Panda Express

Andrew and Peggy Cherng opened Panda Inn — a full-service Chinese restaurant — in Pasadena, California in 1973. Ten years later, they adapted the concept for food courts and malls, opening the first Panda Express in 1983 at the Glendale Galleria in Glendale, California. The format — counter service, fast assembly, American-adapted Chinese dishes — proved immediately popular and scalable in a way that full-service Chinese restaurants could not match.

The company's breakout dish came in 1987, when Panda Express chef Andy Kao created Orange Chicken: a sweet, tangy, slightly crispy preparation that bore little resemblance to any traditional Chinese dish but perfectly targeted American palates. It became the chain's best-selling item almost immediately and remains so today — Panda Express sells roughly 100 million pounds of Orange Chicken per year.

Unlike its QSR peers, Panda Express remains entirely family-owned — the Cherng family never sold to private equity or took the company public. This has allowed them to reinvest aggressively in store quality and employee compensation. Panda Express is one of the largest private restaurant companies in the United States and has expanded internationally to Canada, Mexico, South Korea, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, and elsewhere.