Panda Express

The spare ribs and broccoli beef are my favorite dishes. I am willing to wait for a long time before I get my food.

Delicious American Chinese greasefest food.
Sure, it’s a chain, but abiding by the «shop local» mantra of our times can only go so far when your mouth otherwise revolts.
And I can only imagine the distress of the student community when they were promised a Thai place and left with this.
But I come here as a glutton for that version of Chinese food that has proven more and more elusive in these here parts.
Unlike many of the American Chinese restaurants in the area, this place has not sold out. Their fried rice is white rice, made brown by soy sauce, with a nice variety of (probably frozen) veggies and tangible egg bits. Tangible egg bits! And the rice is brown, not the god-​awful YELLOW that so many Chinese joints are offering now, presumably in a desperate attempt to lure in Latino clientele. Can you say estupido?! People go to Chinese places for Chinese food, not poorly crafted versions of arroz amarillo!!!
But, I digress.
I had heard years of accolades for their Orange Chicken, and the very friendly lady behind the counter was kind enough to let me sample a piece. (Side note: Welcome to America, where kindly old Caucasian ladies deftly serve young Asian ladies Americanized Chinese food samples, and neither of them feels at all peculiar about this situation :)). It was super hot and tasty indeed. But not my steez.
I ended up ordering a Bowl ($ 6.01, including tax, includes 1 entrée and 1 side) of the aforementioned delicious fried rice topped with a newfandangled «healthy» menu item of stir-​fried white meat chicken with kale and shitake mushrooms. I got to sample that one as well, and eating it in a larger quantity did not disappoint! There were good proportions of mushrooms to kale to chicken in the entrée, and the bowl overall was quite filling.
Part of me really just wanted steamed brown rice, but I decided to take one for the team so I could evaluate their fried rice. I was not disappointed!
Great Chinese food option in the area. In fact, I might make this my go-​to, since all the others are so often so hit-​or-​miss, chintzy, and don’t seem to cater to my palette anymore.

Do you like to feel sick for about two hours after eating? Have you ever looked at a mushy piece of Sesame Chicken thinking, «I wish this were just a bit colder on the inside?» This is the place for you. I didn’t know it was possible to make a reheated frozen egg roll into inedible mush, but the magicians at the Bryan Center Panda Express found a way. Never eat here, ever. The one star is for proximity to the Duke University Hospital emergency room.

I’m normally a huge fan of Panda Express restaurants. I love eating their cheap, fast, and crispy food in a pinch. This Panda Express sorely disappoints in the cleanliness department. On consecutive visits, my food was sneezed on and had hair in it, respectively. On the third visit, I became violently ill after the meal. I will not be returning to this particular branch.

Fast food close to work that doesn’t involve burgers. This is what you picture when you think of fast food Chinese. They are super quick about things am their prices range from five to seven dollars for a meal. The employees have always been friendly.
They sell half sides, small sides and large sides. This means for three bucks you can get a full size Chinese food box with half noodles and half steamed broccoli/​carrots/​cabbage/​peas.
Seating is limited but only people with a place to be or other time constraints go here, so I suppose this isn’t an issue.

They promised us a Thai restaurant as part of the BC renovation… and they gave us this mushy crap.
Best way to sum up the way I feel about that: BAIT AND SWITCH

«Decent Chinese fast food on Duke’s campus»
Sure, it’s chain food, but it’s fast, cheap, and pretty tasty from this location. You can also get «vegetables», which are hard to come by in a lot of fast food options, in general or on campus. I especially like the pepper chicken– got some kick to it but excellent flavor.
Be sure to ask for the Duke employee discount if you are one. And make sure to grab a fortune cookie!