Cafe Panda Garden

The food here is great quality, very fresh and reasonably priced. Came here for dinner on a Saturday night. It was not very busy, which usually is a red flag but everything turned out great. I ordered the chicken with mixed vegetables. It comes with soup and an egg roll. Everything was delicious. I also got the Jasmine Tea and it was very soothing. Great flavor. Only complaint, keeping it from 5 stars, would be the waitress. She was a little abrupt and not so friendly. Seemed irritated when we asked questions about menu items. Besides that, they are the best bang for the buck as far as Chinese food goes in Houston. Highly recommend!

yuck! worst food ever! driver even delivered food to wrong address brought order and food was disgusting! owner is african guy named lispon, bad guy bad food bad business!

Nice little café. Very clean. Clean restrooms, too. Soft music in background that doesn’t compete with conversation. Wonderful crispy spring rolls. Entrée was very good, generous portions chicken and veggies cooked to perfection, not soggy or drowning in grease like some Chinese restaurants. Also sampled sesame chicken-​delicious! Rice great, too. Quality jasmine tea. Waitress brought lemons for water without even asking. If this place is consistently good will give 5 stars. Good value, will definitely be back.

Amazing dumplings, spicy beans and hot and sour soup. Several times I’ve been given a delivery window of 30 – 45 minutes and my order has arrived in 10 – 15 minutes. Would recommend to anyone!

Ordered the Singapore Noodles for pick up, it was amazing. Noodles were cooked perfectly, it was super flavorful and perfectly spicy. The meat and seafood were of higher quality than your average Chinese restaurant. I thought 15.00 was a little steep for this dish, but it was so good I would gladly pay that much for that deliciousness over and over again.

Ordered through Eat24 almost 2 hours ago and food still hasn’t arrived. Restaurant just called to say they won’t deliver my food now even after they guaranteed delivery. Don’t order food from here if you actually want to eat something.
HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE.

GROSS! Ordered delivery for my company for lunch. 1) The food was cold and soggy, it took over an hour for delivery and we’re right around the corner 2) I ordered the sweet and sour chicken lunch. The chicken was greasy/​soggy and the grease it was fried in tasted old, the wonton soup smelled so rotten when I opened it that I gagged and immediately threw it in the trash. 3) too expensive for what it was. We will not be ordering from here again!

The food is consistently good and high quality. They use good quality ingredients and are always fast and courteous with deliveries. They are a bit pricey, though and they also charge a delivery fee. I wish they would not charge a delivery fee since their prices are on the very high side for Chinese food delivery. That being said, the food is really good; so I ha e to give 5 stars.

There are a number of good Chinese joints in town, but Panda is my runaway favorite. The chicken lettuce wraps are great, but I generally go at noon so it’s all about the lunch special for me.
More often than not I go for wonton soup, spicy chicken and vegetables, spring roll and brown rice. Thin wrappers and juicy pork make the wontons outstanding. The broth is light and topped off with fresh spinach leaves. A light spicy gravy, quality breast meat and fresh veggies including broccoli, mushrooms and snap peas, anchor the entrée. The fried spring roll consists of cabbage and chicken. It’s kind of generic but better than others I’ve had. Brown rice is offered at no additional cost. The food is damn good, always very fresh and comes to just over $ 12 with tip. Maybe a little on the pricey side for lunch, but I’ll gladly spend an extra couple of bucks for consistent quality.
The staff is attentive and very friendly. Genuinely nice people. As an added bonus there is generally really good jazz playing on the stereo. Like I said, there isn’t a shortage of quality Chinese joints in town, but I can’t recommend this place enough.

Panda Garden is our go-​to spot for Seafood, Mongolian, vegetarian Chinese. Dine-​in or carry-​out is consistently the best. Their hot and sour soup is never over or under seasoned. The spicy dishes can be adjusted to your «heat level».
Richard M

Good place to go for lunch. Good price and great food! Thanks to my cousin Nora for bringing me here.

SOOOO we placed a company order over the phone. They delivered food with a roach in it! I’m so disgusted. When we called back and sent them a picture the lady started arguing that it’s a piece of spinach when it CLEARLY has legs and a mustache. yuck!!! Never eating here again

