China Panda Satisfies With Inspired Menu

A server at Vista’s China Panda allowed that a lot of people find the texture of the “hot burned pork” rather challengingly chewy, admitted that the dish does have a superb flavor and agreed, her caveat offered, to bring an order.

There was nothing remotely disappointing about this fine, authentically Szechuan-style preparation, which wasn’t quite as resistant to the teeth as might have been supposed, and not at all burned, either, but merely cooked in a manner that gave it a most attractive bite. A really meaty, savory dish, it enhanced this basic quality with a sauce of crushed peanuts and semi-hot spicing that, if a little salty, also was sensational.

China Panda could have a more congenial, up-to-date look, but the menu would be hard to improve upon. Like many Chinese restaurants, it opens with a page of house specialties, but this one is longer than most--it runs to 20 offerings--and consists mostly of dishes that really are special.

A goodly number are marked with the star that at Asian restaurants now universally indicates spicy heat (although the temperature is kept low here, and nothing should offend normal palates), but there also are lavish variations on mild Cantonese classics. In the latter category would be the “grand style” subgum won ton, a platter which arranges chicken, beef, barbecued pork and assorted vegetables, all in brown sauce, under a coronet of crisp, fried won ton pastries; and the “treasures of the sea,” a mild stir-fry of scallops, shrimp, crab and abalone served on a sizzling platter.

The cooking by and large is impressive, and the kitchen tends to generosity. The pot stickers--a commonplace starter these days, but the appetizer list is the one segment of the menu that shows no inspiration--are exceptionally large and well-stuffed, and very nicely flavored. The entrees seem uniformly large in portion.

While the house specialties page offers the most interesting dishes, the other categories are well-written and inclusive of numerous good dishes. The vegetable selection is particularly attractive, offering not only a good stir-fry of broccoli and Chinese mushrooms in oyster sauce, but braised string beans and Szechuan-style bean curd in a teasingly spicy sauce enriched with bits of minced pork.

Other less-typical choices include Mongolian lamb, a good treatment of a meat that enjoys a following only in certain parts of China, and a dish of sauteed shrimp that is simply but exactingly cooked and offers a product that really tastes like shrimp .

There are also, of course, the usual kung paos , sweet-and-sours and moo shis --it would take a bold management indeed to omit these perennial favorites from a Chinese menu in this country--and, in an evident effort to accommodate all tastes, such pseudo-Chinese dishes as chop suey. Noodle dishes, a mainstay of Chinese cuisine, vary in availability from restaurant to restaurant, but Panda China offers a full-range of soft-fried noodles topped with the meat of choice. Based on availability, the seafood list mentions steamed whole fish, in hot bean sauce if desired; the price depends upon the fish and can be expensive relative to the rest of the menu.

Specialties include the Szechuan braised lobster, a rare Chinese dish in that it includes wine among the flavorings, and another relatively hot dish, the ma la “three flavor,” which combines shrimp, beef and chicken with miniature ears of corn in distinctively flavored ma la sauce.

Quite a number of the offerings on this page are deep-fried, usually after the components have been dipped in batter, and coated with a sauce of varying sweetness and/or heat.

The tsun tsun chicken veers away from sweetness and garnishes the meat with strips of onion and bell pepper, while the “sesame delight,” quite a pleasant preparation, uses a good deal of honey as well as a few “black paper” peppers to produce a mellow yet spicy effect in the sauce for the batter-fried pieces of chicken, beef and shrimp. Since this dish, like many on the specials page, entirely or largely eschews vegetables, it is a good idea to either order a vegetable plate for the table or to make sure that some other entree goes heavy on green things.

Some dishes are neither sweet nor hot, but quite pungent. A prime example would be the “Panda shrimp,” so laden with garlic that the menu bills it as the “one and only” dish for the garlic lover. At the other end of the scale, the “three ingredient tastes” gently mingles stir-fried meats with smooth, soothing oyster sauce.

China Panda

702 S. Santa Fe Ave., Vista

Calls: 724-5018

Hours: Lunch and dinner daily

Cost: Entrees $5.25 to $14.95. Dinner for two, including a glass of wine each, tax and tip, about $20 to $40