Daniel and I had a momentary lapse in judgment last night - we ate at Mr. Panda. Mr. Panda is a chinese buffet at the corner of Bitters and Heimer, near 281. First, the selection was not very good. They had the basics you would normally expect in a chinese buffet, but the sushi and all the seafood dishes just looked plain scary. Although, I did try the fried shrimp and the coconut shrimp. The fried shrimp wasn’t anything exciting and the fried coconut shrimp in a fried hard batter in a pearl glaze failed to please. Also, there no one was manning the stir-fry bar, so we didn’t even bother. For great stir-fry where you can choose your own items, I recommend Central Market. At $6 a bowl with meat ($5 without meat), you can’t beat the price and the fresh veggies.

The restaurant didn’t seem clean and the food wasn’t fresh. I saw the manager only put out fresh teriyaki chicken while we there, nothing else. Buffets with no turnover is just bad news. And our bellies were certainly regretting our lapse in judgment later.

The highlight of the restaurant was our waitress. She was very polite and very cheerful. I even overheard her trying to speak the little Spanish she knew to other guests.

While the waitress was nice, she is not enough to ever bring us back to Mr. Panda. So remember the next time you are tempted to go, don’t do it!!

Scores for Mr. Panda
Food: C
Service: B
Ambiance: C
Value: C
Overall: C