ABCDE - Panda Country Restaurant

About two years ago, I remember sitting and having some sushi. During the meal, I struck up a conversation with a quiet, somewhat serious, intense young man. And of course, eventually the subject of food came up. As we spoke about Chinese Restaurants in San Diego, the young man asked me, "do you know the best Chinese Restaurant in San Diego?" Now I had this guy pegged as an "ABC" (American Born Chinese), so I immediately offered up places like China Max, Jasmine, Emerald, and Golden City. The young man gave me this strange look, and I suddenly felt like a spaz who meant to scratch his eye but ended up with his finger halfway up his nostril..... "It's Panda Country." Is what he said with total conviction. Not placing the restaurant, and wondering if I've somehow overlooked some hidden treasure, I replied "Panda Country?" "Yes Panda Country, and I should know....." And then the inevitable happened, he uttered the phrase that always makes me shake my head, "because I'm Chinese." And to up the ante, he followed up with, "and I'm from New York, and WE know good food...." Ah yes, the double whammy, "genetics and geography", I suddenly felt like I was reading a review from that "four lettered" website, full of "I know good xxxx food because I'm (fill in the blank race)." And yet, I still couldn't place Panda Country, until I was making the left turn on Genesee at Clairemont Mesa Boulevard......geeez, Panda Country, I've passed this place thousands of times. The place looked like a typical "ABCDE" ("American Born Chinese Dining Establishment" - pronounced Ab-cee-dee).

Nothing against ABCDEs, in fact I was raised eating at places called Kwok's Chop Suey, McCully Chop Suey, Hee-Hing, and Kapahulu Chop Suey. Eating stuff like Cold Ginger Chicken, Oyster Sauce Chicken, Sweet Sour Spareribs, Almond Duck, Kau Yuk, and Lemon Chicken. Not having much in the way of money growing up, meals from these places marked special occasions. And though I'm not a fan of most of what is served in San Diego at places with names like, "New Eastern Panda Dragon Pearl Garden House Cuisine", many ABCDEs serve good solid fare. And yet, for some reason I couldn't bring myself to enter through the doors of Panda Country for two years.

 

And of course, I waited until an evening when the Missus was tied up, and not available for dinner.

The fairly dark interior of Panda Country looked like your typical time-warp 70's Chinese Restaurant. The theme was....well Panda's of course.

 

While waiting for my order, watching folks come in to eat, and pick-up take-out orders, I could make out a typical customer profile. I don't want to sound to age discriminant so I'm only going to say, that there was a lot of blue hair, walkers, and canes. On the good side, I felt like a spring chicken!

And though the carvings looked more like some exotic rodent than a Panda, I really dug the chairs!!!

 

While waiting for my order, between serving and seating customers, I had a nice conversation with the Server who is from "Canton"......no not Ohio, but the city now known as Guangzhou. He was really nice and friendly. I was told that Panda Country has been around longer than he has, which probably put the place at around thirty years or so. When I asked where the Chef was from, I was told Hong Kong. I quickly brightened and said, "the chef trained in Hong Kong?" To which he replied; "no, the chef is from Hong Kong......" Still I really liked this Guy, and the place was fairly hopping when I left.

Somehow I had remembered what I was told to order here, and even ordered a few more for good measure.

Being a big chicken wing fan, I started with some Fried Chicken Wings ($5.50):

 

These weren't bad if a bit short on seasoning. Not something I'd order again, but not bad.

One of the items recommended was the "Crispy Beef" ($10.25):

 

The was more like "candied beef", man was it sweet. It truly hurt my teeth. I was warned about this dish being spicy, which it wasn't. I'm sure if you had eaten this at the restaurant, there would have been a bit more "crunch" to it. The beef was one the chewy side, which is perfectly fine with dishes like this.

The House Special Chicken ($10.25):

 

If I could rename this dish, I'd call it "General Tso Slept Here" as it resembled versions of the dish known as General Tso's Chicken. In case you're wondering about the story of that dish, you can read Fuchsia Dunlop's version either in her Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook, or read Her article from NPR here. The batter on this was pretty good, it held it's crunch on the trip home. The flavor, for such a robust looking dish was bland.

