I grew up on Panda Garden on New Circle and it was the best Chinese food in town. Then I moved away for a decade before recently coming back to town. I tried the new restaurant for the first time since moving back and I have to say the food is better than it ever was. It's clear that Chef Tong excels at what he does. Went there last night with a large party and the service and food was top notch. We sampled a variety of dishes including Walnut Shrimp, Braised Mustard Greens, Salt and Pepper Calmari, the House Special Duck, and an Eggplant dish. All were prepared perfectly, full of flavor without being heavy or overly sweet sauces. I can honestly say this is the best Chinese food I've had in Lexington. read more

By far the most authentic Chinese I've had in Lexington. The menu is somewhat daunting, both because it is large, and they feature things like pig's ears, intestine and the like. However, there's plenty of more ordinary fare, and they do it all well. I recommend the sichuan dumplings and jalapeno green beans for appetizers, For an entree I'd go with the jade beef hot pot. read more

Authentic Chinese food. Great food. Visit there often and never disappointed with the food or service.

We just discovered this place and have to say, the best Chinese food we ever had. We lived in San Francisco and the NYC area and have eaten in a lot of Chinese restaurants. Panda beats many of the places hands down. This is unamericanized and not your mothers Chonese fare. If you want to see a menu that is very interesting , visit Panda. read more

Authentic, diverse and tasty. This is really great food and funky variety.

Best Chinese in Lexington. Good Hot n Sour soup, unlike most others. Very diverse and authentic menu. Good levels of spiciness in dishes, flavor profiles not dumbed down. read more

AUTHENTIC! You can tell by the number of ethnic Chinese that eat here. The food is generally spicy but you can request it to be mild. Go for the things on the laminated one page menu -- this is the authentic Chinese food. My favorite is the spicy fish pot (forgot the name). This place and Chengs are the best Chinese restaurants in Lexington!! read more

Unfortunately every thing had a thick layer of chili oil, so I got No distinguishable flavors. Disappointed.

Great food! Beef with green onions is delicious and all chicken dishes that we have tried have been great! Dim sum buffet great as well!

Authentic Chinese food! The best in Lexington.. If you are into Asian food, this is the place to be.. Great ambience, quantities are huge and the staff is quite nice too.. We got the garlic beans, Panda fish delight and the a chicken dish! Everything was lip smacking tasty! Highly recommend this place to all food lovers... read more

Best chinese restaurant in Lexington. I've been here multiple times and although it is a little expensive, I leave happy every time. They have a wide variety of entrees you can choose from. I've tried a lot of items and the only one I haven't liked so far is the garlic chicken. Other than that, I have enjoyed their food. Their duck is a little bit dry and is a special menu item so it'll run $17. My favorite item is the panda delight soup, which has fish and cabbage along with other veggies. It is a must try along with the green mustards and pepper. Their golden spare ribs are also one of my favorites and their eggplant is delicious. Most entrees do come with jasmine white rice, so you don't have to order it on the side. Like most chinese food, their dishes are cooked with a lot of oil. Service is okay. Sometimes it's hard to get the servers attention, especially if you've been looking at the menu for a while. Overall, most of their food is good and they have such a big variety that everyone can find something they like. Although the bill can be quite hefty after ordering 3-4 entrees to split, it is worth it. read more

Not recommended. Terrible service. We went there for dinner Jan.3 Wanted to order only one dish but the waitress said we had to order at least two dishes. The waitress was very rude and not friendly. read more

One of most authentic Chinese restaurants in the US. Provide a WIDE range of really delicious Chinese food. Love their spicy fish dishes, every one! The buffet at weekends is such a good deal! And they keep adding freshly cooked food when one dish runs low. read more

