Panda East

Really good Chinese food. Not too greasy. Quick, friendly service. Good portions for a reasonable price.

Haven’t actually been in the restaurant but have ordered delivery here several times. Pretty standard fare Americanized Chinese food. I appreciate that they have great vegetarian options, and large portions as well.

Panda East is one of my main go-​to Amherst restaurants, have gone many times and am rarely disappointed!
I am a vegetarian and finding good vegetarian choices at restaurants has always been a struggle, but Panda East has been a gift from above you might say. I want to share with you my favorite options here.
STEAMED VEGGIE DUMPLINGS
Never have I ever found such luscious, full, and perfectly textured dumplings, but what makes them even better is the AMAZING dumpling sauce! Seriously, like, I order them for the sauce basically, but even alone they are packed with veggies and goodness!
Tofu & Spinach soup for 2
A perfect dish to share with a friend, certainly more soup than i’d suggest eating alone, the broth was thick and delicious — though I added a little extra salt. DO NOT CONFUSE with the tofu&vegetable soup which I was severely disappointed by! broth was thin and veggies way too huge!
Fried Rice, Scallion Pancakes, and Sushi are all great!
They also have fake-​meat options which look so realistic that I didn’t believe they were fake!
And they have a good selection of drinks, I suggest the long island or piña colada.

The waiter I had was sooooo rude. He literally got mad at another waiter for getting us drinks! He than demanded a tip and wrote it on

I went to high school in Amherst and recently went back with my husband to show him around the western Mass area. I was excited to take him to Panda East because it used to be pretty good. When I got there, the first thing I noticed was that the owners changed and so did the interior. It wasn’t the prettiest restaurant, however, it used to look very Asian (since it is a Chinese restaurant) and now it just looks very dull and not so clean. I ordered a shredded beef schezuan style and my husband ordered a sweet and sour shrimp and we were very shocked at how the shrimp turned out. (I wish I took a picture but we just paid and left). The shrimp’s frying batter was at least half an inch thick and it was the soggiest shrimp we have EVER had. I normally do not try to write terrible reviews but I really had to make sure no one either eats the sweet and sour shrimp or Panda East reads my review and changes their recipe (which I highly doubt).

Food is a little on the expensive side, but it is quite tasty. Great hang out, recommend the honey chicken, careful not to overstay your welcome. Manager stood and stared at our group when we sat for longer than 5 minutes after we paid the bill. Also it is usually full of college kids if that is something that you feel strongly about. The bowls of alcohol are particularly popular.

We used to like this place, but takeout last night was abysmal. The stir-​fried veg and tofu was extremely disappointing, and the won ton soup was completely uninspired. It’s like they’re not even trying. The veg dish had tired broccoli that had been cooked way too long (limp) and the sauce was generic brown blah. C–

Usually a good spot for college kids to go on the weekend, but horrible service. Upon getting there we were shouted at to give an order and when trying to order something gluten free, the waitress told us she couldn’t do anything gluten free. (Not true! I’ve had it before!) after being there for barely an hour, we were literally and rudely kicked out to open up the table and told to go stand in the crowded doorway if we didn’t want to leave. We had 20 people and were giving the waitress a pretty nice tip so we thought this was extremely rude and unprofessional.

Review based Purely on the special Sichuan Menu you have to ask for! (Added pics here on Unilocal of it)
The regular menu is primarily for Americans, but pretty much everything we have had on the sichuan menu has been amazing! The staff seems to also get visibly excited when non-​chinese people order off their sichuan menu.
Should perhaps avoid dining in here on Thursday/friday,/sat nights because it filled with loud undergrads essentially «pre-​gaming» with scorpion bowls.
Otherwise its our favorite Chinese place in the valley.

Absolutely terrible place. Food has declined significantly from past years and service is non existent and when the waiter is throwing food at the table he’s rude. Had to get my own water after waiting an hour and not getting any attention for 45 minutes. When asking for hot tea the rude waiter screamed about how it wasn’t hot and it was too busy to give us tea. Then did it to another table. After this being a favorite spot since child hood and having recently moved back to the area im severely disappointed. I will never be back.

The sushi at Panda East is the best I’ve had in the Amherst area, and I’ve been to plenty of sushi spots around. The sushi here is really good, and really consistent. All of their special rolls are unique and tasty.
I’ve only ordered the sushi here, so I can’t speak to anything else.
The service is friendly and attentive; they’ve never messed up an order.

I hate beef. Did you know that? You probably will figure that out if you page through my reviews and see how often I mention chicken.
But for whatever reason, any time I go to a Chinese restaurant, I order beef fried rice. And when I come to Panda East, I order beef fried rice with the gluten-​free soy sauce. Yes, my fad dieting friends, the people at Panda East have been providing gluten-​free alternatives to people like me since 2004. You better believe it.
Unfortunately, I haven’t been in a while, but I trust the waiters here. Even when they don’t seem to understand what I’m asking, they come up to me and ask «Gluten free, yes?»
My friends used to enjoy the Blue Hawaiian drink here, and all of the chicken dishes were very popular among my gluten-​full friends.
They are very familiar with the need for gluten free meals, but can you expect anything less from the Pioneer Valley?
Three stars because it’s decent, but the only reason I went so much was because it was my only local option for years! I’m glad that fad dieters have helped this change.

