The place looks a little tired, have to admit the carpet could use a vacuum. However the food, though not authentic or high end was fresh and tasted good. I took more than my share (suffered for it :) But it was very good. I don't expect uber service in these places so for it's use. I will return when I visit Kingston
I have went a few times to the restaurant and thought it was ok. However, I have know changed my thoughts due to the recent hairs I found in the food and inadequate responsibility of the staff members. When I encountered the hair in the food the staff took on no responsibility for the incident. They were purposing to give me only 10% off one adult meal. This meant that they took the incident lightly, no responsibilty for the hair. In most cases staff and management would take on the responsibility and be willing to offer you a few different options to rectify the problem. They either take 50 to 100% off the one meal or take your name and the next time you visit the one meal would be free. I give this restaurant a BIG THUMBS DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!
All in all, very average buffet, although they do have a pretty good selection. I feel the quality could be better on some dishes, ie to much breading on the chicken balls, some of the fried, breaded dishes could be crispier etc. I'm going to have to check out other restraunts before i consider coming back...
Was horrible food. Had flies all around and the food had obviously been sitting there a while. Not very good selection. I am sorry to even give this place any star.
This review is for early December 2010. Group of about 12 people for lunch buffet on a weekday. I believe the total cost with a pop was about $14 each including tip and tax so that was great.
As in my other review, we felt like Kingston had no decent Chinese until Panda Garden came along. We've had buffet there several times as party of two but this was the first bigger group. We had called ahead for a table, which was smart as the place was full for lunch.
The buffet for Panda Garden was always impressive for variety and regular turnover/top-ups of the hot dishes but they expanded a couple of years ago to try some basic Thai and sushi dishes. The Thai and sushi are not the world's greatest but they are fine and nice for variety and that's ok because Kingston has so many other specialty restaurants for that if you want it.
The variety of ice cream and desserts, as mentioned in other reviews, is impressive though we rarely make space for it in our multiple tours around the hot and cold stuff.
What we enjoy about the buffet are:
- wonton soup with green onions on the side if you like to add them
- egg rolls
- sweet and sour chicken balls
- General Tao chicken
- other beef and vegetable dishes depending on what's there that day
We find going in around 4:30-4:45pm on weekdays when the dinner service is getting started is ideal. Everything is fresh and hot and not as crowded as it is at 5:00pm or later. We haven't had a problem with food sitting around but then we don't try to go for buffet at mid-afternoon either.
We have always found the buffet servers to be pleasant and efficient with taking away dirty plates, topping up soft drinks and preparing the bill. Atmosphere is clean and pleasant with ample space to walk around with plates of food.
Ordered take out tonight, which is so easy and ready in about 15 mins so I'm surprised that few reviewers here seem to do that.
Service is fine for takeout and the order was complete and accurate as it has been 99.9% of the time that we have ordered there throughout the years since it opened.
General Tao chicken is a favourite, spicy and glazed and not often available elsewhere with a few pieces of broccoli for contrast. Sweet and sour chicken balls are a bit heavy on the coating but indulgent and good with classic sweet (red) sauce on the side. Steamed (or fried) dumplings with what I assume is hoisin sauce are SOOOOO good, even better as takeout than buffet.
Tried beef with green peppers for the first time tonight and really liked it, mild spicy, quite lean, no other vegetables (which is nice because I hate baby corn and don't like to pick it out of things).
I personally don't like egg rolls anywhere in Kingston as they all have mung beans, which are nasty. I wish some place would do straight pork and cabbage egg rolls like you can get in Ottawa. However, Panda Garden's are good if you don't mind the bean aspect and they have the classic plum sauce packets with them that we enjoy.
Whenever we order wonton soup for takeout, which we didn't tonight, I've noticed that they do include a lot of wontons in the order, which we appreciate. Sometimes the pork bits are a little fatty but that's not always the case.
We've ordered about 1/3 of the items off the menu over the years and enjoy the vast majority of them, including the Shanghai noodles that you don't always see elsewhere.
