I tried a new restaurant last night, although I’m not sure Red Panda Buffet would have really been my first choice, but Brandon wanted to go there, so we did. It was a VERY typical Chinese buffet, right down to the fountain full of koi fish. (What is this about anyway, nearly every Chinese restaurant in Harrisonburg has either a fountain with Koi or a fish tank with other random fish. It’s very strange when you think about it). The food was pretty good for buffet. They had some decent chicken dishes, I was a fan of the “honey chicken.” I also love crab rangoon, although admitted only because it tastes mostly like cream cheese and fried dough. They also had those mysterious fried biscuits that seem like Pilsbury dough fried and covered in sugar. I have a hard time believing that these are actually Chinese, but perhaps they are.
I don’t eat Chinese that much, and when I do it’s usually buffet style. And I don’t really feel that great afterward either, which is why I don’t make a habit of it. I do admit to occasionally craving Lo Mein noodles though. My brothers ex-wife’s family used to own a restaurant that had the best Lo Mein. And I still hold that Laotians make the best eggrolls. We used to get a tray from her family every year for Christmas. We sent them a tray of Christmas cookies. I think we got the better end of the deal. Sadly, we don’t get those anymore. My sister-in-law Ana taught me to make eggrolls, almost as good as the Laotians, but they require a number of things I never have around the house, like wonton wrappers, bean thread, and above all, a deep fryer. The first two I could potentially stock from the Oriental Food Market, but I refuse to own a deep fryer.
The other feature of Red Panda that might be important to some people, but isn’t important to me, is that they have a sushi bar. I suppose I could have tried the sushi, and crossed off “try a new food” from my list, but I recently watched a 20/20 segment on tuna fisherman in the Mediterranean who are losing money because giant fishing industries are coming in and catching the tuna and flash freezing them for restaurants just like this one. They are like the Walmart of tuna fisheries, and I don’t like that idea at all. So for now, no sushi for me.
Overall, I’d give Red Panda a 6 on a scale of 1-10. It’s a pretty average Chinese restaurant.
