9 Menu Items To Avoid Ordering At Panda Express, According To Reviews

Panda Express is a go-to choice for customers who want something fast but who don't want the typical fast-food burgers or pizza. The chain is also responsible for introducing a dish that's become an American-Chinese food staple — hello, orange chicken and all its copycats — and it serves everything from small bowls to family-sized combos that are so large, you can use them to prep meals for days.

Panda Express has received a lot of criticism for not being "authentic Chinese," but that isn't why people buy its food. It's fast, consistent, and tasty, and someone who just wants something familiar to eat can find that at each location. As with any restaurant chain, fast-food or otherwise, the quality of the food can be location-dependent, and customers will, of course, find some dishes more to their liking than others. But some of those dishes receive more complaints than others, and if you aren't keen on spending money on something you might not like, then pay attention to this list of some menu items you might want to avoid ordering at Panda Express, according to reviews.

Fried rice shouldn't be hard to make. It's a basic dish that doesn't require special care, other than the fact that the rice should be cool for best results. Yet for some reason, the fried rice at Panda Express is routinely considered one of the chain's least-liked dishes. People have reported receiving burnt bits in the rice (and not the good "old-style rice cooker crust" type of burnt), that the dish was too oily, that the egg odor was very strong, and that the rice was overall tasteless, dry, chewy, sandy in texture, mushy, and the cause of a ruined meal.

The steamed rice doesn't fare much better. It's been called undercooked, hard, dry, and crunchy. However, one person actually wondered if the staff cooking the rice might have used too much water given how mushy some of the fried rice turned out to be. All in all, both the steamed and fried rice sides appear to be ones to avoid when you order.

The string bean chicken should contain chicken pieces and cut string beans, but many people have said they usually end up with mostly beans and very few pieces of chicken. On one hand, if you like string beans or were hoping to increase your vegetable intake, this sounds like great news. On the other hand, if you were looking forward to eating some chicken, that's not such good news.

This isn't the only dish that's ever had complaints about no meat. Other people online have reported that they'd order dishes like mushroom chicken that came without any chicken, or a three-item plate where none of the meat or shrimp entrees contained any actual meat or shrimp. It is possible that these other customers were just a few unlucky people out of millions served, but the string bean chicken has so many comments about the large amount of green beans and dearth of chicken that you may want to avoid this entree, at least if you're not ordering in person where you'd be able to see just how much chicken is in the main dish at the display counter.

The teriyaki chicken is another simple dish that doesn't do so well with customers. It should be basic; a piece of chicken served with teriyaki sauce. But online complaints about the entree are not kind. Some people do like it, but many more call the chicken inedible, bland, fatty, mainly gristle, not recognizable as meat, slimy, rubbery, stringy, dry, undercooked, spongy, low quality, and the list goes on. Some commenters have suggested that cooks may be using too much oil or that people are assuming they're supposed to get chicken breasts when instead they're getting thighs, which tend to have more fat.

And then there's the sauce. A lot of complaints focus on how customers have to ask specifically for the sauce instead of getting it automatically with the order; that sounds minor at first, but if you're not used to asking for teriyaki sauce for an entrée that's already got "teriyaki" in the name, it can be quite an annoyance. Other complaints put down the texture of the sauce, with one person claiming theirs was chunky.

Orange chicken is Panda Express' signature dish. Chef Andy Kao created orange chicken in 1987 for the company during a business trip to Hawaii to open a Panda Express location there. The original version used skin-on, bone-in fried chicken coated with a sweet sauce that was based on flavors used in eastern China. He then modified it to use skinless, boneless, chopped chicken, and the legendary dish was born. It's been an incredibly popular dish for years, so it's a little strange to see it listed as something to avoid.

But according to reviews over the past few years, the dish isn't what it once was. Much of the blame is placed on staff who customers say aren't making it properly. One review sums it up, claiming that no one at the restaurants really knows how to make orange chicken now. More detailed complaints note that the preparation is inconsistent, with one restaurant having spicy orange chicken and the other having sweet orange chicken, years before the chain introduced a "hot" version of the dish in 2024. Others have complained that they received cold orange chicken that was too tough to chew. More recent reviews noted a new version of the sauce was much too sweet, comparing it to kids' toothpaste, and others have noted that the chicken either looked fake or was of poor quality at more than one location.