Panda Cuisine is a welcome breath of fresh air for the Lexington area Asian food experience. Their menu is both expansive and imaginative, with a periodic update of the chef's specials printed out as an addition to an already impressive regular selection. From spicy Szechuan to traditional Cantonese, from Shanghai to Manchuria, the rich and diverse cuisine of China is presented in a way that is unrivaled by any other local eatery. Portions are generous, prices are reasonable, and quality is exceptional. I most heartily recommend the pine tea duck, and if they have the roasted pork belly with chestnuts, you are in for a treat. read more

I had a pick up order. my family and I loved it. when I first walked in, didn't feel that welcome but soon after, all was good. I would definitely go back. read more

Hands down, this is the most authentic Chinese food we have found since we returned from a two month study abroad program in China. The pork belly and eggplant dishes immediately transport us to Xi'an and Tianjin. read more

The best Chinese restaurant if you are Chinese. The service needs to be improved. That's why I did not give five star.

Good chinese food outside of NYC. Their fried calamari, bok choy and chestnut, and sesame chicken we great. Food was quick and delicious. Not a buffett most of the time. I think it's on lunch buffett during the weekend. read more

The food is very good thats why i have kept coming back serveral times. During my serveral times visit i have always experience bad services. I kept coming my back because it hard to find authentic food in lexington. I'm Cambodian, i love asian food and i value authenticity. But the service is so bad that me and my friend vow to never come back after several visit. U might not have had the same experience because you are caucasian american. As a young asian , they automatically not give us the same experience because i assume they dont not value our visit as much. The lady owner treat us so bad. She was our waiter for us , and she also has a mean tone , she always rush us to order, she would also throw silver ware on our table, not to mention she get mad when u ask for stuff. And when we finish she bring our check and wrote down 15% value of the total for us to tip. We dont mind that because we work at a nail salon , we understand tipping because thats a way we make our living too. But she keep screaming at us and keep constanly point at what she wrote down. We have trouble understand her so we keep asking what is the problem , till we figure out that she want to make sure we tip at least 15%. Though we want to give ZERO tip for her horrible service. But we cant so we tip the minimum 15% , which for us is not much. I look around to see if other people receive the same bad treatment , but they dont. I definitely will not return because i dont want to be treated like im going there to beg for food. Word cant not describe the true horrible service that i have encounter. There are more to this. read more

I ate here for the Chinese NewYear celebration. The buffet was amazing. So much variety and everything I had was so tasty. I highly recommend the garlic eggplant. read more

Authentic Chinese restaurants, especially those that serve homestyle dishes, are almost impossible to find in Lexington, so I am grateful for Panda Cuisine. It certainly helps that they also serve seafood in a state where seafood is extremely hard to come by. Panda Cuisine may be just average for the genre on the East or West Coasts, but in Kentucky it is a gem. The service may come off as rude and inattentive to many Americans, but that's how service tends to be at many Chinese restaurants that cater to Chinese. Flag somebody down if need be. When I'm here I order Chinese dishes I'm not going to get anywhere else in KY: steamed whole flounder with soy sauce, green onions and ginger; homestyle Hakka pork belly with preserved vegetables; Sichuan hot pot so spicy you can see the layer of fiery red oil floating on top; Mandarin style seafood hot pot loaded with fish, shrimp and scallops. When I have the buffet, I find the vegetable dishes far superior to the meat dishes. read more

The service is really bad. Went in for a buffet lunch recently. Every time i had to call the waitress in order to have the empty plate removed. Waitress came over with disgruntled look. Come on, you get paid for your service. It is your job, not something you do a favor for me for free. read more

This is one of the most worst restaurant I have ever been to. There food not only is Bad the spring rolls they served were oily and greasy on outside but was stone cold inside. The Staff are rude and abrupt not at all helpful with the menu. The sweet corn soup they served my husband was actually an egg drop soup mixed with some sweet corn thrown in the last moment it was horrible. We always packed our leftovers in all the other restaurant this is first restaurant where we have voluntarily not packed the bad and stinky food. The worst of all this experience is there outright demand of 15% Tip. Hoping to see some kind of proactive action from Yelp by posting this review all the way up for this restaurant. Since there are at least 20% of reviewers like me who given there honest opinion. I wish Yelp had posted them first it would have saved us a lot of time and money since we were on a long road trip of 13 hrs and had to go out of route to eat in this restaurant Panda Cuisine. What a Disaster. read more