First visit to Panda East.
It was a Saturday night, and the restaurant was absolutely packed! The food came out fast though, no complains there.
I really enjoyed my Ma La pork intestines, a delicacy only typed in chinese on the menu. Two of my companions opt for less adventurous dishes: Panda Trio and Orange Chicken. Portion is huge! I would definitely share the next time. Prices averages $ 12-​$ 14.
Scorpion bowls are on every table — would probably order it when I return.

I read the reviews and thought Panda East sounded as though it would be a great place to order Chinese, so maybe they were having a bad night. The portions were very small and flavorless. I was excited to have their scallion pancakes because others seemed to rave about them. They were a BIG disappointment! My 10 year old and 14 year old was just as disappointed as I was. Having a bad night or not, I will not try them again. I thought they were reasonably priced, but quality and quantity did not add up for the price I paid. However, the one positive aspect was the people were friendly and it was ready quickly.

Typical American Chinese food. Miss Saigon across the road is way more authentic. One star for the convenient space for gathering and partying.

Update! This review isn’t about the food, which remains wondrous. This review is about the waitstaff. Panda has the most rude waitstaff I’ve ever dealt with.
One is a large, sullen woman that haunts the back wall and watches. She approaches immediately when you pay the check or are done with your plates. She’s attentive, but watches from afar, and that’s really an uncomfortable feeling. She’s a bit rude, but she does her job well. Meh.
Then, yesterday, we had our first experience with a waiter named Eric. He was awful. He was clearly having a very bad day, and that’s fine, but he brought that to the table and let it show in his mannerisms. He took our order and just turned away without responding to my «thank you» or saying anything at all. He came by and made a snide remark about how quickly we ate. When he was putting our plates down, he pushed my elbow with my plate, because it was apparently where he wanted to put the plate. My elbow wasn’t blocking the table, mind you. He walked away from another table, right by ours, muttering f-​words under his breath. This happened twice.
We’ve noticed before that Panda has rude waitstaff, but it’s getting out of hand. I don’t know if saying something to the management would help. We should probably have done that for Eric, but we’d just left him a crappy tip and wanted to get out before he noticed in case he felt like raging on us.
So, to be clear, the food is marvelous. The service isn’t. You should still go.

I’d like this place (… maybe) if I didn’t have tastebuds and was extremely hungover.
I had a late night craving for bad Chinese food, and I knew I was going to be in for some bad Chinese food, but I was not prepared for the burnt oil and salt orgy that was my beef lo mein. Rarely have I ever had noodles so slimy and over-​sauced. I took a paper towel to it, and all I got was linty noodles. And the beef! Cut into adorable tiny, tiny slivers.
I finished it (for lunch the next day too) because I hate myself and my arteries, but NEVER AGAIN.
Though I can’t totally hate on this place. The sushi is aggressively mediocre, but inoffensive! And the spring rolls I got were OK.
Please Amherst, can we find some halfway decent Asian food?

Only a few minutes away from UMass campus, Panda East quickly became a popular location of my friends and co-​workers to meet up for bite or drink (more for the drinks). Overall this place would be a 3 for food, and +0.5 for those scorpion bowls. I’ll be nice and round up for the good memories.
Probably my most fond memory of the place actually would be my first Scorpion Bowl. The mystical concoction is surprisingly pretty strong (if you get a large you may want to share it with someone else) but definitely a must have at $ 11~$ 12. They also have other delicious variants like «Pineapple Dream».
As for the food, I’ve always enjoyed the dishes I’ve ordered. I haven’t tried the sushi, but perhaps in the future. Usually if I don’t want end up in a food coma, I find that the portions are enough for another small lunch. The food is cooked and brought out promptly.
Although depending on what time you go, you might find the staff completely overwhelmed with swarms of loud college students pre-​gaming for the night! I had an off experience where I went to Panda’s with a group of 6 friends. We were one of those annoying groups that wants to split the check. We ordered our entrees and split 4 scorpion bowls. One of my friends ordered a small for himself and he received a large. Okay more drinks, no big deal. It seemed like they were just handing them out like bread starters! At the end of the meal the waitress had us write our credit card #s along with the totals. Somehow the whole process took about 30 minutes of just trying to pay for our meal. We recalculated the total about 5 times. My friend’s card was swiped for my meal total and vice versa. In the end they really just wanted us to leave and in her frustration, the waitress just ended up giving us $ 5 to settle the discrepancy. Meh, hopefully that was just a one time occurrence.

The scorpion bowls are excellent and the Chinese food is bar-​none the best in Amherst (although that isn’t the greatest compliment). The sushi is really only mediocre at best, I wouldn’t bother. This is a place to go get a big flaming bowl of alcohol, egg rolls, and house special chicken with a couple friends. You won’t be disappointed.

So here’s an update after going there a couple of times. Still love the sushi. I recently tried the New England Roll. $ 8.95 Wish there were more pieces. The eel donburi is great. Lots of rice! around $ 12 Scopion bowl is awesome.$ 11 for large.
Pork fried rice on the other hand came out really salty so sent that back. Really nice about it. Hard to find my server. so busy! Fried mango ice cream was weird. they ran outta green tea :(
Can’t wait to go back!