A Spectacular Chinese Menu at Affordable Prices

Best Panda Restaurant
4052 Balboa Street (42nd Ave), 876 3298
open daily 11am-9.30 pm

Enjoy a Pacific sunset just a few blocks down Balboa and then enter the Best Panda, a bustling restaurant with a vast menu of affordable specialties focused on seafood, and many suggested menus for large parties. It won’t break the bank and you will leave satisfied.

To avoid waiting, go before 5.30 pm, then mingle with a Chinese crowd of happy families.

The restaurant seats upward of 175, mostly on large round tables for eight or ten. There are not many places for small parties, but even two persons will be seated at large tables when available.

Starters include deep fried quails $2.50, three Egg Rolls $4.50. Soups (for four) range from $4.95 for Mustard Green & Pork, Hot & Sour with Shredded Pork to Seafood Shark Fin Soup $8.50 (for one).

Menu Dishes: Among the 116 items listed on the printed menu, you will find all the standard items ranging from Mushu Chicken $5.95, Black Pepper Spicy Beef $6.50, to Pork Spareribs with Sweet Orange Sauce $5.50.

Vegetarian Dishes include a variety of fried rice and noodle specialties; Garlic Sauce Spinach, Two Kinds of Mushrooms with Snow Peas, Deep- Fried Tofu with mixed vegetables and Sautéed Green Beans, all at $4.50.

Family Dinners including suggested menus for three to ten persons are varied and well priced. Three, $19 will get you Seafood and Tofu Soup, Peking spareribs, Green Beans with Beef, Spicy Tofu with Shredded Pork, Garlic Vegetables. Pay $58 for five and get Tofu Soup, Peking Spareribs, Deep fried Sand dab in Soya Sauce, Steamed Salted Baked Chicken (half), Ginger and Green Onion Lobster, Sliced Pork with Preserved Mustard Green, Spicy salted Prawns (in shell), Clams in Black Bean Sauce, and Garlic Vegetables. More selections are available and menus for ten persons range from $148 to $268; those including Peking Duck and other more sophisticated dishes require a day’s advance notice.

Daily Specials; If you think this is all, hold on: the most fabulous discovery are the many daily specials of fantastic quality and quantity which recently included: Veal Ribs Bay Fung Tong (dry, fried, spicy with chili oil) $7.95, Clams Bay Fung Tong $8.50. There is also Steamed Catfish in Black Bean Sauce, small, medium or large for $6.88, $7.88 or $8.88. I especially recommend a whole Crab for $10.88 prepared in one of four ways: Ginger, Black Bean Sauce, Spicy Salted or Garlic steamed. You can also get Lobster at $9.88 per pound, prepared in the same ways.

Beers include Bud, Heineken, and Tsing Tao, all at $2.50 per bottle. House white wine is $3.88 per glass or $13.88 for a whole bottle. People were drinking happily.