My husband and I LOVED Panda. It was our favorite restaurant in town, hands down. This is where we brought our out of town guests when we wanted them to see what REAL Chinese food is like. Sometime last year, the original chef/owner left. Over time with the new owners, the food slowly went from acceptable to very bad. Last week, we noticed that a sign was posted on the door. "Original Chef and owner is back!," it said. We were over joyed to learn this, finally, good Chinese food in Lexington! So, I made reservations for tonight (Valentine's Day), very excited for our old Panda. It turns out we were wrong. While much better than it had been under the last owners, our dinner was underwhelming. The appetizer (Sichuan Dumplings) was excellent, just like it had been in the past. I ordered an old fave (Five Flavor Fish) and my husband ordered the Peking Duck. When our entrees arrived, I was shocked to see what was placed in front of me. My dinner was barely luke-warm, and in no way, shape, or form resembled the dish I had ordered. Understand that it takes a lot for me to send something back, but I had to. Not only was the food cold, it had obviously been deep fried several times (there were layers of "fried"), the sauce was flavorless, and I'm fairly sure that it wasn't even fish! Resembling sweet and sour chicken, my husband noted "Five flavors? This is more like half a flavor!" When our waitress finally stopped by to check in with us, I explained to her what the problems were with the food. I figured, they'll want to know, especially since they've taken the restaurant back under original ownership and seem interested in cleaning up the overall reputation of the restaurant. Apparently I was wrong. This woman did not seem to care why I was sending the food back! I ordered another old favorite, the fish and tofu. This time the food was hot, and was almost as good as the originial Panda dish. I say almost, because this (supposedly) spicy Sichuan plate lacked the kick that it was supposed to have, particularly in the sauce. My husband's duck was ok (also luke-warm) but noticably skimpy, especially since the menu states that the entree is half a duck. What a small, anorexic duck it must have been in life! Another tell -tale sign - we ordered a pot of green tea to go with our meal. Shockingly, this pot consisted of one Tazo green tea bag! Where was the infuser with loose green tea leaves?! Tazo, really?! We could tell that they were conscious of the current reputation, they put a lot of effort in service and appearance (cute Valentine's Day decorations). But honestly, service is secondary when I'm coming to a restaurant to EAT. Our meal (with tip) was about $50. We could have spent much less elsewhere and had great Asian food in Lexington (Planet Thai, Saguno, etc.) I don't think we'll be back to Panda, instead we'll just tell stories of how amazing the restaurant used to be in it's prime. read more

Nothing to write home about. Dumplings are good, cucumber salad is just cucumber in sesame oil. Canton chow noodles are dry and bland, do not order. Kinda pricey, just for myself tonight's dinner was $22. I'll try this place one more time. But so far, not impressed read more

Never have the full menu in stock. If you order anything outside of the most common dishes, expect to be disappointed as they will most likely be 'sold out' of the item. read more

The service is terrible! You have to wait for a long time to get your drink refill. Food is mediocre. No atmosphere at all. They also "Force you" to pay the amount of tips by choosing the percentage for you and including the tips in your bill. read more

We went on 9:20 pm tonight. After we got the menu about a minute, the old woman came to our table and rush us to order because they close at 10 pm ??? It just made me feel so bad...... After the quick meal we asked her some togo box.....and we saw something....Something that made me feel gross.... She used her HAND GLOVES to do all the stuff such as: carrying the table cloth around to clean, touched my to go box, pushing the dirty cart, and brought broom and dustpan to clean floor. OMG! We believe she just used the same gloves to bring food for us..... While we went to the counter to check out and got some change for tip, she just said out loud to the owner in their language (she thought I couldnt understand) that we didnt gave her any tip??? Wooo..... She was very terrible! Actually she didnt do any services to us because she was busy with her cleaning.... But we still gave her some and pretend not understand what she said..... So mad! Wont come back! They really lost us. read more

