On my recent trip to Los Angeles to visit my son Reid, he took me to lunch at Panda Inn, the original restaurant that started Panda Express.
In 2023, the original Panda Inn closed for major renovations, and a year later, reopened. The beautiful new restaurant is architecturally pleasing, both outside as well as inside. There is even a sushi bar.
On the menu the story of the family is revealed.
“The Cherng family’s store began in the heart of Yangzhou, China, a city of rich culinary traditions, where Andrew Cherng, his father, Master Chef Ming-Tsai Cherng, and his mother were born. Seeking new horizons, the Cherng family relocated to Taipei, Taiwan in 1953. There, Master Chef Ming-Tsai honed his culinary skills at the renowned Grand Hotel.
“In 1961, Master Chef Minf-Tsai Cherng’s talents led him to Yokohama, Japan, where he worked as a chef in Yokohama’s Chinatown. This move marked a significant step in bridging cultures through the art of food. Andrew Cherng moved to California in 1972 to help his cousin at a restaurant in Hollywood and gained invaluable experience to open a restaurant of his own with his father.
“In 1973, Andrew and Peggy Cherng, along with Andrew’s father, Master Chef Ming-Tsai Cherng, opened the first Panda Inn in Pasadena. Their vision was to create innovative Mandarin and Szechuan dishes, and 10 years later, Andrew opened the first Panda Express in Glendale, California.”
The most popular and most frequently ordered orange chicken was created five years later, in 1987, by French trained Chef Andy Kao, who was on Oahu to open the first Panda Express in the islands. He was inspired by flavors in China and the citrus fruits of Hawaii and created orange chicken. The original dish used bone-in chicken with skin. Today boneless, skinless chicken is used, as per customers’ requests. Imagine that over 80 million pounds of orange chicken are sold yearly, which is equivalent to four pieces for every person in America. Chef Kao is now retired in Taiwan.
Today, the daughter of Andrew and Peggy Cherng, Andrea Cherng, is the Chief Brand Officer and the company is still family-owned and operated. Forbes estimates the Cherng’s combined net worth to be $3 billion.
Panda Express now has over 2,300 locations across the United States, Canada, Guam and South Korea.
The lunch menu has some similar dishes and some that are not. We ordered the Mango Duck Salad. Pieces of tea-smoked duck with crispy skin were scattered on the tasty salad greens. The mango dressing worked well with the duck and greens.
We also ordered the Wagyu beef tataki and enjoyed it so much, we ordered another.
The orange chicken was like no other I have tasted at Panda Express. There were orange peels in the perfectly balanced orange sauce and the chicken was crispy. There were dried chili peppers throughout.
My favorite dish at Panda Express is tofu and eggplant but the dish we ordered, with fresh basil, red and green bell pepper slices, was so delicious with a rich and flavorful sauce.
The Kung Pao Chicken was loaded with chicken breast and was less spicy.
We ordered the Taiwan Pork Rice. It was presented in a metal bowl. White rice filled the bowl and it was topped with pork that was cooked in a special soy sauce sauce.
The waiter mixed the dish on the table until he got a beautiful mixed rice, similar to fried rice. This dish was special and wonderful!
Owner Andrew Cherng’s time in Japan might have influenced the sushi bar in the restaurant as there were three sushi chefs working in the sushi bar filling orders. Items from the sushi bar included hamachi tacos with cilantro, anaheim pepper, lime and fried wontons, oysters on a half shell with yuzu, dungeness crab hand roll, king salmon carpaccio, yellowtail and peppercorn tiradito, olive oil crudo, unagi or fresh water eel and mascarpone roll, honey walnut shrimp tempura roll, baked Hokkaido scallop roll with imitation crab stick, avocado and baked scallop
If I weren’t so interested in trying the Chinese dishes, I might have tried some of Panda Inn’s very creative sushi with a twist, like the honey walnut shrimp tempura roll.
The chef special menu included items such as shrimp and lobster wontons with a chili vinaigrette, a dungeness crab salad with a yuzu mustard dressing, minced pork wontons crisp spicy nachos, chargrilled beef short ribs, lobster crispy noodles, homestyle braised pork belly, Yangzhou shredded tofu and sweet and sour kurobuta pork.
The dessert menu included chocolate lava cake and warm rice pudding.
Needless to say, it was an exciting culinary experience and a place I will certainly go back to when I am in Los Angeles.
Email Audrey Wilson at audreywilson808@gmail.com.
