Panda Express opens third Asheville restaurant in West Asheville Friday

Panda Express opened its third Asheville restaurant Friday morning at 146 Smokey Park Highway, with a 9:30 a.m. grand opening, an Asheville Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting and a $1,000 donation to MANNA FoodBank. The restaurant sits across from Ingles and Lowe’s, putting another destination on one of West Asheville’s busiest commercial stretches.

The menu at the new location includes the chain’s signature Orange Chicken, Honey Walnut Shrimp and Broccoli Beef. Panda Express already operates two other Asheville restaurants, one at 3 South Tunnel Road #m-2 and another at 54 Tunnel Rd., so the West Asheville opening gives the neighborhood its first.

The project has been moving through the city for more than a year. Plans filed with Asheville show a 2,697-square-foot restaurant with 40 to 50 parking spaces, 52 indoor seats, new sidewalks and a drive-thru window. The filings identified it as Panda Express’s first West Asheville location and said it needed only a Level I review, rather than a hearing before the Planning and Zoning Commission or City Council.

A June 2025 item pegged the opening for February 2026, showing the schedule shifted before Friday’s debut. The opening landed in a corridor already packed with grocery, hardware and fast-food traffic near Smokey Park Highway, Ingles and Chick-fil-A.

MANNA FoodBank is Western North Carolina’s only food bank and serves 16 counties plus the Qualla Boundary. Explore Asheville listed the event as a community celebration with the chamber and called Panda Express the largest American Chinese dining concept in the U.S.