SLO County has a new Chinese restaurant. Here’s what is on the menu
With nearly 90 choices, the menu at San Luis Obispo County’s newest Chinese restaurant takes a while to wade through.
Co-owners Xiaohan Ding and her mom, Yanzhi Liu, opened Panda Panda Chinese Restaurant in April at 810 Morro Bay Blvd. in Morro Bay, just a few blocks from the roundabout.
The restaurant’s offerings go beyond the classic entrée categories of chicken, beef, seafood, pork, lamb, vegetables or tofu.
Also on the menu are eight appetizers, seven soups, five varieties of egg foo young, six chow mein options and six fried rice selections.
Ding said the Chinese food eatery’s most popular dishes so far include orange chicken and geneously portioned walnut shrimp, which is fried and then lightly coated in a mild, slightly sweet sauce.
Owners of new Morro Bay restaurant have ties to Bakersfield
Before they launched their restaurant careers, Liu was in the massage business and Ding was a student.
Panda Panda Chinese Restaurant isn’t the mother-daughter team’s first venture in the restaurant world.
Their restaurant China Red House has been open since 2019 in Lebec, in the Sierra foothills outside of Bakersfield. The menu there is almost a duplicate of Panda Panda’s, but the Lebec restaurant also features a buffet.
Ding manages both places, she said, adding with a laugh that “I do a lot of driving back and forth.”
Asked what drew them to Morro Bay, Ding responded, “The ocean and the weather. It can be so hot in Bakersfield.”
SLO County eatery offers Chinese food for dine-in, takeout
Ding and Liu began remodeling the building that now houses Panda Panda Chinese Restaurant last year.
The restaurant’s minimalist, contemporary interior is highlighted by black, white, wood and brick. Two large, modern pendant chandeliers flank a substantial skylight, casting lovely light on the dining area.
There are 13 tables that seat four to eight diners each.
There’s also a large section in which people can order for takeout, which has been a substantial portion of Panda Panda’s business.
The restaurant’s setup isn’t quite complete yet, Ding said June 10.
“We’ve been waiting a long time to get our real dishes” and other items, she said, thanks to supply-chain and other issues.
Ding said that she, her mom and their staff members are frustrated because customers eating in the restaurant must use disposable dining and serving ware.
However, the lack of china and flatware didn’t seem to bother the groups that had arrived for lunch on June 10, including two first-timers, a mother and son and five upbeat women who shared their entrees family style.
All were tucking into their meals with apparent enthusiasm.
“We’ve had a lot of returning customers from Morro Bay already,” Ding said proudly. “That makes us very happy.”
She confirmed that some of those faithful diners come from the Morro Bay Police Department station, which is right next door.
Prices at Panda Panda Chinese Restaurant range from $3.95 for a bowl of rice to $18.95 each for the walnut shrimp, spicy lamb or the house special lamb dish.
The restaurant is open 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday. For information, or to order food, call 805-225-1113.
