Panda Cafe

Love this place. It’s a Chinese takeout restaurant in a mall food court. Manage your expectations accordingly…but it’s also a family-run small business where the food is lovingly prepared. It’s my favorite American-Chinese restaurant in the city. A great place to keep in your back pocket when you need in a quick meal in the Quarters! Updating to say the salt n pepper wings are a must try!

The sauce is a lot more watery than at other Chinese joints (which means they must not use as much corn starch for thickening) but the value is superb. For $7-$8 a combo you get an entree and two sides. For the sides you can choose between fried rice, lo mein, and potatoes, and an egg roll. What’s amazing about this place is that the entrees are all made to order, so there is a bit of a wait but everything comes out steaming hot and fresh! Not to mention, the lady at the front is very generous with the portions. An awesome value for tourists and locals alike, though I’d probably recommend this more for locals. You definitely won’t go hungry here.

Rice was overcooked and super small pieces of shrimp, but flavor wasn’t bad. Receptionist was really sweet.

TL;DR – New owners as of summer 2024, and now the place has gone downhill. A love letter to what was formerly my go-to lunch spot. Panda Café is/was by no means a Michelin star restaurant, but in the five years that I frequented it on a semiweekly basis, it became one of my favorite Chinese restaurants. This isn't your typical mall Chinese. Nothing sitting around under heat lamps or bathing in a steamer (except for the sides). The main dishes are made to order in small batches. That means if you had a special request (like no carrots, or extra bell pepper), it was accommodated. Yes, you have to wait for your order to be cooked, but it's hot and fresh. The prices used to be extremely reasonable. The workers were also the friendliest in the food court. They always knew your order before you even made it to the counter. HOWEVER, all that changed very recently when Panda Café came under new ownership. It started with what appeared to be positive improvements…better cutlery and napkins, a new drink cooler, a fancy digital register…but soon, both the quality of the food and the service declined rapidly. First, the menu was reduced to eliminate unpopular items in favor of streamlining production. Then, prices started to creep up (as expected). Next, they started changing recipes for some of the long-standing favorite dishes. "You'll love it," I was told. Spoiler alert: I did not. This was followed by a clear degradation in ingredient quality (something about "new" chicken). Finally, the friendly and familiar faces who I had come to enjoy started disappearing only to be replaced by cold, unyielding robots. And, no, not actual robots – that would've been way cooler! I kept going back for a while hoping that they might have seen the error of their ways, but alas, I have finally decided to quit my sordid love affair with Panda Café. I know that I'm probably just set in my ways, so I won't tell you not to give it a try, but you won't see me there again.

If you’re looking for a good place to eat during this awful heat outside, GO HERE. This place was amazing. It had amazing air conditioning inside, enough seats for every person that came in to eat, and the food was amazing. The lady was very kind and the food price was amazing for how good the food is. I got the sweet and sour chicken, egg roll, and noodles and they were DELICIOUS. That whole meal, including a drink, was $11. That’s an amazing price considering now a days most good restaurants charge $20-$30 a person. They had many other menu options as well. The ones I saw were spicy chicken, honey chicken, sweet and sour chicken, sweet and sour shrimp, rice, and a lot more. I’m definitely glad I picked this place for dinner and I hope whenever I travel to New Orleans again in the future that I get to go here again.