Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Panda Empire -- New Milford, CT

Panda Empire
254 Danbury Road
New Milford, CT

My family has been going here since I was a kid. Many foods/restaurants I loved as a kid I have[understandably] lost my taste for, but this place is still my all-time favorite Chinese restaurant.

























Their simplest offerings – hot tea and crispy noodles with duck sauce for the table – are top notch.





















Too many American Chinese restaurants serve only one flavor -- salty -- but Panda rises above with tasty sauces light on the sodium. (Their fruit-based sauces are particularly good, such as the orange beef or lemon chicken.) They use fresh, natural ingredients; there's no glowing neon goo masking poor-quality meat or vegetables.
































Bill and I split an appetizer of minced shrimp and black mushroom wrapped in lettuce, which had a festive texture.
























I had the duck special, which was almost perfect. The house sauce was the stand-out, with notes of plum that brought out the best in the duck without overwhelming it. The duck itself was tender but a little too much skin for my taste.

























I can't remember the name of Bill's entree; I can't find the take-out menu I grabbed from the restaurant, and I can't find it online either. It was two different dishes served on one plate, and whatever it was called, he loved them both.































The after-dinner fortune cookies arrive with fruit, in keeping with Panda's fresh, high-quality offerings.

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