Panda House

I love this place! I live close by so I can just walk here whenever I get a hankering for chicken lo mein and crab rangoo. So good and decently priced! Plus, the lady up front is always kind and willing to make small talk :-) makes the experience more pleasant, always!

Wonton was good. The egg roll was greasy. The pork fried rice and the chicken and broccoli was by far the worst I have ever tested. I travel a lot and love Chinese food. But I will not order from this place again. Was a waste of my money

The food is always very good and at a good price. The customer service is always excellent.

I’ve lived in Omaha my whole life and have always considered panda house my favorite place to grab Chinese. I recently found out that the downtown location delivers and had to try it out. I generally don’t order delivery because the food usually shows up warm instead of hot. The food showed up within 20 minutes, the delivery guy ran it to our door in an insulated carrier and I nearly burnt my mouth trying to take the first bite. I’ve tried many other Chinese places all around town and this place is always my top choice. The chicken fried rice is always on point.

Lunch with gals on a Friday. This is a great building in downtown Omaha, has the charm and feel of a staple in Omaha. Food was good, portions were great.

I have had them deliver to me a few times while traveling. The good thing is they are always solid with delivery times. I have head the Generals Chicken as well as Phoenix and Dragon meals. The seasoning is OK on both of the dishes. I do like their hot and sour soup. Again not the most exciting food, but better than the average delivery in the area.

I would like to preface this review by saying I’m a freshman college student with little to no expectations, looking for a meal that doesn’t taste like cardboard cafeteria food. The quality of $ 5 Chinese food for $ 20. The «fried» rice was just regular rice mixed with soy sauce. Beef with Broccoli just tasted like roast beef covered in sauce. Definitely not worth the money. The sauce that came with the Crab Rangoons was somewhat comparable to Smucker’s jelly.

The Curry Shrimp was fantastic! I also recommend the Pan Fried Dumplings. The fried rice is a bit different then the norm. It’s light in color from not using as much soy sauce. Still very good though and not as greasy as some of the other restaurants. The delivery was fast and all the food was hot!

I heard it was good and needed something close to work. Got this on a whim. The chicken and broccoli was fairly bland, chicken wasn’t browned so it didn’t look too appetizing. Portions were small. I’ve had better and worse Chinese food. Quick delivery, but they said they can only deliver at certain times which were fairly obscure.

Me and PH go back a few years, since my first meal here upon arriving in 2012 to my latest one a couple weeks ago… Seems a few months back there was a change in ownership, and it really has been reflected in the food, the service and for me, the overall dining experience… Is this place perfect? No, but for me it get’s the job done and done well… the new owners recognize me now from coming in a lot recently and I like that… Since I started coming here regularly again, I’ve yet to have a bad meal, or bad service… It’s unfortunate others recently seem to have nothing nice to say about PH since they really are trying to fix the mistakes the previous owners made and I for one will continue coming here…

I’ve gotten to go orders from here a couple of times. The food is bland at best and completely lack luster. The chicken lo mein I got was very greasy, tasted like it had absolutely no seasoning, the veggies didn’t taste cooked and personally I questioned if the meat was cook enough. My husband ate it just so it didn’t go to waste. Even then he had to pour soy sauce on it so it had at least a little flavor.
The other time I decided to give them another try; every restaurant has their off days. Well I guess this is normal for them. Their chicken fried rice is just as gross or worse than their lo mein. Stale tasting rice, no flavor, just blah.
Also, I’ve never experienced table service here, but the guy who takes your to-​go orders needs a lesson in basic manners and he has an attitude problem. He seemed angry that I wanted to order food. Strange concept, but try to appreciate your customers!
With so many good places in the downtown area, these guys need to step up their game. I honestly don’t know how they stay in business.

Where do I begin?
TL;DR — Waitress doesn’t know how to waitress, food is bland and undercooked. 2/​5, would only recommend if starving and other options are closed.
Facility:
This split level restaurant is very clean, and well kept — the ONLY reason this review has two stars. The owners obviously take pride in appearance; beautiful art is on the walls. Unfortunately the owners also probably don’t have a lot of money, because it’s hard to ignore the pink chairs, old wallpaper, and water-​logged ceiling tiles.
Front desk:
Very nice people. Professional demeanor and appearance. Friendly.
Waitress (10/​28/​2015):
Professional appearance, however, probably eager to go home??? We came in at 7:30pm and the place doesn’t close until 9:30 — she immediately asked if we were ready upon seating us; we weren’t. Less than a minute passed, she asked again. We said no, however we ordered tea. Our tea came out immediately along with another request for our order. «No, please give us a few minutes». 30 seconds later she was back and asked for our order. We end up ordering appetizers, hoping it would appease her obvious hunger for taking our order. It was not enough. After receiving burnt-​on-​one-​side-​barely-​cooked-​on-​the-​other Fried Dumplings and probably-​packaged Wonton Soup, she again asked for our order. Not wanting to anger the beast any further, we hastily made our decisions– Pork Sweet and Sour, Cashew Chicken, and a house special! Shrimp and Pork, Hunan Style!
Food:
Please refer to the pictures for this horrific recount. I had the misfortune of ordering the Pork Sweet and Sour. Holy bland, Batman! The pork was bland, black (yes, the meat was a sickly black/​brown), and fried in some kind of oil, probably vegetable. The peppers, onions, and carrots were nicely sliced, however undercooked. The sauce was dreadful, and can be compared to the taste you get when you get to the rind of a watermelon slice. You know, the part where you’ve run into the bland, tasteless, disappointing area of the watermelon slice? The part that’s inedible? It was like that, but lukewarm.
The house special shrimp/​pork combo was separated by orange slices; the pork only tasted like mushrooms, and the shrimp tasted like it was covered in a puréed Whopper™.
I wish this place were better, but if you’re starving, I’d recommend it.