I was actually very happy that I tried this restaurant. I am DEFINITELY a fan of the food. I did order delivery and while my delivery was about 10 or so mins longer than the «expected» delivery and the delivery man was not that nice… it was HOT and store in nice containers. The sauces were stored in a separate, very secure, ziplock bad, it came with soy sauce packets, asian chili sauce, dumpling sauce, and fortune cookies.. My order was fried dumplings and a full size orange chicken (they don’t offer this on the lunch menu, sadly).
Fried Dumplings were SUPER YUMMY. I am a friend dumpling LOVER!!! These are not the BEST dumplings I have ever hard, simply because they were «fried» tasting, still very soft even though they had marks as if they were pan seared, I prefer mine a bit firmer… but that’s a preference. Now, the inside of the dumpling was so good, super juicy and tasty! Would def order again, might request for them to be a little more done BUT most places don’t accommodate…
Orange Chicken also very good. Was I WOWed. No. Would I order again? Yes. They were good, flavorful… no spice even though I ordered medium. Lots of Orange peel in there which while taste good was annoying to peel off each piece chicken and not yummy to eat. It was also CHICKEN, big, yummy pieces of chicken. I had to use a knife to cut each piece like three times and I have a big mouth so thats saying alot on the size.
Steamed rice… I LOVE steamed rice and it can so often be made wrong in my opinion. too mushy, too hard… this was perfect, tasted very good.
In short, yes order, you will like it… BUT I will for sure try the General Tso’s next time.

My wife and I have been coming here for about a year and a half… it is our favorite Chinese food in Houston. The food has always been fresh and quality.
They have reasonable lunch specials with soup and a spring roll.
I love the Generals Tso’s Chicken… literally chunks of chicken, not little pieces… it’s so yummy.

Come here usually during lunch. Good quality chicken (white), love the brown rice option, clean atmosphere, hot food, nice/​attentive staff.
Chicken & broccoli is cooked in a white sauce, more on the bland side for great flavor while still being a healthier choice for reflux ppl like me.
Still one of my favs is the general tso’s.

Excellent food
Fast Delivery
Online ordering
Delicious Chinese food has never been so good, so easy and so fresh. Simply impressive!
You guys are doing a great job, keep it up!

!!! SPOILER ALLERT !!!@
THEY DO NOT ACTUALLY SERVE PANDA MEAT SO DON’T EVEN ASK (THEY GET FUSSY).
So… [long forlorn sigh] They may not serve panda meat but what they do serve is really goddamn delicious. It is, by far, the best Chinese food in all of Houston and surrounding wastelands and I know this to be fact because I have now eaten at EVERY SINGLE ONE. FIVE TIMES EACH. OVER THE PAST COUPLE OF DAYS. I’M GIRTHY.
Um.
We webbed up some delivery through Ye Olde GrubbeHubbe and contrary to the expected delivery time, they were about a half-​hour EARLY. And the guy was cool and funny, too, claiming he ran all the way.
We went with General Tso’s (which I believe is the universal standard by which all Americanized Chinese restaurants should be judged), some Szechuan Spicy Beef, Panda Pan-​Fried Noodles, and some rolls o’ egg.
The chicken pieces in the General Tso’s were huge. Almost the size of baseballs. Or runaway goiters. Your choice. The sauce was thick and rich and it was quite spicy (but never spicy enough). The chicken was incredibly juicy; it just pulled apart with little resistance or complaint. It was some of the best Tso’s I’ve ever had; I just wish that they paired it with big bits of steamed broccoli like some places do.
The Szechuan Spicy Beef (still not panda) was also fantastic in a similarly rich and dark sauce coated with shaved panda fur. Okay, it was actually toasted coconut. I normally hate coconut toasted or otherwise but it was the perfect compliment to the beef.
Finally, the Panda Pan-​Fried Noodles (STILL NO MFN PANDA) were phenomenal, full of bits of chicken, shrimp, and beef and who knows what else. Basically, the food we received looked pretty much exactly like it does in the photos here.
Now, the complaints: the egg rolls were kind of bland. I’d try them again but I think next time were going to go for the dumplings (or as I like to call them, ‘dumps’, because I’m 12). And this place is expensive considering the amount of food you get. The portions of the Tso’s and Szechuan beef seemed just a little small especially compared to the noodles which was of a much larger size. Considering you’re paying $ 12 – 17 per entrée á la carte, we just expected more overall. Also, the egg rolls, at $ 2 each, were a bit on the small side.
In Café Panda’s defense, I think what you’re paying for isn’t the amount of food but the quality of the ingredients and how expertly the food is cooked. Thus, with that in mind, it’s worth the extra few bucks. Easily. Quality over quantity and such. And with a $ 15 + $ 1 minimum delivery fee, it’s hard to go wrong here.
Oh, and I’m sad to announce that they forgot the chopsticks we requested so we had to suffer through with … forks. [shudder] And while I’m thinking about it, more duck sauce rather than sweet & sour so if you’re after the red stuff for your egg rolls, HIT THE ROAD, SUCKAFEESH.
In closing, I suppose if I could level any other complaint at Café Panda is that their menu is small and unadventurous. If you want comforting, well-​cooked, high-​quality Americanized Chinese food, then this is your joint. If you want something wild or weird or even just remotely off the beaten path, look somewhere else.
Which reminds me… next time, I’m going to ask if they have a secret menu and, if they do, DOES IT HAVE MFN PANDA MEAT ON IT BECAUSE OMG YUM PANDA MEAT