We're as surprised as you to find that the chow mein is often one of the dishes to avoid ordering from Panda Express; the side is a long-time comfort food favorite of many. But lately there have been more reports and complaints that the veggie-to-noodle ratio is wildly off, with way more cabbage and fewer noodles. In other words, instead of getting some cabbage in a pile of noodles, you may instead get some noodles in a pile of cabbage. A couple of comments mention receiving almost all noodles and few vegetables, so this may be something to avoid just for the time being, until the ratio becomes more balanced.

Complaints about way too many vegetables aren't that new, but they do seem to have become more common in the past few months. People are posting pictures online of chow mein that appears to be half — or more — vegetable content. This imbalance has actually led some to ask if it's possible to customize a chow mein order and have the cook omit the vegetables.

The side known as super greens replaced the original mixed-vegetable side a few years ago. It's a nice combination of cabbage, broccoli, and kale (some cruciferouses) that's blanched and then briefly cooked with garlic. Get half super greens and half something else for the side, and you can have a meal that cuts the calories while adding a little more fiber to the total nutrition count. Customers generally like the flavor of the super greens, but a particular complaint stands out.

The super greens taste very good, but the texture seems off to a lot of customers. You'll find complaints noting that the vegetables are too crunchy or tough, and that they seem like they're either not cooked for long enough or not even cooked at all. One of the people who said the greens always seemed undercooked said they once got an order of greens that had been sitting for a while (in other words, sitting and likely wilting in the heat for a long time) and that they were the best greens they'd gotten. Yet another person noted a chemical-like taste in the dish with very hard cabbage. The complaints about the texture are so numerous that you may want to avoid ordering the greens if you want softer vegetables. Or, do what that one person did and try and get a serving of greens that's been at the display counter for a long time.

Panda Express offers both egg rolls and spring rolls (yes, they're different), and the egg rolls appear to be a mixed bag. One note about this side: Sometimes you'll find reviews that mention the egg rolls while the pictures that go with those reviews clearly show the spring rolls. Just keep in mind that the spring rolls have a smoother, thinner wrapper while the egg rolls have a thicker wrapper. The egg rolls also contain chicken.

Comments about the egg rolls generally aren't very nice. You'll find the egg rolls referred to as trash, inedible, and only worth eating when they're fresh. They also contain too much ginger, according to one review online, and another says they're too spicy and taste too salty. Others have given the egg rolls a rating of 1 out of 10 or claimed that they taste like something Walmart sells. And good luck getting the sauce for the egg rolls as another review noted the sauce was missing completely from an order for an office lunch.

The cream cheese rangoons at Panda Express are based on crab rangoon, which is a wonton wrapper filled with a mix of cream cheese and crab (or imitation crab). Panda Express' version doesn't contain any crab; the filling is just cream cheese and chives, and the side is served with a dipping sauce. Sounds simple enough, but customers have reported several issues.

A lot of the problems are staff or customer errors. Some reviews state that staff forgot to pack either the sauce or the rangoons themselves in orders, or that someone spilled the sauce. One employee apparently wasn't even sure how to properly cook the side and asked online if there were a way to ensure the tops of the rangoons cooked all the way through. Some customers don't recognize the chives; one apparently thought they were spots of mold on the cream cheese. The rangoons also seem to be the target of some who like to spout conspiracy theories about staff supposedly tampering with the ingredients, even though the rangoons are pre-made outside of the restaurant locations.

Other issues, though, are recipe or manufacturer error. Some don't like the fact that the wonton wrapper becomes crunchy and not bubbly after cooking. Others haven't been too excited at how plain the filling is. And one customer even reported not finding any cream cheese in one of the rangoons they ordered. The rangoons seem like a rather troublesome side for all involved.

Ever had a beloved dish drop off a menu only for the restaurant to bring it back later? And have you ever found that the newer version of the dish was not the same as the one you used to order? That's apparently happened with the eggplant tofu, and while some are happy it's back, others don't like the current recipe. Eggplant tofu was a regional dish that started disappearing from many Panda Express locations in 2020. One person even reported it being totally gone from the chain's online menu at one point, although people reported occasional sightings in the years after that. It was a favorite dish and served as one of the chain's few vegetarian offerings.

Fast-forward to the beginning of 2025, and eggplant tofu once again showed up at more locations, much to the initial joy of customers. Some did like it and were happy it was back, while others weren't so sure. One customer commented online that they were thrilled to have it again, but this new version was much spicier — painfully so — than the previous version. However, another person claimed it was too sweet. A few people wrote that their orders contained very little tofu. Others said the eggplant would become mushy after sitting around for a while.