My friend recommend this place a lot, which is ranked NO. 1 in Lexington, and it is true. We had sour-vegetable fish, (which is very authentic and not so popular in other Chinese restaurants in US), and Mao-Xue-Wang. Love it. read more

Best Chinese food in Lexington! We love the jalapeno green beans, the garlic pork, princess beef, beer duck... everything is great! And the buffet on Sundays is the only time, place, that serves dim sum. Give it a try! read more

I have been coming here for a few years and I love this place. Its is the best chinese food I have ever had and lets just say I am very picky when it comes to chinese. The staff knows what and how I want the food and its always great. read more

The only authentic Chinese food in Lexington. Panda is run by authentic Chinese people who cook authentic Chinese food. None of that fakey Chinese General Tso's Chicken stuff. Ok, just kidding, they probably do have that because this is still the US, but at least from here, it's probably good. All joking aside, this place is legit. Note that Sunday dim sum is not served traditional dim sum style on carts, but rather, buffet style, which is somewhat disappointing, but pretty good nonetheless. The hot and sour soup here is the most authentic h&s soup I've experienced in a long time. Other notable mentions are the youtiao (possibly translated as "oil stick..." sounds scary but it really is delicious and Panda does it right) and hot soy milk. Brings me right back to breakfast shops in Taiwan! I also love that the servers and hosts here all speak mandarin Chinese. This place is an authentic feast from the East! read more

The boss is mean and stingy, the food is really just so so. For price, great wall is much better deal. For environment, PF Chang is way more better. Panda Cuisine is really not good deal at all. read more

Had a hearty traditional Chinese family style meal here. Good food, some a bit spicy. Service was fair and the floors were sticky. I'll try it again because I understand they are really the only true Chinese restaurant in town. Could have been cleaner and service a bit more attentive. Overall 3 1/2 stars. read more

Nice looking place, but we didn't care for the food. Had Chow Fun, which was not wide, but thin noodles. Overly greasy, and not very tasty. Also had the szechuan tofu. Not good either, and loaded with celery. Not a repeater. read more

Great weekend brunch! The spicy whole shrimp are amazing, as is the duck and the dim sum are pretty decent. The har gow wrapper is a bit too thick for my liking but it satisfies a craving. read more

This was the second time I have been to Panda Cuisine, and I am sorry I did not find in the first time! Honestly, I didn't care for the Pine Tea Duck, which I chose because of rave reviews on here. The first time I visited, I got the Garlic Eggplant while I was doing a review of every Chinese restaurant in Lexington's version of it (not the best, imo. It was pretty bad actually and the reason I had not been back sooner). But the soup was probably the best I have ever tasted. I got the pickled cabbage and fish soup, and it was delicious. I definitely see myself coming back for this. I will also try other dishes and the buffet. It is an interesting place, and I had excellent service. I would recommend trying it out and selecting something new. read more

Love this Steak and Shake! The store must have a new manager because improvements are evident! The place is clean, and the service is friendly! Best shakes around, and our food was hot. We will be back soon! read more

Panda Cuisine is great! I love the Red Hot Wonton Soup. I am always finding something new to try. It is hands down the best Chinese in Lexington. The place is always full of Chinese people so that should tell you something. I think they have a room for a meeting if you like. read more

I LOVE Panda Cuisine. It is hands down, by far, the best Chinese food in town. Specializing in Sichuan cuisine, one probably needs some level of tolerance for heat in food to be able to enjoy Panda to the fullest. If you're adventurous and love spice, this is the place for you. I gave it 4 stars, rather than 5, because ultimate quality and tastiness of the food depends on who is working in the kitchen that evening. Consistency seems to be an issue at times. read more