Which means that of the 25+ different foods you’ll see in their buffet, only 5-7 will be low carb enough to be considered.Let’s not dwell on those things we can’t eat, but instead celebrate the few things we can. They aren’t hip to the dangers of sugars & carbs…yet. Panda is another restaurant who presents well-meaning “healthy” options on their menu (called Smart Wok) but mistakenly thinks that “healthy” only means low calorie. For speed, you can’t beat their fast moving concierge-style buffet line. They also helped me structure my orders to achieve the best possible value. Both times I went into Panda Express the servers were friendly and did their best to answer my questions. Hard to judge because of varying sizes of entrees. Price / value of low carb entrees – Average.Most of the entrees I ordered were tasty, though much of the flavor comes from sugar. Taste of low carb entrees – Above Average.In general though, you can get full for less than $10. This somewhat hard to judge because they offer different size plates, bowls, and entree containers. Satiety of low carb entrees – Average.They also have 7 more traditional Chinese entrees that are moderately low carb ranging from 10-15 net carbs and 200-300 calories. The Grilled Teriyaki Chicken and Grilled Asian Chicken are 8 net carbs and 300 calories. Low carb friendly – Not really, unfortunately.They have several different order size options (plate, bowl, and small/med/large ala carte) which further complicates the task of sticking to your macros.You can cobble together a filling meal with less than 20 grams of carbs, but it won’t look much like the Chinese feasts you grew accustomed to when you were a mainstream eater. And I hate moderation.You can’t special order because everything is pre-made and served ala carte in a buffet line. Panda Express is low carb challenging because they present several options that look somewhat keto friendly but have hidden carbs which means they need to be eaten in moderation. I predict that I’ll need to hunt and peck around some high carb ingredients to stay within the bounds of my typical keto macros.Let’s see if they can surprise me. Still, I’m excited to go back as this is the first Chinese restaurant I’ve visited on the fast food challenge thus far.My ingoing expectations are that they’ll have too much breading on the stir fried meats, heavily sugared sauces, and entrees fluffed w/ sneaky high carb veggies like carrots, baby corn, & water chestnut. Since I’m consistently disappointed by buffet-style Chinese food and don’t eat rice, I haven’t been to Panda Express in over 10 years. Panda Express describes themselves as a fast casual Chinese restaurant. In a hurry? Get my Panda Express Low Carb Menu one-pager if you want to see full macros and nutritional stats for the 9 lowest carb entrees at Panda Express (<16 net carbs each).
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