Until Panda Garden, I vowed that Kingston didn't have any decent Chinese restaurants but we like this one quite a bit.
On the whole we enjoyed our visit to the Panda Buffet. Lots of food choices, most of it hot, good desserts. The staff speak very little English and didn't really try to understand us. The woman at the cash was very rude and didn't thank us at all. The atmosphere wasn't great but we didn't expect much seeing as though it is a buffet
Buffet, what do you expect? The name panda garden is perfect because most of the food looks like it was trampled by a panda. The lady who seated us took our drink order and another lady brought it; that was the last I saw of anyone who would bring us another. The food was dry and had a nice think layer of film on it as it was no doubt sitting out for hours before I arrived. The sushi was completely inedible, the only reason I know it was sushi was because the sign told me so. Desserts were dry, ice-cream was freezer burnt, fruit was soggy, soup was film covered and the wontons in the soup were actually burnt. By the end I had tried a bit of everything in a foolhardy attempt to find something edible. By the end of the half hour I was sore and defeated. I paid the check and with no one there to tip; I crawled home. oh and the whole time i was there the psudo-chinese music kept playing the same horrific notes like an episode of the twilight zone where no one ever stops eatting and no fresh food is ever made.
Merry Christmas NOT. We ordered take out and after arriving home (30 minutes out of town) with our order($85 worth) we discovered that we were missing our Chicken Balls and 2 Spring Rolls. We called the restaurant and asked for a refund on the items that were missing. After 20 minutes and being called liars a number of times they refused to refund us any money and continued to be rude.
I am not to sure when customer service was thrown out the window but at this restaurant they have NONE. I will never eat here again and I will be passing my experience on to anyone that I know and work with.
Hopefully next year Santa will leave a restaurant full of COAL for these owners. I am still in shock over the whole experience.
Sushi is lame but if you want good sushi you need...
Sushi is lame but if you want good sushi you need to go to a sushi bar.
The rule of thumb when at any buffet is always stick to the popular dishes as these will always be the most fresh. Unfortunately, this is true of the Panda Garden also.
In spite of this, this buffet is the best in town. What more can I say.
Food was good and lots to choose from..Was $12 per person so it was pretty cheap..Service wasnt all that good, but then again, it is a buffett..Liked how you coul,d see the cooks as well...
Great food, bad service.
First of all, the food here is great, one of my favourite buffets in Kingston. Except for the sushi, which isn't great. Theres plenty of good stuff here and a wide assortment, from general tao chicken, sweet and sour pork, barbecue spare ribs, onion rings, to name a few. Lots of food here to satisfy anyone.
But the waitresses here aren't great,. They're like zombies. They stare at you as you eat your food (to make sure you're not sneaking any out) and they usuall seat you as close to other people as possible.
Awesome bathrooms too, best restaurant bathrooms in Kingston. But for a restaurant this size, the bathrooms are small (I think the mens washroom can fit 5 people at the most)
Prices wise, pretty cheap. Mon-thurs dinner is like $8.99 or something and mon-thurs dinner is like $11.99. Weekends are slighty more expensive.
So, in conclusion GREAT food, BAD service
It is obvious that this is a place to go to simply eat as much as you can for a good price.
The lunch on a weekday is 8.49, not 7.99 as advertised.
There was a colorful marshmallow 'salad' in the salad section. This is just an example of how nutritious this place is..
The 'sushi' was horrible. There was a selection of carrot/cucumber roll, something that looked like eel sushi, and one other roll that was about 2 inches thick and appeared to only contain something that looked like mayonnaise.
Do not eat the meatballs, gross! Eggrolls were okay. Chicken balls were good. I got very sick of everything being deep fried and biege, so I decided to get some veggies... the veggies had a thick coating of semi-transparent film on it, looked like silicon.. weird...
Basically everything was deep friend. Everybody eating was extremely overweight, not that that is a true indicator of anything, but this place is simply a place to get your fill for a reasonable price. Food not good, but price okay.
The only thing that I truly liked was the unlimited amount of cotton candy icecream.
Pretty good selection of food. I don't like how...
