Peking Panda a Fleck of Gold in Neon Glare

Look hard enough among the strings of standardized and convenience restaurants that populate the area’s mid-sized shopping centers and you will find a few flecks of gold flickering in the neon glare.

Peking Panda in Escondido Promenade Center, which stretches for several blocks along I-15 and offers dozens of chain stores and eateries, is one such exception: While from the outside it looks like the penultimate Southern California mall restaurant, Peking Panda actually serves rather well-prepared food.

The menu presents little in the way of novelty. Like all but the grandest Chinese restaurants in this county, Peking Panda has chosen the path of least resistance by listing those dishes that sell well. Although Chinese cooking certainly offers more than hot and sour soup, moo shu beef and kung pao chicken, it would be impossible to learn this by reading local menus. Even so, certain dishes at Peking Panda shine, and, as added compensation, the page of house specialties offers several attractive, less-typical items.

Top among these would be the very first listing, a dish called Panda chicken that, all on its own, offers a short course in several Chinese cooking principles. Textures rank high in Chinese cooking, and there are several in this dish, notably the soft succulence of the diced chicken, the brittle crunch of the wispy, fried-rice noodles that make a bed for the bird, and the firmer bite of the cashews tossed into this savory stir-fry.

The nuts themselves offer two flavors, an unusual (for Asian cooking) buttery taste, and also a decided sweetness that comes from the sugar or honey with which these nuts were roasted. The menu indicates a spicy sauce, but the effect is faint and no more, and even the timid should find much to like in this entree.

Plum Tree beef, named for one of the better Chinese establishments in Los Angeles’ Chinatown, is rarely encountered locally but is always welcome; this consists of strips of steak, lightly coated and fried and then sauteed in a pleasantly bitter-hot-sweet sauce. Once again, a good range of flavors and textures are present.

Also among house specials, the hon hon shrimp presents batter-fried critters in a sweet, pungent sauce, while several others could be regarded as combination plates, including the kung pao four flavor (chicken, beef, shrimp and scallops) and the sesame triple delight, which stirs fried, sesame-seasoned shrimp, beef and chicken in a mildly hot sauce sweetened with honey.

Among well-made entrees chosen from a largely familiar list would be the shrimp in garlic sauce, delicately cooked, somewhat hot (this dish does include ginger) and quite notable for the tenderness of the shrimp, and the assortment of savory Chinese mushrooms in oyster sauce, served on a plate edged in crisp-tender broccoli florets. The selections of soft fried noodle and fried-rice dishes are adequate.

Peking Panda

1260-A Auto Parkway, in the Escondido Promenade Center

Calls: 489-8191.

Hours: Lunch and dinner daily.

Cost: Entrees cost $4.25 to $12.95; dinner for two, including a glass of wine each, tax and tip, about $20 to $40.