I stopped by New Panda recently, which is located in the Mont Pleasant neighborhood. This is a typical "old school" Chinese takeout restaurant with an open kitchen and a few hard booths for eating in. A big colorful painted mural of a tropical island beach is displayed on the side wall. Delivery is also available ($10 min order).
They offer the standard Chinese food including Cantonese, Szechuan, and Hunan dishes. Posted specials are offered including fried dough. The prices are decent, most items under $10. Also offered are 64 Daily Lunch Specials ($4.50-$5.95) including a few vegetarian health food options served with rice and 25 Special Combination Dishes ($6.50-$7.40) served with rice and egg roll.
I got the L27 Pork Lo Mein Lunch Special ($4.60) and an Egg Roll ($1.10), which was all set in under 10 minutes. The lunch sized portion of food was basic and tasted good. The lo mein was pretty good and not greasy, which had sauteed onions, cabbage, sprouts, and tender roast pork strips cooked with thick soft noodles. The pork fried rice (yellow color) was okay and very basic. The rice had a firm texture with small mixture of roast pork cubes and onions. The egg roll was not too greasy, filled with a modest amount of cabbage mixture and pork with a thick crispy wrapper outside.
Would I ride out of my way to eat here? Probably not, but would stop here again if I happen to be passing through the neighborhood and hungry for some Chinese food at a reasonable price.
(3.40/5.00 overall) read more