Panda Restaurant

Decent Chinese food. They definitely have some good plates like Kung po And good fried rice. But their crab ragoons are inedible. It’s the place I go when it’s late and no other Chinese is open.

This place has been here since I can remember, I grew up in Elgin and recently moved back with my husband. We often order the Mongolian Chicken, Orange Chicken and my sister has tried various pescetarian dishes including the Sweet & Spicy Shrimp and General Tso’s Shrimp. We’ve been to this place numerous times in the 6 months we’ve been in Elgin and it is definitely one we will continue going to. The only thing I don’t care for is their white rice — I’m a HUGE rice fan and when it comes to dishes with rice, the texture and flavor makes a difference — so if I could suggest one thing, it would be to upgrade the quality.
Besides the main dishes listed above, their Hot & Sour soup is delicious and their Steamed Pot Stickers are fantastic! Their food is a bit pricey, but I feel like you can’t order Chinese food anywhere without it costing at least $ 30 for 2 people — plus, the portions are large and we always have food left over for the next day or two.

I order the rice and chicken in the brown sauce every time and I have never been unsatisfied in my 15 years of eating from this place.

The lowmein noodle combo is actually good but the gentleman that works the front is very crabby. Not bad but only for take out.

Keep coming back here, so I guess we really like it. Not at all fancy — a local place — but the food is consistently good and fresh. My husband is pickey, but even be likes it. Based on all the takeout they do, we’re not the only ones who think it’s good. The people who own it are very nice too.
Hints: The orange chicken doesn’t have much sauce and can be dry, so I always ask for extra sauce. Crab Rangoon is very unique and I love it — large order though as all their food is! Soups are great! All beef dinners and chicken dinners have been great, and they’re very good at adding or removing parts of a dish (we love extra garlic!) for pickey customers Give it a try — we think you’ll be happy you did.

Avoid this restaurant. It’s not pleasant to question what you’re eating due to the various textures when you chew. I ordered sesame chicken, a basic safe Chinese food dish, so I thought. I have lived in this area for a long time and have heard many questionable stories about this place. I tried to give it another shot, not worth it at all. So just take my word for it and avoid it!

Most of their food is good, however the scallops are small and can become over cooked and the scallop to veggie ratio was extremely out of proportion (too many veggies) the crab Rangoons are terrible the worse I’ve ever had. They had some type of scrambled egg in there and vegetables and almost no crab meet almost positive the little cream cheese in there was actually sour cream the curdled up. Other than that everything I’ve had from there was solid. Orange chicken lomein fried rice Kung pao sweet and sour all are very good.

People seem to either hate this place or love it on Unilocal.I decided to check this place out considering I have a pretty damn good judgement for Chinese food. I lived in Chinatown for a couple months after all.
Service:
The lady that served us was very kind and spoke perfect English. Which, not to sound stereotypical, is kinda rare. I was impressed with the speed and friendliness. Our big order came out in about 8 minutes.
Atmosphere:
A tad depressing to be honest. Their overhead menu is really hard to read and all of the pictures have the color completely washed out. It is pretty roomy, but everything is just visually dull in this place. Don’t take a lady on a date here please!
Food:
We ordered a variety of menu items. I would describe the food best as ⁵⁰⁄₅₀! Some menu items taste really funky such as the Crab Rangoons, but some menu items are fantastic for the price. I have never had such… Unique tasting Crab Rangoons. It was 10 pieces for $ 4 though, and I was more intrigued than regretful. The fried rice tasted full of dishonor. The Fried Rice must have been packed with MSG and even then it did not taste good. However, what completely saves this place is how some of their menu items are unreasonably good for the price. I usually hate General Tso’s, but this place had me scarfing them down. It was crispy yet velvety at the same time with such perfect balance in seasoning! My other favorite was their dumplings. By the gods it is so unreasonably good for the price. $ 4 for 10 juicy and fluffy dumplings. So flavorful and filling with each bite. I also have to add how generous their portions on all the menu items.
I would go here again with a group of people. The food is very fun in my opinion as you either get something really good or something interesting. The price is very well worth their generous portions and is definitely worth a trip. You might not like some things, but you will enjoy some of them thoroughly. I have no regrets and would enjoy a trip back with friends. My best piece of advice is to always go White Rice here and never eat the Fried Rice.
PRO TIP: They don’t have a fountain machine so be sure to bring your own drink or 2 liter of soda.

Great food!!!

It’s Christmas and it’s open. It’s the perfect place where you can carry out chinese food.
They have the best General Tso’s Chicken. And the rest of their food is pretty decent.

I was oh so spoiled in Seattle when it came to asian food
but having so much bad luck with places here, just crap pure crap
I went to Radio Shack next door to look for a cover for my phone, and figured would grab some lunch also before heading to work
they have some good sounding lunch specials, so I ordered a Pork something bowl, it has noodles and I wanted pasta, but they also filled half the bowl with fried rice, old ass fried rice at that it was gritty like it had been mixed with polenta or was just old reheated fried rice, and the pork had a weird taste to it also
won’t be going back here ever, I would rather have Panda express, the only thing Asian about this place was the guy cooking th food and he needs to go have his momma teach him how to cook

I Unilocaled a good restaurant for a late lunch Tuesday in Elgin and was SO happy to have found this place. The food was amazing. I had the kung pao, my friend had the moo shoo pork. We started with egg rolls — nothing fancy on either order but we wanted to play it a little safe since we were newbies. You order from the counter with the menu on the back wall. We just missed the lunch special cut off. The food came quickly and the servings were enormous!
I must have missed Eman’s review, because seriously people, the servings are HUGE! I was starving and I still needed 2 to-​go boxes for my left overs! Even the egg roll seemed larger than normal.
The drinks are cans from the fridge and the plastic bag we were given to take the doggy bag came from the jewel next door — lol! This place is not snazzy but if its good Chinese you are looking for Panda is a gem!

This is a great place for Chinese food in Elgin. We usually go with the kung pao chicken or steak. Delicious sauce, fresh vegetables, perfectly spiced. The combination fried rice is great as is the wonton soup and the spring rolls.

Fast service, good price and polite employees is the only thing this place has going for it.
Takeout Chinese is so hit-​and-​miss.
This spot is definitely a miss. It’s by FAR the worst tasting take out Chinese food I’ve ever had. Everything has a fishy taste to it. I couldnt even finish the food.