Panda Chinese Food

Update: this is my favorite place to eat downtown during work hours. They will be closed for remodeling until May or June 2024 though. I get the spicy orange chicken. Comes with two cream cheese Rangoons and their entree portions are huge.

This is a pretty good little mom and pop place if you work downtown and are getting some Chinese takeout cravings for lunch. It's a little hard to find- it's on the second floor of a large shopping building, tucked away in an oddly angled corner. I ordered the orange chicken which was a little bit spicy. The chicken did not have much breading, and was soft but well cooked. There were some chopped carrots and onion mixed in. The restaurant does not have fried rice as a side option. The white rice was fine. The Rangoon were not as crispy as I prefer, but the filling is really delicious- creamy and sweet. The dumplings have small balls of meat filling. They tasted pretty good but the inside falls out easily. Overall everything was pretty good- I will probably go back as I am interested in their japchae!

Wonderful service and by far the best Chinese food in Des Moines. It doesn't get any better than this. My only wish is that they were open for dinner hours and weekends.

This might just be the best chinese food I've ever eaten. I'm chinese myself and grew up in California with good asian food and this little place is better than anything else i've ever eaten. Incredible service, fast, super nice people, and extremely generous portions. Panda Express doesn't deserve the name!

Incredible food! It's very well seasoned and usually pretty quick to grab, despite the lunch rush. Well worth the stop.

Best mom and pop restaurant downtown! Only open from 11-2 M-F, so plan your trip! They are located in there skywalk level of Capital Square. Food is made fresh for your order and the meat is never frozen. (They have a sign indicating this) Absolutely fantastic Americanized Chinese/Asian cuisine. Flavor is on point. Portions are huge, enough for lunch and dinner. Even then you'll still feel full at both meals. Owners are very kind and will make you feel welcome for your brief time there.

The staff was super friendly. The food was made to order, flavorful, and had a good portion. It's located on the second floor of the Capitol Square building.

Nice little hole in the wall spot ran by a family making food fresh to order. They do a pretty good job of giving a nice proportions.

This was the worst Chinese food I've ever had in my life. The pieces of chicken are cube-like for some reason and the crab rangoon had solid cream cheese in it. Not whipped cream cheese, or some cream cheese mixture like most places, it literally tasted like a block of Philadelphia cream cheese. The meal was really bad and made me feel sick. I don't understand how anyone could give this place 5 stars. It's significantly worse than HyVee Chinese (which is mediocre but great in comparison).Also, it's odd how there is a separate Panda Chinese Food location on 700 Locust St. with exclusively bad reviews. I wonder if this review will magically disappear or get moved there.

Food portions are possibly excessive. Price increases could have been controlled by reducing portions to make sense for lunch. Mom and pop kind of place. Happy to support them but the delivery method is too slow if you are in a rush. Everything is cooked to order by one cook. 30 minutes waiting for food most recently as people behind me got their food before me. Food is okay. Owners are nice but again, innovation to improve times would add a lot of value. For example, prepare in advance what customers order like Mongolian beef, Sesame Chicken and General Chicken, make to order everything else.