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Panda Express rolls out Beyond Orange Chicken at 70 new locations — and we tried it

Yahoo Finance's Alexandra Canal taste tests Panda Express' Beyond Original Orange Chicken.

Video transcript

SEANA SMITH: Everyone's favorite time of day. Time for All the Eats with Allie. Panda Express is bringing its Beyond Meat based orange chicken to 70 locations. This is something that I think a lot of Beyond Meat-- and Panda Express fans-- are very excited about. Alexandra Canal has the chicken, or the fake chicken I should say, with her. And Allie, give us a sense. Is it good?

ALEXANDRA CANAL: Yeah, I mean, it smells like chicken, it looks like chicken, but the big question will be, will this taste like chicken? The announcement was made this morning. 70 new locations across the United States, including Texas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois. And this item was a bestseller when it had its shortened limited run earlier this summer in New York and Southern California. In fact, Beyond Meat said that in their participating locations in Southern California this sold out in just under two weeks. So clearly a very popular choice here.

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I'm going to test this out. For me, when it comes to orange chicken, I feel like it's all about the sauce and the way it's prepared. I don't think I'm really going to taste the difference whether or not it's real meat or fake meat. I'll hold this up nice and close for the camera.

It does look like regular orange chicken but let's see. I'm going to take the big bite here. OK. The sauce is good. The sauce is sweet, a little tangy. It's a little chewy.

SEANA SMITH: It sounds like you're not that impressed with it based on your facial expression.

ALEXANDRA CANAL: So I'm a bigger fan of real chicken than the alternative meat versions. I can kind of tell this isn't real chicken. However, if you are someone that wants a meatless option, if you are someone that's just like I'm having way too much chicken, way too much beef, this could be a good choice for you.

It's also gotten smart-- excuse me, on the part of Panda Express to expand their meatless offerings. They also have eggplant tofu, super grains, vegetable spring rolls, but they clearly are lacking in the meatless department. And I think this just allows them to capture a greater customer base. But yeah, I would probably give it a 3 out of 5.

SEANA SMITH: If you had to rate it Allie, if you had to give it a grade, what would it be?

ALEXANDRA CANAL: Yeah, I mean, I usually rank things on a scale of 1 to 5. I probably would give it like-- I give it a 3. Maybe between a 2 and 3. Honestly, it's not quite doing it for me. But if you like orange chicken, and you like the sauce behind orange chicken, I think this is a great alternative because you can definitely taste the tanginess of this sauce.

SEANA SMITH: 2 to 3. A harsh critic. A tough critic.

ALEXANDRA CANAL: I am a very tough critic, so be aware.

SEANA SMITH: Well this isn't good for Beyond Meat because we know Beyond Meat has been struggling, at least looking at the stock. The stock has lost about a quarter of its value over the past three months. Took a significant last week after a warning about its Q3 sales, and it doesn't seem like it's able to get things on track yet.

ALEXANDRA CANAL: Yeah, so the company did have that warning blaming the pandemic for a drop in retail orders. Now the stock is down about 60% since it's January peak. And remember Seana, at one point this stock was trading at $230 per share back in 2019. So if you're an early investor of Beyond Meat, you're certainly not loving what's happening with the stock right now.

However, analysts have said that Beyond is still figuring out its way. Yes, retail sales are important. But these wholesale partnerships, they are becoming increasingly more important as well. Besides just Panda Express, Beyond also has provided meat alternatives to other brands like KFC, Denny's, Dunkin', Pizza Hut. They have that collaboration with McDonald's for the McPlant burger, and there's clearly still a lot more room to run here.

That being said, retail sales are important for Beyond Meat. They make up the bulk of revenue for the company, generating about 74% of total sales, whereas food service sits at 26%. So we'll have to see what they say on their earnings next week. How that will turn out-- next month I should say, back and forward in November. We'll have to see what they say there, and whether or not they're going to address the stock drop. Whether or not they're going to say that retail sales just can't recover to that point that we saw back in 2019 amid all of this increased competition.

But for now, investors clearly spooked by the sales warning. But we have, you know, Panda Express. We have this, at least, to cure the investor's sentiment. So, there you go.

SEANA SMITH: We'll see if Panda Express comes in and saves the day. I mean, we've already seen a couple of downgrades. Credit Suisse actually downgrading the stock as a result of this, to underperform. So we'll see what the company has next month.