CHEAP EATS: Chinese buffet has high item count, expectations

By Eric E. Harrison

LITTLE ROCK — A wise person recently observed that if you want to accurately judge a Chinese buffet restaurant, imagine what it will be like in a year.

So a year from now, what will the brand-new Panda Garden in the Shackleford Crossings Shopping Center be like?

Panda Garden

Get more information this location

Will the fancy red-lacquer walls be as shiny bright? Will the large number of offerings, including a surprisingly wide variety of sushi and seafood specialties and carve-it-yourself prime rib still be on the buffet?

Will there still be as many staff members busily clearing tables in the dining room and stirring the stir-fried items in their steamtable trays in the buffet room?

Few, if any, area Asian buffets have lived up to their opening promise. Sooner or later, the harsh realities of the restaurant business take their toll on even the finest such establishment. Eventually, all of them have to compromise. Just about every Chinese buffet place we know of has had a major reorganization, name change or ownership change. A lot have simply gone under.

Shortly after we walked intoPanda Garden for a late-Saturday lunch, we encountered an acquaintance in the Chinese restaurant business, who, spotting the egg roll and rather oily Mongolian Pork on our plate, told us in no uncertain terms, "You don't want that," and steered us toward the buffet's seafood, especially the steamed fish, the salmon and the shrimp on a stick.

She was right. Peculiarly enough, the stir-fried-in-the-wok Chinese entrees like Mongolian Pork and General's Chicken werethe least interesting things on the buffet.

The steamed fish, once we managed to separate it from the bones, was the best thing we had.

A somewhat strange herb or spice kept us from enjoying the butter-poached salmon as much, however.

On the dinner buffet, shrimp on a stick and beef on a stick, the latter skewered with grilled vegetables, were well worth the trip.

Elsewhere in the middle area of the buffet, a fried-food station has some decent crab rangoon, spring rolls and tolerable potsticker dumplings.

We fared better around the rim. On one side a sushi chef was busily putting together nigiri (fish on rice) and some pretty fantastic rolls, some of them distinctly unusual (like the fish, seaweed and rice in a sort of soft wrapper and large salmon eggs reposing in a cucumber cup).

Watching what he just put out will better assure you what's freshest (some of the lunch-time stuff looked like it had been sitting out for a while).

The only drawback: No sign identifies those rolls, which means you could be at risk of getting some ingredient youmight not like - say, spicy tuna or mango - or that might not appeal to you. Ask the chef if you're in doubt. A cold seafood station offers peel-and-eat shrimp and some pretty impressive cold mussels (we avoided the cheese mussels on the hot station on the other side of the buffet, which featured non-Chinese dishes like bacon potato) and, at dinner, crawfish. The prime rib on the carve-it-yourself station was a nice option for carnivores.

Panda Garden puts its four soups - egg drop, a decent wonton, a mushroom-heavy hot and sour and seafood (essentially a light egg drop with a few little rounds of quasi-crab surimi) - not on the steam table but in individual temperature-controlled tureens (they each are set for 175 degrees, so you know the soup is piping hot). A similar vessel nearby contains white rice.

Next to that there's a Westernstyle salad bar. On the fourth side is the dessert station, with all the various cakes, cookies and fruitbased concoctions that you've seen in every Chinese buffet in which you've ever eaten. There is also the now-traditional soft ice cream machine; Panda Garden offers eight flavors, more than usual.

Most of the food was reasonably hot but not all of it - the bane of buffets everywhere. (The buffet owner that manages to keep the flames going consistently under all his steam tables could probably someday rule the world.)

Panda Garden's buffet prices are a bit higher than the competition - $6.95 for lunch, $10.95 for dinner; prime rib and a full-time sushi chef cost money. However, you'll pay roughly half-price for kids - lunch, for example, is $3 for youngsters 3-5 and $4 for youngsters 6-10. And now that we think of it, $10.95 for all-you-caneat sushi is a pretty good bargain.

One drawback - no fortune cookies with our check.

Wait staff is helpful and friendly and cleared our used plates faster than they refilled our drinks, which come in a lightweight plastic mugs. The owners have invested a good deal in the decor, with lots of red-lacquered wood on the walls and the dividers and marble-like floors.

Seating is in a main dining room with a couple of side rooms and larger tables in a party room with a pretty round entryway.

Tables and chairs are sturdy and made of dark wood; they are a little close together, making a route to the buffet a little challenging at lunch, when the place was a little more crowded.

Panda Garden Address: Shackleford Crossings Shopping Center, 2604 S. Shackleford Road, Suite G, Little Rock Hours: 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday Cuisine: Chinese buffet plus "sushi, grill & steak" Credit cards: V, MC, AE, D Alcoholic beverages: Beer and wine license pending Reservations: No Wheelchair accessible: Yes Carryout: Yes (501) 224-8100

Weekend, Pages 66 on 08/22/2008