Pretty good selection of food. I don't like how they sit everyone that comes in the exact same area.... Service was ok; the waitresses can be a bit obnoxious and quiet. A young girl came in and asked if they were hiring and a woman at the cash rudely said no. But the food is pretty good.... you have to wait a while for food to come out, so don't go when it opens at 11am.
Good food, great service. Wait staff was pleasant, and prompt ready to refill drinks and remove plates when they were empty. Food was hot and always full. Left stuffed and overall contented.
We tried here for the lunch buffet. The food was...
We tried here for the lunch buffet. The food was fair but as usual with buffets, the food temperature could definitely have been much higher. The servers kept an eye on were prompt at bringing drink refills.
One problem we had was my wife being followed into the washroom to be questioned about our bill. The bill was brought to the table, paid with cash, and then taken away. We sat for a couple of minutes chatting then we both used the restroom before leaving. A server followed my wife into the restroom and confronted her in front of another customer about the bill. She told the server that it had been already paid. Too late to take back the tip. Sadly this has left a bad feeling with us, especially my wife.
There are a few buffets in Kingston, I have been...
There are a few buffets in Kingston, I have been to most however they do not stand up to panda garden. The atmosphere is really nice, the art as well. Everything is all laid out and it's great for bringing 10-20 people to as well.
The waitresses are chinese.. so sometimes communication gets a little fuzzy but it's generally pretty good. The service is usually either good or great.
Now, if you go there on mon-thurs at lunch, it is cheaper, any other day and you pay the regular price which I think is like 12 bucks per person.. which isn't all that bad for the amount of food you can eat.
For food they have a desert bar with cream puffs, 8 tubs of ice cream, and other little sweet treats... I am usually sketchy with them but sometimes they are good... Can't go wrong with the ice cream though, bubble gum, cookies & cream, pecan as well... nummy. Then theres the salad bar, with some jello + desert toppings also. Has everything you'd expect, I just wish they'd label the dressings.
On the other side is the soup station, 3 different kinds of soup (if memory serves me). The wonton soup is very good and there are noodles and green onions to dress your bowl with. At the back theres a japaneese section with chicken teriyaki and sushi/rolls. It's a neat little station because you can see them preparing the food. The chicken is very tastey.. I always have to eat as much as I can while I'm there... at one point we waited 10-20 mins just for them to cook the next fresh batch.
Now onto the rows, theres about 4 rows, food on either side.. you got your chicken balls, fried rice, deepfried chicken, lemon chicken (but the sauce is seperate), rice, veg, breaded shrimp, meat on a stick (my favorite), general tow, potatoes, and so much more.. you will find it very easy to locate something that appeals to you.
Now the food quality is just as you would expect: based on the time of day. 8pm- not so good. 4-5pm, VERY good.
Parking wise, very easy due to the fact that it's located in the Kingston Center.
You won't leave Panda hungry. If you believe the old myth that chinese makes you hungry later then you clearly are not stuffing your face enough food :P
The price is good. The quality of food was alright. Not everything was fresh. None of the deserts were fresh. Lots of selection though. Oddly no chicken fried rice served?
The servers are very quick to remove used plates and to refil drinks.
One downfall was that we got seated by two men that seemed to have a very foul odour to them which wasn't really great to be by when you're trying to eat and enjoy a meal.
My biggest complaint: It's a buffet only and they charge one flat rate per person (plus whatever you drink) so each person gets a bill for 12 something plus tax... there was 3 in our party and they gave us 4 bills, then argued with us when we were done and went to pay even though a man who was also waiting to pay told them he was sitting near us and there in fact was only 3 not 4 people eating. Not sure if I will be returning.
I ate here 4 times so far. Every time is pretty good. The price is decent, and the food is not bad tasting. I wouldn't call it real Asian food though.
If you want to go there, please go during the rush hours (like between 5:30-7:00), otherwise you might have the same experience JF had (see below). It is pretty much common sense for any buffet place to go when it is busy :)
Oh, be sure you try the cakes! I think the best ones are those square ones that taste like coffee or orange.
