Panda Express

The Panda Express at Portland International Airport is surprisingly decent. Unlike with other airports, the prices are expected to be the same prices as they are elsewhere. They have a wide variety of noodles, meat dishes, seafood dishes and more. There is lots of seating since this is a food court after all, though only a limited amount of seats have power outlets near them.
I went here for a quick meal after having not eaten much before my arrival to Portland. My meal was the honey walnut shrimp at around five dollars, though many of their entrees are far cheaper. The honey walnut sauce was that familiar delight that not everyone makes with skill. It was good, but not great.
Hunger at the Portland Airport can be wonderfully resolved with Panda Express.

Worst customer service. Young girls helping me were rude and gossipy. Would much rather spend 5x the amount somewhere else for at least respect

Standard Panda Express fare. Solid fast food Chinese when you have that need! Not much else to say besides that.
Pro tip: get half chow mein and half steamed veggies for your mains.
Also check out the food carts down the way before settling on Panda.

Our first visit to a Panda Express (just after the noon-​hour on a Saturday afternoon) was disappointing in many ways. We’re giving it as much as two stars only because our young server was so earnest, accommodating, and he sincerely TRIED to make our experience more pleasant. First we were greeted by music blaring so loud that it was difficult to hear either the server our own conversation even up close. (Fortunately it was toned down about halfway through eating.) Then my companion, a pescatarian, was disappointed that they didn’t have the «Golden Szechuan Fish» that was prominently being promoted in a large banner on the menu board. So she had to settle for rice and vegetables alone; on top of that, both of her selections had dried out and were undercooked. And ALL of our selections were lukewarm at best. We weren’t the only one who noticed this, as another customer subsequently vociferously complained about it at some length to a server. The menu items — whether on their posters or behind the serving case — DID look colorful and appetizing. Too bad that eating here subsequently became such an unpleasant experience, so much so that we’ll be reluctant to visit another Panda Express anywhere.

Trapped by ice and snow, we tried Panda Express after a long time away. Not good. Perhaps not their best day due to weather. We are both vegetarian, but there were nearly no options. Please add vegetarian options! How can a national chain have less options than any other Chinese restaurant I have ever run into? It defies logic. Burger King has a veggie burger. Used to be there was an eggplant and/​or tofu dish at times. So we opted for fried rice, chow mien and the veggies, all listed as sides. Not a one was tasty. If I cannot finish veggies, they are bad. They were bad. Fried rice so bad one had to wonder if they tried to make it bad. Chow mien hard was okay. Return? Unlikely. I’d give it one star, but with the weather and low turnout, could be food was sitting a long time. Decent number of folks came in while we were there. The employees sure toughed out bad weather to be there. Kudos to them on that at least. And they don’t decide the menus, meat vs non-​meat.

Was recommended the honey walnut shrimp this time. Oh my gosh was it good. The food here seems to have very little grease compared to other panda expresses I have gone to.

Arriving early for an afternoon flight and not wanting to be stranded at the gate, I sought the airport food court area for an early lunch. With a decent selection of stands, this was my choice on a recent Sunday morning. Examining the entrée choices, I did a two-​item combination of Thai cashew chicken and Shanghai Angus beef with chow mein (
). Well, what do you expect here? Food was okay and left me satisfied (no Tums please!). The only disappointment was that there were hardly any cashew nuts (three?) in the chicken entrée. While eating, I noticed a pretty steady flow of airport staff stopping at the pizza stand for sandwiches and the like (maybe it was because they had a full bar and the NFL game on TV?!). And yes, I got home without any tummy issues.

6−5−12 Much much better today. Not greasy, dry or overcooked. Yes, I know it’s a chain but some of these places do vary and this one was better than usual, at least today!

With a name like Panda Express, you know it’s chinese, and you know it’s fast!
Do you want a scoop of General Tsao’s Chicken and Schezuan Beef & chow mein noodles in less than a minute? Only at the Panda!
Yeah, the Orange Chicken probably isn’t any better quality than a Mcdonalds Big Mac, especially if you catch them during off-​peak hours when the pans of virtually all oil-​fried dishes have been sitting untouched for hours.
That being said, their dishes are basically the chinese version of potato chips; at least 60% oil, salt, (and usually lots of sugar) it’s usually satisfying if you’re starving, but if you stuff yourself with 2 – 3 entrée meal, have the Tums at the ready! ^_​^

