Panda Inn

Went this weekend to universal studios with the fiancé.. Decided to end the night with a nice dinner. After passing Wolfgang puck and not wanting to fight the crowd back we decided to go in to panda Inn as we are avid Chinese food eaters and the patio was nice.
The restaurant was nice and clean and the staff was nice enough. I’m sorry but my gripes are at the food.
1: I order ed a cucumber tea which they said they ran out of. I was disappointed because I was looking to try something new.
We ordered a tai tea that could come with or with out the boba we went without and it was delicious!
Our order was as thus: shrimp egg rolls for appetizer
And magnolia n beef with fried rice with shrimp and scallops.
The egg rolls we just ok. Literally little pieces of shrimp wrapped nothing else in it.
The magnolia beef which I usually love was waaay to spicy and too many onions.
All I tasted was burning in my mouth and green inions. it. Was not enjoyable for me at all
The rice and shrimp was really good but scallops which were tiny and fun were boiled and not grilled and taste like water.. Literally water. it was pretty gross
Good thing my honey eats pretty much anything and hates to waste food. I don’t like to waste either but I pretty much would have left half of it there
Pretty disappointed and with a 50 dollar bill
Too overpriced. no adventure at all. will not be returning .ever.

I was hanging out with Family to celebrate my new job and I must say I’m mostly giving it stars because I had an amazing Server named Jon. He’s probably one of the best I’ve ever had. I’d expect the type of treatment he gave us in Beverly Hills someplace where service is usually top notch.
He suggested we modify our order to get more food and variety for our buck. He was cheerful, friendly and I could tell that he took great pride in his work.
My mom ordered a Cosmo and the Bartender wasn’t stingy with the alcohol. The drink could knock your socks off. I personally appreciated that lol.
Enjoyable experience. Thank you for everything Jon you were an awesome server and spirit.

Was a bit pricier than I expected actually. a drink and a small appetizer were 18 bucks not including a tip. Food was ok-​defintely have had better and worse. Staff was very attentive and friendly. They sat us right in front of the door which sucked. hot/​cold/​hot/​cold every time someone came in or out. If my friends wanted to go again I wouldn’t argue about it but I probably won’t go again of my own accord. Free edamame check in offer though! thanks for that!

The restaurant is nice and clean. The waitress opened up the patio and turned the heaters on for us. Really cozy and laid back atmosphere.
The menu prices were reasonable. Seems very similar to Panda Express.
I had the Chicken chow mien. Nothing to rave about.
It’s located inside of City Walk so you have to pay to park in the garage.
The Milk Green tea was good.

The food was okay. It was basically glorified Panda Express. Definitely overpriced. The restaurant itself is very nice and clean.
We shared this spicy orange chicken, a hot pot, and their pad Thai. Everything was okay.
This place has such bad service.
When we came they had a huge staff and no customers.
We were seated promptly but our drink orders weren’t taken promptly.
They had like 3 – 4 guys in uniform and a couple of chefs.
We were the only group.
So we all order.
They forget one of our drinks.
They didn’t bring the food out in a good order.
Then we get entrees and they forgot one.
They ask if we are waiting on something and we tell them and they still forget! The ultra annoying part
They had different staff coming around asking if we were done so often that we couldn’t enjoy our meal. If there is still food on the plate, utensils in our hands, you aren’t close to closing, and no other food is coming since you forgot one of our entrees then why are they so eager to take our plates?! It was so annoying.
So our servers says they forgot to put it in. No apology just kind of giggles that she forgot. Then she comes back and says no she did put it in but the chef forgot. It’s not the point we are pretty much done eating since we told them and it still never came. She said she could still give it to us to go for free. Being on vacation, and hungry, and the restaurant being virtually empty aside from one other group that came in? It was just really frustrating.
I think they ended up leaving this server by herself because after we talked to the manager she apologized and said that one table that came in kept her really pre-​occupied.
It was very nice of the manager to apologize and also very nice of the server to apologize.
The manager was next door managing their other restaurant so she only had an account of what happened by us and by their staff.
She should have been there supervising and seeing what was going on.
We ended up still leaving a generous tip considering our really bad service.

Are you kidding? WTH happened to THIS place? I’ve been coming here for years. We were undecided as to where to have lunch today and decided on Panda and what a mistake. From the moment we walked in until we left, this was a total disaster. What was a pretty good restaurant went to one star only so I can post the review. Specifically:
— No lunch menu was provided when we were seated.
— When asked what we wanted to drink, we responded «water» — it took a second person to ask for our drink order.
— Service: slow and very unprofessional; the waiter was nice enough, he just isn’t trained well and doesn’t have the skill level to really wait tables at this point.
— Food: awful! The hot and sour soup was not exactly flavorless, but was definitely watered down. The egg rolls were mushy and no dipping sauce was provided. The Panda beef was rubbery. The walnut shrimp was undercooked. The saving grace was the brown rice; that was pretty decent.
— The aftermath: Went to a candy store to get a few jelly beans just to cleanse my palate, more out of necessity than simple desire. Am thinking my stomach may not be happy this afternoon, but that remains to be seen. Hoping for the best.
So sorry Panda, but you are no longer on the list of «let’s eat here.» Not sure if it’s a change in management, ownership, or what, but the best I can say is «ewww!» Or maybe ew, gross. You really blew it.