I also ordered the Shrimp in Black Bean Sauce ($11.95):

 

This was the best dish overall. I could have done without the frozen peas, and prefer green bell peppers and onions to the zucchini, but this was not bad. Good amount of shrimp, a tad over-cooked, but acceptable. Decent amount of black bean and garlic as well. I think that Mandarin Canton and Mandarin make better versions of this dish. The texture of the sauce wasn't overly gluey and gooey which was also a plus.

OK, before I get a ton of poison pen letters telling me I'm a Chinese Food snob, blah, blah, blah.....do me a favor, and think of something they do really well at Panda Country. And maybe, just maybe, I'll pay them another visit. Maybe not....

Panda Country
4455 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92117

And the next time the best reason someone can come up with regarding food is their race......think twice.

Comments

[Masa Assassin]

Kirk you darn chinese food snob :P haha I love the story leading into to post. Its always difficult to answer the whats the best insert food here______ in San Diego question.

[rubywong]

Funny antidote. Never tried this place before.

[Kirk]

Hi YY - I hope it wasn't this bad!!!! BTW, I'm still waiting for those tamarind wings......

Hi MA - The thing is, everybody thinks they have an answer!

Hi Ruby - I don't think you're missing anything.

[Carol]

This was one of the first places I tried when I moved to SD. Never went back after that first time. Doesn't look like much has changed. I really hate the overly sweet, goopy sauce stuff, even for my sweet tooth. Loved the story!

[Sandy]

I've seen this place for years, and I've decided that I haven't missed much.

Your NY ABC story is too funny!

[Kathy]

Oh man! As soon as you mentioned all the local Hawai'i choy suey places, my belly started to rumble!!! Kaimuki Chop Suey is still my favourite - beef chow funn all the way! :)

[Kirk]

Hi Carol - That one dish was waaaaay too sweet!

Hi Sandy - I'm glad you enjoyed the story.

Hi Kathy - You know, right now, I'm missing all that stuff......

[GhettoFabGourmet]

I've met people from NY and parts of the East Coast. Their idea of Chinese food is very different from what Chinese food is on the West Coast. I've never been to NY, but after reading your post, I'm guessing that our East Coast counterparts probably think that good Chinese food is a sit-down version of Panda Express or Pickup Stix. I wonder if my counterargument of being born in Hong Kong, grew up eating mom's authentic Chinese cooking and having frequented SF/Bay Area Chinese restaurants would have silenced NY-Chinese Guy. I'm sure he knows good Italian food though.

[Kirk]

Hi GFG - I gotta kinda disagree with you on this one. Places like NYC have such diverse offerings in such quantity that just thinking of it is staggering. For Chinese food Flushing is a great example. My point is that genetics and geography as the lowest common denominator when it comes to cuisine does not make a discriminating eater.

[Andrew]

Man, the last time I ate there I was about 5 years old. I'm 25 now. I don't remember too much, but when we lived in Clairemont we would pass it almost every day. Its like a landmark almost.

[Kirk]

Hi Andrew - I've been told that this place, and Mandarin Wok have been around forever.......

[Mic]

I like ABCD food.
We're frequenters of Panda Country, because the House Special Shrimp works perfectly for us.
The problem is figuring what else to order and I havent found a good second dish yet, so we usually get two orders of HSS.
My husband has been eating there, that dish, for nearly 25 years. Tastes differ, I guess.

[Jack & Terry]

First went here in the late 80's. It was known as Panda Inn back then until the Panda Inn from LA invaded. A judge said the LA group had the name first so it changed the name to Panda Country. There are two locations, Clairemont Mesa in San Diego and in the Vons center in Santee. We prefer the Santee location. Everything is made on the spot.It may not be the best food around, but it is much better than the average chinese restaurant in the San Diego area.