Panda Chinese Restaurant

I get takeaway from here on a fairly regular basis and while the food is always of a good standard, the delivery can be particularly slow — no one really wants cold Chinese food!
I’ve never eaten in the restaurant purely because there are places I prefer at the Quay and would choose to eat in over Panda, which are more reasonably priced, however I might try next time I’m out for food at the Quay and see how it goes.

Better than average Chinese buffet restaurant, located at The Quay. Clean and with a good range of dishes to choose from including a few veggie options. There seems to be just as many dessert items as meal choices — in addition to the usual cakes, ice-​cream and banana fritters on offer there’s also a chocolate fountain and a pancake station where they cook to order and deliver to your table. They do a la carte and takeaway too and you can also fill a takeaway box with buffet items for a small price.

Listen up people
If you are going to eat here make sure it’s take out
It’s made fresh and the chefs are actually pretty good… Or go for À la cart
Buffet however is dire… It was great the first few years it was open however quality as gone down hill

I have not visited this restarant in years so was keen to go after hearing it was under new management.
Good range of dishes on offer all clearly labelled with allergen information which was good to see.
Refillable soft drinks which you help yourself too. The diet coke on this visit needed a new syrup added which was highlighted to staff by another customer.
Waiting staff were quick to clear plates but we didnt feel rushed either.
It was ok hence the 3 stars.

It super expensive Chinese restaurant comparing to the quality.
All you can eat buffet is 13£ apart from the drinks which are almost 3£ if you want with refill. So you pay 16£ each and this restaurant has nothing special (apart from the homemade pancakes) that you can’t find in every Chinese restaurant with less price.

I ate here with my partner last week. Prices are really good and the food was good-​massive selection (with random potato waffles thrown in) We both had cravings for dumplings which unfortunately do not feature here but we did leave completely stuffed!

I am always put off my the thought of a buffet for my dinner. I am usually concerned about the usual things like hygiene and how long something has been sitting etc.
Plus I usually find that quality seems to lack when you are going for the quantity part of the meal in buffets.
However with my best friend being a guy of over 7foot and the endless pit that he calls a stomach, I figured I would give it a go.
I won’t lie, it’s still not for me. However the food was not of a bad quality and the staff were very attentive to the food and cleaning duties. Which was a pleasant surprise.
I can’t say I would be back right away but for someone that really doesn’t like buffets it was deff a better quality Chinese than China buffet king.

Expensive, and not worth it. Even though service was nice, and food portions were generous, but it’s all about the taste. Taste = not good.

Just visited this place for the 1^st time
Have to say fairly impressed food was fresh well presented and great choise!
Place is lit well, staff are courtious friendly & helpfull
I could have eaten more… but i was satisfied with what i ate
On the whole a good food place with all the local amienities near .by
And for quality it wasn’t that expencive.under.£35 for two including drinks!
RECOMMENDED

Recently visited here with fellow Unilocalers Elizabeth F and Sean K. I’d been wanting to go to Panda ever since a friend at work thoroughly recommended it. She loves the place and it’s one of her daughters favourite restaurants so, even though I’m not a big buffet fan, I thought I must check it out.
I’ve only ever been to one Chinese buffet before & I was extremely disappointed & also I didn’t feel well the next day so it put me right off buffets, esp. those of the Chinese variety… then I went to the Flame World Buffet & I was pleasantly surprised at the variety & quality of their dishes; not amazing but pretty good.
Now I do feel 3 stars is maybe a wee bit harsh, I see this place as more of a 3 & half stars… maybe on another visit it could be a 4, who knows.
This place is pretty massive and it’s just as well as on this Saturday evening it was jumpin’. I noticed lots of big groups/​parties surrounding us so this is obviously a popular place for celebrations of all sorts with the locals (and not so). For it being so busy I was surprised I never had to queue to get food; then again the big long line of food/​dishes pretty much runs from one end of the restaurant to the other! Wow. So yes, lots of choice.
Deal is — you come in, sit down, order drinks and then help yourself as soon as you want to the food. Cutlery is at your table but plates are where the buffet is. I started at one end where all the ‘Starters’ as such were. Man, I would’ve been happy just eating these all night! Yum. I tried quite a few various things, including chicken satay skewers (delicious), prawn toast, spring rolls & various other chicken based starters. All were really good. Apparently they have chicken noodle soup too but I completely missed that. Dang.
When you have finished your first plate the waiters/​waitresses take away your plate so you can help yourself to a clean one. I must add though for all you fussy & eyes-​bigger-​than-​belly people out there in Panda they do a charge for those that leave too much food on their plate for chucking. At first I found this rather preposterous but then later I actually thought ‘That is a good idea’…just myself, personally KNOWING this meant I didn’t over-​fill my plate & if I wasn’t sure about something I only took a tiny portion of it. If this saves on food wastage then it can only be a good thing.
Main courses were okay ~ I tried some tofu thing, a beef thing (which wasn’t nice), a chicken dish & what was my favourite (along with the satay chicken), the Peking style shredded duck, complete with pancakes & cucumber/​spring onion. Really nice. Only complaint was that the Plum sauce ran out before I got there & wasn’t topped up all evening, bah. Luckily they had a selection of various Chinese sauces so I helped myself to some Peking sauce instead.
For Desserts you have a choice of fruit (haha, aye right!), cakes or ice-​cream. I went for the ice-​cream & I was actually surprised at how many flavours they had, very good.
For £11.95 this all-​you-​can-​eat buffet is pretty darn good. It’s also Halal which is brilliant. I would like to see more vegetarian dishes though & also quality Chinese draft beer would be nice.

