mrchnd A place for geekery, complaints, & poorly written critiques.

15Jan/10Off

Panda Garden Chinese Restaurant, Wallingford CT


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Last night, Wife and I went to Panda Garden in Wallingford, CT for some Chinese food.  We used to get takeout from Gold Star next to our house but haven't been back since last April due to a bad experience.  Anyway, someone at work told Wife that Panda Garden was good.  I hopped on yelp.com to see if there were any reviews.  There was only one review but it was 5 out of 5 stars.  The commenter said they had been going there for 20 some odd years and said it was invariably good.  I'm not sure its been open that long, at least under that management, but it has certainly been open a long time.  Plus, they had a dining room where you could actually sit and order your food like at a real restaurant.  That was enough for us, we figured we'd try it out.
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Panda Garden was great.  The food was excellent and tasted fresh.  The staff was nothing but courteous and helpful.  The meal began with some fried noodles,  duck sauce, hot mustard, and tea.  I got the hot and sour soup and crispy orange beef.  Wife got pork lo-mien and chicken and broccoli.  Everything was very good.  The only thing I can criticize was the decor.  It looks like it was decorated in 1989 and left that way.  It's really not a big deal, the food, prices, and staff totally make up for it.  I just thought it was a little funny.
I must say, eating Chinese food at a "sit down" establishment is way better than ordering from a counter and bringing it home.  I didn't realize how filling the food was, I couldn't finish my plate (which is a rarity for me) and now have lunch for today.  At any rate, we'll be back.  I grabbed a menu on the way out so we can order takeout.  I'm pretty sure they deliver too, so that's nice.
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Regarding Delivery; I never have any cash on me so delivery is usually more of a pain in the butt than anything.  I don't like giving a debit card over the phone and my only other option is to run to the ATM and grab cash before the delivery guy shows up.  If I'm already out at the bank, I might as well go right to the place to pick it up.  Bah!  Stupid paper currency!  Also, what the hell is it with places that force a minimum on debit/credit card purchases.  Visa prohibits such practices in their merchant agreements but at the same time charges them a minimum fee per transaction.I know...I understand why they do.  I always want to report them but its only small "mom & pop" local businesses that do it.  I would never throw them under the bus like that, but still, it bugs me.
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Posted via email from Christopher's posterous

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