Here's one buffet that has good service, too

John Lehndorff, Rocky Mountain News

Published January 6, 2006 at midnight

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I like to watch.

During a recent dinner at Panda Grande, Denver's first Vietnamese buffet, I paid attention to the food and service, but I spent an inordinate amount of time gawking at the plates customers hauled back from the steam tables.

One table seated with an extended Asian family of 17 people started with bowls of steamed cherrystone clams and moved on to rice noodles with various toppings. Meanwhile, a large Hispanic man happily walked back to his family with a heaping plate of spare ribs plus grilled beef, pork and chicken, and boiled corn on the cob. His kids were happy with a mound of yummy salt-and- pepper shrimp.

At another table, I watched an Asian guy meticulously plow through four pounds of snow crab legs. He was grinning ear to ear and his lips were slicked with melted butter. Eventually, he did get a plate of fresh watermelon and kiwi slices.

Then there was the grouping that included your Anglo critic, his son and our friends who set out to taste nearly every one of the 50-plus Vietnamese and Chinese items plus a few side dishes and desserts. People started staring as we got up again and again to bring back plates of good baked mussels, sesame chicken, beef and broccoli, and things we could not identify but ate anyway.

You may be wondering about the name of this gleaming new restaurant just off Federal Boulevard. As far as I knew, pandas were primarily Chinese and that grande was a Spanish word. A manager told me that the name was picked because the restaurant is in a primarily Hispanic neighborhood that also boasts a high concentration of great Asian eateries. This is Denver's thriving culinary and cultural crossroads.

I don't recommend our gut-busting approach. The best thing about a buffet like Panda Grande is that you get to have it your way and focus on the things you like.

We started with some easy-to-love appetizer items: Translucent steamed shrimp crepes, hunks of steamed white rice bread, fried sesame balls filled with sweet bean, and chew-worthy, red pork spare ribs.

I moved on to this eatery's most unique aspect, a buffet table where you can make your own lettuce wraps and rice or noodle bowls. I made myself a nifty wrap, enclosing a hunk of crispy bean sprout pancake, cilantro and jalapeño slices.

We made other wraps using the excellent grilled meats, including thin-sliced, nicely seasoned, grilled beef that must have been deeply marinated to get it that tender as well as char-grilled pork slices and chicken. A savory chile-flecked sauce was available for dipping.

We watched some other patrons and then assembled rice noodles at the bottom of a big white bowl, then cilantro and green onions, and then grilled meats. There was a beef and vegetable preparation that tasted very much like pot roast, while the more challenging pig's foot soup was topped by hot chile oil slick that literally left one of my guests gasping and speechless.

My favorite noodle bowl additions were bright green baby bok choy and a tantalizing stew with chunks of fatty, baconlike pork and whole hard-boiled eggs.

Other worthwhile dishes included shelled shrimp in mayo sauce with chopped nuts; meat-stuffed fried tofu wedges in hot sauce; ready-made pork and shrimp spring rolls wrapped in cool, pliable rice paper; and sweet rice discs with a mystery crumble topping.

There was no lack of more exotic dishes to challenge our taste buds and sensibilities. There were tasty slices of a white spongy vegetable that nobody on the staff could identify in English. In one pan there were stir-fried whole baby octopus and in another, buglike steamed crawfish.

Some dishes we dared to try were clearly acquired tastes. The thick, cold, lightly sweet rice porridge with blackeyed pealike beans was just too challenging in terms of flavor and slippery texture. We appreciated the fact that it hadn't been dumbed-down for Western taste buds.

The beauty part is that you can taste some of these foods without making the commitment required in ordering a full entree.

Not surprising for a buffet eatery, there were some dishes that simply didn't ring our chimes. The pork dumplings were deep-fried until inedibly crisp, and the pink ham meatballs were amazingly rubbery and SPAM-like. There were also bone-y slices of over-fried fish in a truly odd-tasting sauce and batter-fried bananas that tasted, well, battered. Some dishes, like the hot and sour soup and stir-fried noodles were not bad - just blah.

Besides the challenging bean and rice gruel, the dessert table included a soothing tapioca soup with bananas and a coconut milk soup with shredded coconut and mango. The three cakes were tasteless and dry, but we recommend the soft-serve ice cream with syrups and sprinkles.

I always expect the worst when I hear the word buffet because I endured my share of limp, over-steamed food, dead lettuce, sauces topped with heat lamp-dried skins, nonexistent service, and empty pans where the most popular items should be.

Panda Grande alleviated all my fears. The food and the facility were clean and extremely well-tended. One worker went through the displayed steam-table pans stirring and freshening and wiping up. Other servers were quick to clean up spills, clear plates, refill drinks and offer helpful advice on what to choose and how to eat it.

Maybe that's what my fortune cookie meant when it read: "You will find hidden treasures where you least expect it."

lehndorffj@rockymountainnews.com or 303-892-5103.

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