So as part of my UYE (Unofficial Unilocal Event) ‘Spring into Action’ inspired by a fellow Unilocaler who wanted to go for a more decent Chinese buffet, we headed to the Panda Chinese Buffet. Fortunately no Panda’s on the menu.
There’s loads now all over town and I was told this is one of the better ones. I think the location is spot on as it’s at the heart of the Springfield Quay. The selection they had on offer was not too bad with a few more dishes which I felt I could try. I’m sometimes stumped at some of the dishes and always end up getting the same thing.
I really enjoyed the food and managed to get tucked into 4 platefuls, which is pretty unusual for wee me. The honey chicken and duck with pancakes were my favourites. I did find the cola a bit em… weird. It was all unknown ginger except for Sunkist, which I’m not a fan of. It was bottomless and it was wet, it did the job.
The ice cream was actual real ice cream, no Mr Whippy here. You could scoop out as much as you liked, the Raspberry Ripple was my fav.
They did have notices up warning people if you left a lot of food that a charge of £4 would be incurred. They want to detour people from food wastage and I think that’s an excellent idea as some people can get quite carried away.
I did find this branch quite noisy as it’s very popular with families especially as I believe the meat is Halal. We were seated next to a balcony, which I thought was a great idea but not when the kids are running in and out the door every five minutes causing a massive draft. Brrrr!!!
The staff are spot on and on the ball and clear up quickly and try and keep the buffet topped up. We were greeted by, who I believe was the manager (he had a power ponytail) and he was very pleasant and checked my reservation and took us to our seats. He checked a few times to see we were ok but not that in your face way.
It was a pleasant experience and although it has a few faults, it still is better than some of the other Chinese buffet restaurants out there. For £11.95 for eating as much as you can on a Saturday evening, ye jist cannae argue with that.
They even have a board with pictures of Pandas which you can buy. We just posed with our Panda shades instead. Hehe!

Looked forward to visiting here as I love Chinese, however was left feeling rather disappointed due to the bad service received. The place was pretty busy, which was surprising seeing as it was mid-​week and late evening.
Having never been before I wasn’t sure how it worked. Was it just buffet? Or was there also a menu you could order from? Sadly the waiter did not volunteer this information, so I had to ask for a menu. He did ask if we wanted drinks, but did not inform us that they were inclusive of the buffet so unsure if we would have been charged for these if we had ordered drinks at this point.
After browsing the menu I placed an order, but the waiter told me to give him the number, rather than the dish name. I assume this was due to his English not being very good. After waiting 20 odd minutes my son could not wait any longer and decided to eat from the buffet.
There was quite a selection of food, which looked quite impressive from a far. However, upon closer inspection some of it appeared quite dry, and some of the sauces seemed congealed. One of the waitresses brought out fresh food from time to time, but it concerned me that the fried rice she brought was simply poured on top of the existing stuff, rather than simply replacing the semi empty dish with a fresh one, as this is a potential food hygiene breech.
My son loved his food though, and made a further three trips to the buffet to re-​fill his plate, as did several of the other dinners. He even had dessert too, with an ample selection to choose from. It’s great too that there is a drinks dispenser with unlimited fizzy drinks to accompany the food.
Sadly, I felt very let down by the service. By the time my order from the menu did eventually arrive my son had finished his vast feast, and the wrong order was served. When I explained to the waitress that I hadn’t ordered what she had given me, she grabbed the plate and stormed off. After sitting for a further five minutes without any explanation (ie I did not know if she was going to have my order corrected and re-​made) we got up to pay.
The guy behind the bar apologised for the mix up and asked if I still wanted a meal, but I declined as my son wanted home and it was getting late. Another guy came over and kindly asked if I wanted to take the meal (which was being cooked) home with me free of charge, but again I declined as just wanted to go home after waiting all that time.
All in all the establishment is ok, and it could have a lot of potential if they ironed out a few of the problems I mentioned. It’s just a shame that the service of the waitress and waiter badly let it down on this occasion, which happened to be my first visit.

