Panda Express

i love Chinese food. However, this food is usually cooked inconsistently when i order meals often

I don’t want to bash this place but it needs to get better and what is Unilocal for if not to make businesses aware of problems and give them a chance to correct them. This location is extremely popular and crowded, so be prepared to wait a very long time to get your food, no matter what. It seems like people are unhappy with many different things here but my major gripe is that they have utter contempt for vegetarians and go out of there way to be obnoxious to us. Sometimes, I look over and see no one inside, and I have a weakness for garlic eggplant… Panda express has 1 or two things you can eat there as a vegetarian. They never have those things prepared and when you ask they annoyingly laugh and say, you can wait 20 mins and we’ll make you some eggplant if you insist. All with a F you attitude on there faces. Long lines, bad attitudes and ultimately, crappy, over priced, over salted excuse for franchised chinese food… Goto Fu Zhou in Cotati and avoid this corporate monstrosity.

I’m a little surprised by the negative reviews. As a whole (and we’ve eaten at this particular restaurant a lot in the past 9 years we’ve lived in the area), the food tastes fresh, the portions are generous, and never had anything but courteous, friendly service. Occasionally they’ll be out of a favorite dish, or what remains looks a little «sad,» but this is frankly the only consistently fresh tasting Chinese restaurant nearby. We keep trying the individual restaurants as they come and go, but most have greasy offerings, or the restaurant itself isn’t clean. Panda is our go-​to for Chinese. It may not be particularly «authentic» (I’m no expert in this cuisine), but it’s tasty, not over salty or greasy, the meat almost never has any fat on it, veggies are fresh and crisp, and the recipes are replicated consistently. I usually get the brown rice, and whatever main items that appeal that day. I don’t care for chow mein (noodles are too soft to suit me) – the fried rice is quite good. For those watching their calories, their steamed veggies are really good – very crispy and flavorful.

Out and about with mom, we ended up here for lunch. Everything was to her liking, except the noodles (but I liked it) al dente. Walnut shrimp, vegetable beef, orange chicken, fried rice. We liked this panda better than others we’ve eaten at

This star is for customer service & operations. Time was 9:30pm, hours on the door said open until 10:30pm. They were OUT of the entrée options I came in for –teriyaki chicken, mushroom chicken, pepper chicken. When I said I would be willing to wait for one of those options, the curt employee explained they could not make any more because «it takes a while to close the grill.» Really? You start closing the grill ONE HOUR BEFORE your posted hours of operation? Unacceptable, ridiculous excuse. If this is the case, the owner should change the hours of operation to say: we close at 10:30 but we probably wont have much selection left, we won’t cook anything fresh for you because you are coming in too close to closing time and we are trying to get out of here but you might get lucky sometimes we have hours old fried shrimp & dried out wilted broccoli beef.“
This is not the first time this has happened at this location. I always give places a second chance but I will never go to this franchise again.

Panda is for people who don’t know traditional Asian food because they put teriyaki chicken in a Chinese restaurant, when it is Japanese. I do enjoy orange chicken and the black pepper chicken and the service is nice.

In the past I have had a bad experience with the manager here, however this time was a pleasant experience.. . All the food was fresh and the two women working were very friendly. There were a lot of customers and they were able to get everyone through the line quickly.

Very packed at round 7 pm. but also very slow moving. Same lady at the cashier for at least five minutes, just standing around waiting.

My husband had the Samurai Surf & Turf, a few hours later he got really sick. We won’t be going back.

Panda is usually a go-​to place for me when looking for something easy. This experience was poor all around and I even asked for a refund, I believe my first time ever doing that at a restaurant. Initial service was very rude when first ordering. On top of that, all of the items I ordered were awful and clearly old.
I couldn’t take it anymore so I took the food back up to the counter. After I told her I had tossed my receipt, she told me to go into the trash for it or I couldn’t get my refund.
Overall very disappointed

Stopped in for a quick lunch. Food wasn’t as warm as the soda’s. They had NO ice for any soda’s. How hard is it to send some across the parking lot to Target and pick up some ice? So to sum it up. Food was luck warm at best (rice was clumped together) and the drinks where warm. WORST Panda Express experience ever. It’ll be a long time if ever I can bring myself to set foot in another PE anywhere.

I only came here because my wife’s friend wanted to meet up here but I hate how Panda Express degrades traditional Chinese food. I go ballistics for honey walnut shrimp but here at Panda Express its just not the same. And the chow mein seems to have even less flavor than the ones where you have to add boiling water. The worst part is I had stomach problems about two hours later

Why did I even have a moment where I wanted to eat at this establishment let alone Unilocal it. The service was probably par considering the clientele that adorns this eatery. the food looked quite tasty, although tasted like plastic all around. Crunchy plastic, soggy plastic, cheap plastic.
If only there were real pandas, then maybe I’d have something to talk about.

Same food as other spots. The line here seemed to move faster than the Santa rosa one.

Two nights I’ve had dinner here.
Both times, the next day, I was on the can 8+ times.
It could be a coincidence, but I dunno.

Rick H. review below is right. This place sucks. I’ve eaten at more than 5 Panda’s while on the road. The one in Modesto is better than this Petaluma location. You need to be really hungry and not care about possible gastro-​intestinal consequences to chow down on this stuff.
I have a pretty tough Iron stomach and this crap has made me feel ill. I work at the hospital down the street and need to get evening shift food frequently. I will never return here.
My advice: Avoid!

I love Panda Express. Their orange chicken is delicious and they have the best chow mein ever! For fast food Chinese food, Panda Express is #1.

These places are basically gross. Way too greasy, little flavor, just too corporate. For a better, cheaper, quick chinese lunch, go to Hunan Kitchen tucked away in the corner of the little strip mall on Commerce behind KFC. I know, Rohnert Park sounds awesome.