Had dinner and drinks here before going to Halloween Horror Nights. The menu is exactly like PF Chang’s food. Ordered Mongolian Beef, Phoenix Chicken, and Tofu Spicy Eggplant and loved them all. Very good and I’d recommend. Also ordered the Singapore Noodles (curry based), and calamari which were just ok. Tried the pear mojito and it was very good. I ordered the Mai Tai and it was extremely strong. Service was good. The restaurant was pretty dead though.

The food and menu here went down the drain. It used to be elegant and a long menu. Seems they fired all the chefs and adopted the cheaper, Panda Express menu. Foodies avoid this place at all cost. They may have catered to the cheap gangsters that hang out at Citywalk but it’s not for the rest of us.

What happened? It used to be such a nice place to eat. Now it’s overpriced drinks and small appetizers. Some classic Panda Inn stuff but I seriously hope that the Pasadena location isn’t like this. Ordered to go and got a $ 5 miniature Thai tea and it had enough sugar for 2 drinks. Salt & pepper calamari was mediocre and presentation was poor. Just battered calamari. Not much flavor. Service wasn’t good. Was asked to pay for fortune cookies ummmmm, no, that’s just ludicrous… even if they’re dipped in white chocolate.

Ordered food on line, then was called and told more than half of what was online, doesn’t exist anymore.
HORRIBLE SERVICE.
HORRIBLE MENU.
Seriously take a look at your business and FIX IT. Otherwise go away.

My bf and I came here on our first date… aww. We just came here because it was close to the movie theaters and it looked decent enough. We were seated right away and our waiter was really nice and recommended some chicken dish which we ordered along with beef broccoli. The chicken dish was actually really good… much better than the beef broccoli.
Somewhere along the way our original waiter went on break and the replacement waiter was much slower. We actually had to flag him down to get our check as we didn’t want to be late for the movie. This place is OK… but with so many other options around I doubt that I’d be back here anytime soon. Panda Inn… Panda Express it’s all the same… except for the price.

The bad:
Waiters are not attentive, once you order your food it’ll take a while to get there and then when it does don’t expect anyone to come around and see how your doing. With your drink what you see is what you get and refills are nonexistent because you’ll have a harder time trying to find the waiter.
To get here you have to drive all the way to universal studios city walk and most likely pay to park in the structure. All this for a little chinese food.
I came here with a group of seven once, most of them little kids the hubby and I were taking out for a good time. Although they didn’t mess up our order, they were more than stingy with the rice and no one got refills. I contemplated marching up to the kitchen with my empty glass and asking for a refill. That’s how annoying it got.
The good:
I for one really like the food and I have never been to place that has chocolate covered fortune cookies. Awesome.
Again, I prefer to be left alone after they bring the food. Yea, they could do a better job on the refills, but after I get my food I’ll be fine and I won’t need you to come around every second and ask me how things are.
— — — —
So the place was good for me simply because I did like the food, but don’t expect to get stellar service — you won’t.

Expect to have not that healthy, slightly greasy, Americanized Chinese food. But once you get past that and score yourself a table outside, you can enjoy a warm night and people watch while downing your guilty pleasure. The Moo-​Sho Wraps were a hit as well as the Chicken Lettuce Wraps. I also had a drink from the signature cocktail list. It was my favorite thing of the entire dinner. My apologies, I can’t remember the name, but it was blue and at the bottom of the list. Our service was outstanding. Lots of apologies for what I didn’t even think was that long of a wait time. The location is right across form the movie theater, so you won’t miss the previews!

I actually prefer Panda Express: O
I gave three stars instead of 2 because the waiter was very attentive and friendly.

I didn’t find this place to be all that bad at all. I always go to Comacho’s Cantina before an event at Universal, but decided to try something new before the No Doubt concert last weekend.
I went with my mom around 4:30PM on a Saturday. The place was empty when we sat, but by the time we left around 6PM it was getting pretty crowded.
Service: The service was my only let down. When we got there, there was only 1 other table in the entire place, but the servers seemed really confused and they were really slow. Everyone was nice, but they all just seemed super overwhelmed… like it was everyone’s first day. If you’re in a hurry, this is not the place for you. Also, they don’t speak English very well, so that may be part of the problem.
Food: The foo tasted pretty much just like Panda Express, which is actually fine for me because I happen to enjoy Panda Express. I got an order of the veggie potstickers and I quite enjoyed them, My mom got the lettuce cups and they were good too. We also got an order of the beef pan friend noodles. They were very crispy… in a few spots on the top it was actually burnt, but it didn’t bother me. The beef tasted exactly like the beef in the beef and broccoli at Panda Express.
Price: I didn’t think it was overly expensive for being at Universal CIty Walk and for the ammt. of food you got. I could have easily taken over half of my noodles home, but had to leave them since we were going to the concert.
for $ 50, we got all that food, plus 4 beers. I got to try Lucky Buddha Beer for the first time and LOVED it!
I wouldn’t make a special trip to go there, but I would consider going again if in the area.