I came here for lunch around 1pm. Walked in and we greeted by the most short and rude greeting I’ve ever gotten at a restaurant. She walked me to my table proceeded to pull the chair out as she walked off. Over looking her abrupt rudeness she came back took my order.
I Ordered the lo mein and asked for tofu in lieu of whatever meat is in it. She looked at me like I had three heads and repeated my request, rudely, back to me as if being condescending about my request for a tofu substitution would change the more sarcastic her tone got. That was the last time she came to my table. The bus boys brought the food out.
The spring roll is filled with a minced shredded chicken and cabbage mix. It was very dense and it tasted a bit sour and bland. I couldn’t eat more than one bite. The wonton soup is very good the wontons taste fresh and aren’t doughy. The lo mein was bland and again tasted a bit sour. For $ 11 it is very lack luster. It’s just eggs, noodles, tofu. No veggies or anything else mixed in.
Lo mein is not difficult to make and it looks like it only costs about $ 5 in ingredients and effort to make. Charging $ 11 for the meal is excessive. Especially when the wait staff is rude.
They may have other things they are known for but egg rolls and lo mein are as simple as it gets. If those dishes are messed up I definitely don’t want to try other ones. I’m sorry but I won’t be coming back. I can find bad food that doesn’t come with an eye rolling waitress.

I ordered online through Grubhub. They did not read the instructions I’ve given them, (I would like to change the soup to crab puff/​spring roll) and I didnt get any. :(a little upset about it. The food is so-​so, they could do better :)
One good thing though, fast delivery! :)

Dang! Why doesn’t this place deliver to my house?!
After reading so many wonderful Unilocal reviews the wife and I decided to check it out as an early Valentine’s Day dinner. We are adding it to our rotation of favorite places to pop in for some really good food at a pretty reasonable price.
Started with the Panda Sampler: 2 crab puffs that were stuffed with tasty cream cheese, fried hard and a really nice size compared to other places I have ordered them. Two spring rolls that we agreed were as good as we had ever tasted; not too hard fried, not too cabbage-​y and not too greasy. And 2 pretty fantastic flattened jumbo fried shrimp. I don’t know what they put in the light breading of those little shrimps — but I could make a meal out of them any day! For $ 9 it was a great starter to get a feel for the place.
I opted for the combo meal of the spicy and tangy chicken (before 4 it’s $ 8.75 and after 4 it’s $ 10.75). You get a nice lunch portion of the entrée, a cup of your choice of soup and either crab puffs or spring rolls. A nice bargain at any time of day.
Let me tell ya, this chicken WAS so tender I almost want to use the cliché «melt in your mouth». The first thing I did notice when the plate came was that the mushrooms were not those canned little mushrooms you often get in Chinese places. These were nice, sliced, fresh mushrooms. I thought then that someone really cared about the preparation of the food. The sauce was spicy good (they will personalize your heat level, just ask) and the veggies (red and green peppers and large slices of fresh jalapeño) did not overwhelm the dish. The fried rice I chose was nothing special… pretty much the regular rice they serve stirred up with some soy on the grill.
We both really enjoyed the hot and sour soup once we added the nice crunch of the noodles available on the table. It was a thick beefy soup with your usual hot and sour ingredient suspects. I thought it was more sour than the wife… I mean, not that the wife is sour… but it was hearty and I’d order it again.
The wife had beef with scallion and mushrooms. Wow! Talk about some tender beef. Again, someone in the kitchen cared enough to take fresh ingredients and put them together in a fine Chinese entrée. She got jasmine rice with her entrée. I thought it was just the usual white rice and they made a mistake. But she said she could taste the difference. Though subtle she said it really added a nice flavor to the meal.
I did not notice either of the meals was covered in sesame seeds. Which is a big plus because my wife can’t do seeds in her dishes anymore.
The wine by the glass was pretty limited. They had bottled wine lined up along the walls but none of it seemed to be offered for you to order. Water refilled constantly (yeah!) and service was exceptional from start to finish.
Kids menu, vegetarian stuff, super sized party portions for an office or party event, order online, credit cards accepted.
The place had a nice feel to it… casual and yet not General Joe’s casual, ya know?
The $ 9 lunch special will bring us back again earlier in the day. The food will make us bring friends.