restaurants founded pasadena california june 8 1973 ; 43 years ago 1973 06 08 founder andrew cherng master chef ming tsai cherng headquarters rosemead california number of locations 5 area served southern california key people andrew cherng founder and chairman of the board peggy cherng ph.d. co chairman of the board tom davin chief executive officer owner panda restaurant group website www.pandainn.com panda inn is a chain of sit down chinese restaurants in california owned and operated by the panda restaurant group . 1 2 3 its original founding goal was to bring new varieties of chinese cuisine such as mandarin cuisine and szechuan cuisine dishes to southern california which had traditionally favored chinese cantonese cuisine . 4 contents 1 history 2 references 3 further reading 4 external links history edit the first panda inn was founded by andrew and peggy cherng and andrew s father master chef ming tsai cherng 5 all of whom used to live in the yangzhou region of china s jiangsu province . their first location was opened on june 8 1973 in pasadena california . 6 a short time after ming tsai died a second location was opened in 1982 in nearby glendale . 6 a few months after the opening of the glendale location of the panda inn the cherngs was invited by the developer of the glendale galleria to open a quick serve version of the panda inn inside the mall . this new concept was called the panda express and it opened inside the galleria in october 1983 . 6 the first panda inn in san diego opened at horton plaza in 1985 3 while the first panda inn in orange county opened in la palma in 1993 . andrew cherng and his wife peggy tsiang cherng are alumni of baker university in baldwin city kansas . 7 references edit what s black and white and ready to get fancy panda group facing off with p.f. chang . restaurant p.f. chang s china bistro inc. panda restaurant group inc. . los angeles business journal . august 13 2007 . retrieved 2008 10 10 . dead link booe martin july 12 2001 . a two strike start but panda inn s a hit ; it s not dim sum it s a buffet and it s a chain but this skeptic finds good food and value for the money in la palma . los angeles times . p. f. 44 . retrieved 2009 02 01 . a b nelson david december 12 1985 . horton plaza s panda inn plum tree beef arrives in san diego at last . los angeles times . p. 6 . retrieved 2009 02 01 . about panda inn . panda inn . dead link about panda express inn . archived from the original on 2003 02 04 . a b c eng dinah 5 february 2013 . how panda express brings chinese food to the mall . fortune . retrieved 28 june 2015 . cherngs honored for contributions in l.a. area pdf . baker pride alumni magazine . kansas baker university . spring 2008 . dead link further reading edit jennings lisa august 1 2005 . having words with peggy tsiang cherng chief executive and co chair panda restaurant group . nation s restaurant news via highbeam research . subscription required help . external links edit panda inn this us based restaurant or restaurant chain article is a stub . you can help wikipedia by expanding it . v t e retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title panda inn & oldid 738931746 categories regional restaurant chains in the united stateschinese restaurantscompanies based in los angeles county californiaunited states restaurant stubshidden categories all articles with dead external linksarticles with dead external links from august 2016pages containing links to subscription only contentall stub articles navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 11 september 2016 at 21 03 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view