I got the crab rangoon appetizer and the tangerine chicken with a side of fried rice. The chicken was really good, someone who reviewed previously said it was dark meat but mine was white so maybe they had requested that. Lots of flavor and sauce, and a ton of it! The fried rice was just fried rice. The only reason why this is getting 4 stars instead of 5 is because I thought the crab rangoons would be the kind with cream cheese but the «filling» was just a dark looking meat… Not even sure if it was crab. So that was disappointing. Other than that it was all great! All of this food + delivery was only $ 20 and it was at my door in 30 minutes and hot! I’ll probably order from here again, especially in the winter when I don’t want to go outside.

I ordered twice from this place and was disappointed each time. Combination fried rice was ok but the shrimp and chicken entrée we got each time were both bad to say the least. It comes with white/​fried rice which has almost no flavor. The entrée itself is a decent portion but it js mostly soggy
Vegetables and flavorless sauce. The chicken/​shrimp in each dish seemed like it was frozen for a while and very rubbery. Very disappointment because each dish is almost 10 dollars and you would expect more from it.

My husband and I were famished late Labor Day evening, and took to Unilocal to find out what was open. Panda House it is! We walked in to this adorable downtown location and the staff cordially welcomed us in and took our orders immediately. I can’t say enough about how charming their location is — large windows that look onto downtown, bright lighting, tall ceilings, and clean.
My husband had the chicken lo mein and I had the tangerine chicken. The tangerine chicken was succulent dark meat with a sauce that was simultaneously sweet, citrusy, with just enough spice. My husband usually does not like dark meat, but he really liked my dish. I had a bit of his lo mein and it was quite wonderful — just the right amount of salt. We enjoyed ourselves so much that we’re ordering delivery from them tonight for dinner.
Charming locale, diverse menu, polite staff, long hours, and solidly good food. This is how you make repeat customers!
Panda House, I really really like you!

Super friendly staff. Clean place. Excellent Kung Pao shrimp, garlic chicken was pretty good too. Best soup was there sweet and sour. Recommended

From out of town & thought I’d try — first off all, the people are very nice. I grabbed food to go. Ordered Happy Family w/​fried rice & a cup of hot & sour. Good stuff! Entrée was good but the soup was fabulous!
I recommend you try Panda House.

A good, solid Americanized Chinese place. A little bland, but definitely edible (and definitely better than King Fong, which is a story for another day). Affordable, too!
The wonton soup broth is literally… chicken broth. No depth of flavor to it. The wonton is mostly noodle, almost no filling. But the egg roll was spot-​on! Husband’s orange chicken was also great… I ordered the Amazing Shrimp, which turned out to be decent, but not «amazing». The service was really wonderful, and it’s a beautiful location. So many windows, so much natural light! And awesome for people-​watching during lunch hour, too.
I like the experience of getting to watch the world go by while I eat, so I would come back here.

I absolutely love Panda House! It was on the list of my must haves when coming back to Nebraska for a visit. I can’t even explain how scrumptious the food is and just thinking about it now makes my mouth water.
I always order dinner here and order the Lover’s Nest with a side of crab rangoons! The presentation of the Lover’s Nest is spot on and I recommend it to anyone trying Panda House for the first time.
The Lover’s Nest as the menu states is a combination of shredded chicken, beef, and vegetables bathed in delicious brown sauce with a sweet, spicy zing… then tossed into a crunchy basket shell with fried noodles! Oh and can’t forget the rice! Such a scrumptious dish and cannot seem to part from this to try other things on the menu! It’s just so spot on and fulfills my every taste bud and desire for amazing Chinese food!
The service is also good. The waiters and waitresses are always so kind. Overall, I believe this place is a must have. Oh and enough food to eat the next day… even better!

After hearing many good things about Panda House from Jason G, I decided to give them another shot. Well, this time around I managed to avoid ordering any metallic-​tasting soup, which was nice (and the main reason my previous meal was, eh, not so good). Instead, my wonton soup was, you know, fine. The egg rolls were, you know, pretty good.
Jason recommended the Kung Pao chicken sans mushroom for an entrée. Sounds good to me. I don’t hate shrooms, so I went ahead and ordered the whole meal. I have to say Jason was right — the sweet and slightly spicy chicken was buried in shrooms, like there were more shrooms than chicken.
Still, Panda House is an all-​around average Chinese joint in the heart of an interesting downtown neighborhood. Which reminds me, I haven’t been to King Fong in like 15 years. I need to get there and compare the two, as they are neighbors. And I still have a hard time choosing Panda House when stellar eateries like Culprit Café, Block 16 and Kitchen Table are so, so close by (and only a little bit more expensive).
And before I forget: There are a variety of fancy, mostly tropical cocktails on the Panda House menu. Yet when you look at the dusty, untouched-​for-​a-​decade liquor bottles behind the cash register, you wonder what exactly you’d get if you ordered one (e.g. — a half empty bottle of Captain Morgan was a weird yellowish color, instead of the usual oak-​y brown of spiced rum). God only knows.