The well-known fast-food restaurant chain was founded in California in 1983. Panda Express grew pretty quickly, and nowadays there are more than 2.200 restaurants with more than 4.000 employees all across the country. The fast-food chain is specialized in American-Chinese cuisines. Since it’s an Asian-styled restaurant, we would expect some naturally vegan meals with tofu just like at Pei Wei. So, we visited the restaurant with huge expectations.
Panda Express Vegan options
While Panda Express wasn’t a great place for vegans a few years ago, now it has pretty decent plant-based options for us. Of course, It doesn’t mean we should expect a vegan heaven, still, we could find many tasty bites.
Appetizers
Let’s start with a wonderful news! Veggie spring rolls are totally vegan. It doesn’t contain eggs or dairy. Cabbage, celery, carrots, green onions, and Chinese noodles wrapped in a crispy wonton wrapper.
Entreés
Unfortunately, Vegan orange chicken couldn’t become permanent, so the main course options are pretty limited. But hey, at least the excepted tofu dish is here!
Eggplant tofu
Lightly browned tofu, eggplant, and red bell peppers tossed in a sweet and spicy sauce.
And that’s all.
Sides
Do not expect much, but at least there are choices. Attention, the fried rice unfortunately contains eggs.
Mixed vegetables – aka Super Greens
A healthful medley of broccoli, zucchini, carrots, string beans and cabbage.
Chow mein
Stir-fried wheat noodles with onions, celery, cabbage, and definitely no eggs.
Steamed White and Brown rice
Nothing to add to it. Plain rice without any animal ingredients.
Sauces
At least there are plenty of different sauces to spice up the plain sides a little bit.
- Teriyaki
- Sweet & Sour Sauce
- Chili Sauce
- Soy Sauce
- Potsticker Sauce
- Hot Mustard
- Plum Sauce
Desserts
The best part comes last, the desserts. All of the desserts are vegan at Panda Express. Yeah, you heard it right. However, It doesn’t mean much, since there is only one. But hey, at least the Fortune Cookies are totally plant-based. They do not contain dairy or eggs, which is a pleasant surprise.