I understand that people have different expectations of restaurants they visit, but when I decide to patronize an establishment, I do not have the intent to find something wrong before entering. I try to base my reviews on that particular visit. As a «Yelper» part of the advantage is that I can actually look up the business prior to my intended visit and read reviews and make some sort of informed decision based upon reviews that actually have effort made by the person writing the review. When I see reviews that say have one liners as in «This place Sucks, the end» well this leads me to believe this is poorly written review because the lack of effort! So here we go!
Panda Inn is the «Parent Restaurant» of the fast food chain Panda Express, not the other way around. None the less, please do not write them off completely. I have visited the one of the original Panda Inn Restaurants many times in the past several years and had never been disappointed. So during a recent mini vacation to Universal Studios Hollywood, we knew that we wanted a decent place to have lunch. Since there just happened to be a Panda Inn located at City Walk, Universal City. We decided to have lunch there. This will be a cut to the chase type of review. Upon entering Panda Inn, we were immediately greeted and seated. After our drinks were taken, we decided to order the Hong Kong Style-​Pan Fried Noodles, Orange Chicken, Combination Fried Rice, Fish in Black Bean Sauce, and Walnut Prawns.
All of the entrees served were enough to feed the four of us, so we all shared and we still had leftovers. Considering each plates average cost was about $ 11.00, I thought that was a good thing! Overall the food was good, not off the hook something to scream about, but was most certainly satisfying! As I stated earlier, the service was good… although it appeared to be moderately busy, our server was still very attentive not only to our table, but to all of her tables she waited on. Good service, good food = a happy me! Recognizing Panda Inn, City-​Walk is part of a chain just as Hard Rock Café, Pinks, and The Rainforest Café… stay open minded. So if you have a taste for Chinese Cuisine, give em’ a try!

I know what you are going to say. Well, they are part of Panda Express, and that makes them a chain.
My reply would be… well, I have not been to the Panda INN, so there. And I will always try everything at least one.
So on my last day of a business trip to LA, I decided to go to Citywalk at Universal Studios in Hollywood with two missions in mind:
1) I collect Hard Rock Café shotglasses and didn’t have this one.
2) I have been to the Citywalk in Orlando a bazillion times, and never even bothered to come to this one.
So with both of those two goals accomplished and yearning to get something to eat before heading to LAX, I ventured into Panda Inn.
The service was quick and very friendly (quick because it was quite empty!). The server was very attentive.
For food, I ordered the Upside Down Noodle Next with Shrimp. Although at first I thought it was bland, the more gravy the noodled sucked in, the better it tasted. I even sprinkled a healthy portion of chili paste on to it which definitely kicked it up a notch.
And this dish is enough to share between two people. I took the leftovers on the plane, and it was great, considering it gave time for the noodles to soften up with the gravy.
So if you are in Citywalk, give these guys a try. After all, everything in Citywalk is a chain in the first place!

Disgusting place ewwwwwww
Service sucks. Since when do waiters argue back with you?
Food was horrendous. Cold and flavorless.
Overall review… never again. This place just flat out is terrible. Good day.

This place was TERRIBLE. Do not go here if you want Chinese food and are visiting LA. It is a total tourist trap. Less than mediocre Chinese food that was probably just a frozen meal shipped from a warehouse and microwaved before it was served. We had to be served by the hostess because they didn’t have enough waiters.
IF YOU WANT CHINESE FOOD, GO SOMEWHERE ELSE. ANY WHERE ELSE!

Had a late lunch here with friends. The service was pretty bad, especially considering they were not busy. I ordered a Lychee Martini and it was tasty, but it took forever and a day to be made.
We started with appetizers:
Crab Wontons — Tasty, but room temperature. I liked the dipping sauce served with them.
Pork Dumplings — I didn’t try them, but my friends thought they were just alright.
Crispy Calamari — Actually not too bad. Could have been crispier though.
Entrees:
Orange Chicken — Panda Beef — Three Ingredient Taste — These all tasted very similar. They were coated in so much sauce that you could barely taste anything else. The sauces were more sugary and sticky than Pick Up Stix and they just over powered everything. The pictures on their menu make the items look fresh and yummy, but in reality they are just soaked in sauce.
Seeing how I am never out this way, I won’t be back. But if for some reason I was at the City Walk again, I would go to Bubba Gump or Buca Di Beppo over this place in a heartbeat!