroom chicken is also drowned in sauce and loses whatsoever semblance of texture.
11. Black Pepper Angus Steak
This entree sounds like it'd exist gear up for success: steak cubes, a savory blackness pepper sauce flecked with garlic, streaks of infant broccoli. Information technology's even a wok-smart item! Only the steak here is disappointing. Chewing on each scrap of steak is similar biting into moisture paper-thin—it's stringy and falls apart, giving too easily. Beef should have some chew to it, and so although the vegetables and the sauce here are delicious, the namesake protein is a letdown.
x. Dear Sesame Chicken Breast
I don't know if my location had an off twenty-four hours when information technology came to this particular dish, but the chicken chest was so dry. The other craven entrees were completely fine, but this 1 in particular felt similar it was fried upwardly several minutes likewise long. The bell pepper also overpowers whatever other flavors aside from honey, so it's really sweet. I appreciate the bawdy scent from the sesame, merely I think it needs a different veggie to rest information technology out.
9. Broccoli Beef
Broccoli Beefiness is a archetype. The ginger-tinged soy sauce is the right amount of salty and the broccoli was cooked just right. My only gripe with this dish is the same gripe I have with the angus steak entree: The beef just has a strange grittiness to information technology. Will I all the same devour the unabridged carton? Probably.
8. Honey Walnut Shrimp
I am a sucker for Dearest Walnut Shrimp. The flossy sauce, the balance of sweet with nutty walnuts, the crispy tempura batter encasing succulent shrimp. For a fast-casual version, it's good! Merely so many other mom-and-popular spots practise this so much better that it's hard for me to appreciate it. On a trip to Panda Limited, I'd rather opt for one of their more famed creations.
seven. Craven Egg Roll
This is the best appetizer at Panda Express and it'southward kind of a bummer that an order of this only gets you i egg roll. The exterior is ultra crunchy, while the interior is blimp with cabbage, carrots, chicken, and translucent strands of glass noodles. It'south the perfect kickoff for your Panda meal; no complaints here.
6. Eggplant Tofu
Eggplant Tofu is a regional dish, but should actually be served nationwide. It's the perfect vegetarian pick at Panda. The braised eggplant is soft, and just when you retrieve things will be too mushy, a crispy cube of tofu arrives for you to gnash your teeth on. The sauce is both sweet and spicy, and squares of bell pepper maintain their crisis. It's seriously good.
5. String Bean Chicken Breast
Cord Edible bean Chicken has never led me off-target. It's perfectly sauced and the flavor of ginger lingers, the slivers of onion are sugariness, each cord bean in my takeout container was crunchy, and the craven tender. This was my go-to in high school and remains a top 5 particular.
4. Kung Pao Chicken
Of all the options at Panda Express, Kung Pao Chicken is perhaps the most interesting. In that location's peanuts, roasted whole chilies that add smokiness, zucchini chunks (not discs), and vivid bong peppers. Panda Express says it's Sichuan-inspired, which makes sense because information technology'due south likely the spiciest option bachelor (though information technology's really not likewise spicy at all). Other Panda entrees can feel one notation, but Kung Pao Chicken is anything but.
three. Grilled Teriyaki Chicken
The Grilled Teriyaki Chicken at Panda Express is severely underrated. It's butchered right in front of you and every fourth dimension I've ordered it, information technology's been perfectly cooked—juicy, subtly sweetness, tender. The folks who came up with it are geniuses for using chicken thigh over breast, which ensures the chicken doesn't dry out. If you haven't tried it yet, you're seriously missing out.
2. The Original Orange Chicken
What can I say about Orangish Chicken that you lot don't already know? It's zesty, it's sweet, it's somehow both crunchy and perfectly glazed at the same time. The orange season is almost floral and works in tandem with the mild heat from chilies. It'southward a archetype for a reason, and would be in the top spot if it weren't for a new contender.
1. Crispy Almond Chicken Breast
This is the newest addition to the Panda Express menu and perhaps the very all-time. It'south reminiscent of Panda Limited's star item, Orange Craven, but with added crunch and nuttiness. You know how sometimes, when chicken steams in its takeout container, the batter turns mushy and falls autonomously? In that location is no such thing with the Crispy Almond Craven. And where Orange Craven tin can exist besides acidic thank you to the titular add-on of orange juice, the crispy almond chicken has a rounder flavor—a balance of sweet, savory, and mild oestrus. It's the all-time innovation Panda has had in a long fourth dimension and I hope information technology remains on the card indefinitely.
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Kat Thompson is a senior staff writer of food & beverage at Thrillist. Follow her on Twitter @katthompsonn.
Source: https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/panda-express-menu-best-food
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