China Panda

Food is ok, but pretty bland. There are better places to get Chinese in Jefferson.

I frequently eat at this Chinese restaurant. The lady at the counter/​answering phones may initially come off as abrasive. She keeps the fortune cookies and hot mustard behind the counter but will slip some your way if you’re nice.

This take-​out has the best Chinese food near Jefferson, but the service is awful. The woman who works the counter is very rude to her customers. She doesn’t speak English well. Being the son of immigrants, I’m very forgiving of that. But even if your language skills prevent you from offering top-​notch customer service, you can at least smile and be considerate. These folks don’t even try. I’ve put up with it for a year and a half because to get better food requires a round trip of an hour instead of 10 minutes, not counting waiting time. But yesterday, after my last visit, I’d had enough.
There were three parties waiting when I arrived, and one in line ahead of me. I waited 25 minutes after placing my take-​out order. All the people ahead of me had received their order at least 10 minutes before. Three of the parties who came in after me also received their orders, and I began to think that there might be a problem. I asked the woman to check on my order. She didn’t, she just said; «You go sit down. You got to wait.» Since long delays are common here, and this kind of language is pretty much standard treatment, I sat down and waited another 15 minutes, during which another half dozen people left with their orders.
I finally got back up and asked the lady to check again. This time she went to look, and started arguing with her son. They were pointing at the table where they place the orders and yelling at each other in Chinese. It was very clear from the body language that they had lost my order. She said to me again: «You go sit down.» I told her no, that I no longer wanted my order. She didn’t respond to that. I asked her why she would not let me call my order in ahead of time. She didn’t answer that either. I repeated my question and she walked away, and so I left.
If she’d said, «sorry, we lost your order — we’ll make your food right away», I would have waited. It doesn’t take much English to do that.
The issue of calling in my order is a touchy one for me. These folks allow some people to call in their orders. I asked when I first arrived, and was told that I had to come in to place my order. After a year of ordering 1 to 2 times a week, paying promptly, leaving a tip each time, I asked again. They again said no. I offered to bring in my FICO scores if they wanted proof I pay my bills and meet my commitments. No response.
I’ve spent a lot of time in the waiting room, and having observed the people who have their telephone numbers on file and can call in their orders, I’ve noted that they are uniformly white and middle class. I’m not white, but my net worth is probably higher than 90% of the people who come in here. It doesn’t matter. «Nice» white folks get to call in their orders — the rest of us don’t.
I understand that these folks have probably gotten burned by people who don’t pick up their orders, and when you run a low-​margin operation, it doesn’t take much to tip you the wrong way. But the cost of their discriminatory policy is a half-​hour of sitting around.
In any case, the Great Wall over by the new library makes food that is just about as good, and better for some dishes like egg foo young. The folks there don’t speak English any better, except for the kid who works after school and on the weekends, but they are pleasant. I went there yesterday and walked out with the same order I’d placed at Panda in 12 minutes.

Yeah, China Panda is an example of why monopolies are bad for consumers. I do my best to not do business with places that are sub-​par just out of principal alone. But, China Panda is the only take-​out Chinese for miles. And the few that are a bit of a distance away aren’t really any better.
I have ordered from here probably 20 times over the years, a fact I am not proud of but when the kids beg for a Sesame Chicken that is slightly better than the lean cuisine version, this is the only game in town.

Not terrible food, but its Chinese in Jefferson (middle of nowhere). I would recommend to stay away from the fountain beverages and teas. Get it bottled. From what I’ve seen the machine is filthy and upkeep a little gross perhaps. You also need to pay attention to the restaurant health score. Seems it was a low B last time I was there.

This was our first visit to this Chinese restaurant and won’t be our last. We arrived late (8:30pm) and was not real sure what we were getting into. Well, the food was freshly prepared while we waited. Although there is no pretense of ambience, the place was very clean and orderly. The food was Excellent! I had perfectly prepared sweet and sour pork with fried rice. The food was good here, I had to write this immediately.