Bottom line, If you’re jonesin’ for a quicky-​quicky lunch & you’re at PDX with no good food cart within 5 miles, the Panda is the only place to go :-)

This Location Makes it Less Greasy!
My company decided to have our monthly lunch catered by Panda Express and i was skeptical about eating their food because I was expecting a plateful of over saturated Chinese oily food, but i was amazingly surprised.
We ordered quite a few selection from them and the food there was way better than a lot of Chinese «restaurants» that are located in the shopping malls. I could tell they used their vegetable oil in moderation because my paper plate wasn’t used as a napkin to soak up what the rice, chicken, beef or noodles couldn’t absorb. =)
The only «beef» i have w/​them is their sweet & sour sauce is not very tasty. I think McDonald’s sauce can outshine them by far. My suggestion to everyone is get more soy sauce packet to compensate for the taste of it because its more sour than sweet! I’ll definitely request that my company do more catering from Panda Express, now that i know i’m not gonna gain 10lbs in oily food.

Well, to use some of the more popular phrases in today’s lexicon:
Panda Express at PDX:
1. «It is what it is.»
2. «That being said» I won’t
3. «Throw them under the bus» because
4. «Oh My God» where else am I going to get
5. «effin» Chinese food in an Airport?
6. «LOL» One of my
7. «BFF» just loves Panda Express!
8. I just «LMAO» with that. Actually, I
9. «ROTFLOL» and
10. «LMFAO»
11. They think «W00T»
12. I think «Meh»
13. They «text»
14. And «tweet» about it.
15. Thinking it is «Hella» good
16. Like they are «representing»
17. And shouting «Holla»
18. To their «Peeps»
19. But I am «dissin» it
20. «Cuz» I can
21. «Prolly» get better most of the time.
22. «Just sayin!»
23. «BTW» this Panda is smaller than most
24. «IIRC», and doesn’t offer as many choices.
25. But «WTF?» it is in an airport!

It’s at the airport… need I continue?
So last night the kid and I are dropping off the Wife so she can wing her way to sunny Phoenix leaving us waterlogged here in the PNW. We decided that we had time and wanted dinner together. The kid, who runs our lives, wants Panda, or as he calls it, «The noodle place».
One thing I love about Panda is the green bean chicken, but whatever it was that was piled into that serving tray was green and I saw chicken, but no signs of any edible product other than that. I opted for Beijing Beef, Mandarin Chicken and rice. It was all… meh.
I don’t know what it is about fairly decent and successful chains getting an airport slot and just going to pot, both service and food quality. Next time we’ll be smart and eat at Casacde Station before we park at the airport!

I have sweet and sour memories of Panda Express in PDX. I worked here for almost three years. Yup it was that long!
They paid above average for fast food place. I got that cool PDX employee id card which allowed people to go to restricted areas of the airport. Oh yes, I had fun getting lost in the airport tunnels when to deliver hot Panda catering food.
I had fun working there since I got to interact with a lot of people and my favorites are cute pilots and tourists. We supposed not to get any tips, but people couldn’t resist my friendly smile and some eye winks action. *wink wink* So sometimes we got tips … illegally… (hush)…
The food is typical Chinese American fast food. I like all of them but my favorite is the Kung Pao Chicken. It has some kick to it.
So when I’m in a nostalgic mood or when I’m traveling, I try to stop by here. It’s a better option (taste and price) than other places at PDX. There’s nothing like greasy Chinese food before flying… yummeh…

I can’t believe I’m rating this place…
Here goes… I’m writing from China right now and I must say, I like good American style chinese fast food. Yup, I like it. Ever since my college days of cheap chinese, I get a craving for some fried meat and veggies with too much oil and way too much sauce.
If, like me, you need to have this stuff once in a while, you can get a decent helping of it here at PDX airport. What helps is that there is so much traffic that they’re constantly making new batches of food. Just check to see what’s moving and get some of it.
You know you’re not gonna get the authentic Chinese stuff, and that will be a blessing to most of you. Every meal that I’ve had so far here in China has had the head/​feet of the animal that we were eating or some organ that most countries usually just grind up to make spam with. Not to say that it wasn’t yummy, but just challenging. Like, how do they keep they eyes of the chicken open after the thing dies and is lying on the serving plate?
Anyway, the food is decent and the price is right. I wouldn’t go out of your way to get here, but if you’re coming through PDX and need some grub, stop on by.

panda is my fav there is so much great food.