Children Unfriendly place–
Extremely disappointed to visit Panda cuisine. Opted for buffet for me, my wife and the older child (the little twins are under 4 year old and supposed to be free for them). The drinks which are £2.20 each was ordered for me & my eldest daughter (wife prefers no drinks). The little twins saw us having drink and took some from my glass. This apparently infuriated the manager of restaurant, reprimanding us the drink is per person and hence kids cant have it, otherwise we’ll have to pay more. I tried to explain these are little kids and that we didn’t intend to take unfair advantage or cause them any monetary loss. Needless to say, the manager (a young smart Chinese man with spectacles) didn’t want to understand what children do. At the end, I payed for 2 extra drinks as a protest and vowed never to return there again.
Pand cuisine– Where money comes first & above customers’ regards…

This is a great place to eat, buffet style means instant food when your really hungry, it’s also a life saver if you are out with children who do not want to wait for orders to be taken!
This place is open for lunch buffet and dinner buffet, with their being more options in the dinner buffet set up, but lunch buffet has a good variety too!
It has a bar too, soft drinks can be ordered, but you can for a little extra order a glass, that you take to a drinks dispenser and fill with your choice of soft drink, adding some ice if desired, and you can do this as many times as you like!
The food is yummy, lots of different dishes, ribs, chicken wings, chicken balls etc, Mussles and prawn dishes on the night time buffet, their is a lovely spicy curry sauce at the sauce section, I pour this over my normal chicken curry! Lots of variety and I’m sure something for everyone, cake, ice cream and fruits are also included! Cake is not massive portion, but after filling up at the buffet can’t really eat much pudding, I normally opt for a bit of ice cream!
The décor is modern and comfy enough, staff are friendly and diligent. Their is also little post cards of panda bears that you can buy! This my son loved! He has the one he chose on his bedroom wall!
It is positioned near to the cinema, and their is also a bowling ally within this area, and their is a Mecca bingo too!
So well worth a wee visit, my kids love it, and my husband and I have escaped here quite a few times for a wee meal by our selfs before a picture :-D

The explosion of Chinese buffets around here has slowly put me off this type of food. It was good fun to begin with but all too often you’re faced with drunks, screaming kids and people slobbering over dry, tastless chicken wings from yesterday.
Panda isn’t entirely different but because it’s situated in an entertainment complex just a short drive from the centre, it seems to have avoided getting caught up in the kind of sloppyness which lets other places down.
The food isn’t outstanding but probably beats a lot of its competitors who are serving up a similar formula and prices.
There was one thing that made Panda stand out and that was the japanese grill that was tucked to the side of the buffet. The idea is that you tick what kind of food you would like stir fried, hand your order card over to the chef and wait around 15mins while he cooks it on the spot. The fresh prawns and veg from the grill were a million times better than what was offered at the buffet. If I had known that this was included in the price at the beginning of my visit then I would have used to the grill exclusively and have taken sides, rice and sauces from the regular buffet.
You won’t walk away feeling as if you’re just out of the holy grail of Asian cuisine BUT it’s a nicer experience than most rivals, plus, if you fancy, there’s a cinema, casino, arcade and bowling all pretty much next door so it’s ideal for a wee night out.

This is very reminiscent of lager louts on a beach holiday!!! Its buffet, all you can eat and boy they do. Not much on offer and very middle of the road menu wise.