Ordered take out tonight, which is so easy and ready in about 15 mins so I'm surprised that few reviewers here seem to do that.
Service is fine for takeout and the order was complete and accurate as it has been 99.9% of the time that we have ordered there throughout the years since it opened.
General Tao chicken is a favourite, spicy and glazed and not often available elsewhere with a few pieces of broccoli for contrast. Sweet and sour chicken balls are a bit heavy on the coating but indulgent and good with classic sweet (red) sauce on the side. Steamed (or fried) dumplings with what I assume is hoisin sauce are SOOOOO good, even better as takeout than buffet.
Tried beef with green peppers for the first time tonight and really liked it, mild spicy, quite lean, no other vegetables (which is nice because I hate baby corn and don't like to pick it out of things).
I personally don't like egg rolls anywhere in Kingston as they all have mung beans, which are nasty. I wish some place would do straight pork and cabbage egg rolls like you can get in Ottawa. However, Panda Garden's are good if you don't mind the bean aspect and they have the classic plum sauce packets with them that we enjoy.
Whenever we order wonton soup for takeout, which we didn't tonight, I've noticed that they do include a lot of wontons in the order, which we appreciate. Sometimes the pork bits are a little fatty but that's not always the case.
We've ordered about 1/3 of the items off the menu over the years and enjoy the vast majority of them, including the Shanghai noodles that you don't always see elsewhere.
Until Panda Garden, I vowed that Kingston didn't have any decent Chinese restaurants but we like this one quite a bit.
On the whole we enjoyed our visit to the Panda Buffet. Lots of food choices, most of it hot, good desserts. The staff speak very little English and didn't really try to understand us. The woman at the cash was very rude and didn't thank us at all. The atmosphere wasn't great but we didn't expect much seeing as though it is a buffet
Buffet, what do you expect? The name panda garden is perfect because most of the food looks like it was trampled by a panda. The lady who seated us took our drink order and another lady brought it; that was the last I saw of anyone who would bring us another. The food was dry and had a nice think layer of film on it as it was no doubt sitting out for hours before I arrived. The sushi was completely inedible, the only reason I know it was sushi was because the sign told me so. Desserts were dry, ice-cream was freezer burnt, fruit was soggy, soup was film covered and the wontons in the soup were actually burnt. By the end I had tried a bit of everything in a foolhardy attempt to find something edible. By the end of the half hour I was sore and defeated. I paid the check and with no one there to tip; I crawled home. oh and the whole time i was there the psudo-chinese music kept playing the same horrific notes like an episode of the twilight zone where no one ever stops eatting and no fresh food is ever made.
Merry Christmas NOT. We ordered take out and after arriving home (30 minutes out of town) with our order($85 worth) we discovered that we were missing our Chicken Balls and 2 Spring Rolls. We called the restaurant and asked for a refund on the items that were missing. After 20 minutes and being called liars a number of times they refused to refund us any money and continued to be rude.
I am not to sure when customer service was thrown out the window but at this restaurant they have NONE. I will never eat here again and I will be passing my experience on to anyone that I know and work with.
Hopefully next year Santa will leave a restaurant full of COAL for these owners. I am still in shock over the whole experience.
Sushi is lame but if you want good sushi you need...
Sushi is lame but if you want good sushi you need to go to a sushi bar.
The rule of thumb when at any buffet is always stick to the popular dishes as these will always be the most fresh. Unfortunately, this is true of the Panda Garden also.
In spite of this, this buffet is the best in town. What more can I say.
