I also don’t believe money should be skimped on the food industry.

Nor do I, which is precisely what places like Panda Express do. They use mediocre ingredients, pay staff low wages, and are franchised, which means a chunk of the profits goes to the parent company. Smaller mom & pops generally live in the community and the owner often hand-picks ingredients each day/week. Also, the staff usually work for tips instead of minimum wage (my wife averaged a fair bit more than minimum wage), and the owner is usually relatively well-off (like $100k+), but not rich, whereas managers at a fanchise will get a lower-middle class wage, like $40-60k).

That said, we go to Panda Express occasionally as well. My kids like it, service is usually pretty quick, and they're literally everywhere. So I'm not going to shame you or anything for it, but I do think you'd do well by trying something different.