diff --git a/python/cudf/cudf/_lib/parquet.pyx b/python/cudf/cudf/_lib/parquet.pyx
index 7914ed7e9d9..d1ec5be9e62 100644
--- a/python/cudf/cudf/_lib/parquet.pyx
+++ b/python/cudf/cudf/_lib/parquet.pyx
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ from cudf.api.types import is_list_like
 
 from cudf._lib.utils cimport data_from_unique_ptr
 
+from cudf._lib import pylibcudf
 from cudf._lib.utils import _index_level_name, generate_pandas_metadata
 
 from libc.stdint cimport uint8_t
@@ -70,8 +71,11 @@ from cudf._lib.utils cimport table_view_from_table
 
 from pyarrow.lib import NativeFile
 
+from cudf._lib.concat import concat_columns
 from cudf.utils.ioutils import _ROW_GROUP_SIZE_BYTES_DEFAULT
 
+from cudf._lib.utils cimport data_from_pylibcudf_table
+
 
 cdef class BufferArrayFromVector:
     cdef Py_ssize_t length
@@ -878,14 +882,32 @@ cdef class ParquetReader:
         return df
 
     def read(self):
-        dfs = []
+        dfs = self._read_chunk()
+        column_names = dfs._column_names
+        concatenated_columns = list(dfs._columns)
+        del dfs
         while self._has_next():
-            dfs.append(self._read_chunk())
-        df = cudf.concat(dfs)
-        df = _process_metadata(df, self.result_meta, self.names, self.row_groups,
-                               self.filepaths_or_buffers, self.pa_buffers,
-                               self.allow_range_index, self.cpp_use_pandas_metadata)
-        return df
+            new_chunk = list(self._read_chunk()._columns)
+            for i in range(len(column_names)):
+                concatenated_columns[i] = concat_columns(
+                    [concatenated_columns[i], new_chunk[i]]
+                )
+                # Must drop any residual GPU columns to save memory
+                new_chunk[i] = None
+
+        dfs = cudf.DataFrame._from_data(
+            *data_from_pylibcudf_table(
+                pylibcudf.Table(
+                    [col.to_pylibcudf(mode="read") for col in concatenated_columns]
+                ),
+                column_names=column_names,
+                index_names=None
+                )
+            )
+
+        return _process_metadata(dfs, self.result_meta, self.names, self.row_groups,
+                                 self.filepaths_or_buffers, self.pa_buffers,
+                                 self.allow_range_index, self.cpp_use_pandas_metadata)
 
 cpdef merge_filemetadata(object filemetadata_list):
     """
diff --git a/python/cudf/cudf/io/parquet.py b/python/cudf/cudf/io/parquet.py
index 58b104b84e9..2a838ca7417 100644
--- a/python/cudf/cudf/io/parquet.py
+++ b/python/cudf/cudf/io/parquet.py
@@ -908,12 +908,20 @@ def _read_parquet(
                 "cudf engine doesn't support the "
                 f"following positional arguments: {list(args)}"
             )
-        return libparquet.read_parquet(
-            filepaths_or_buffers,
-            columns=columns,
-            row_groups=row_groups,
-            use_pandas_metadata=use_pandas_metadata,
-        )
+        if cudf.get_option("mode.pandas_compatible"):
+            return libparquet.ParquetReader(
+                filepaths_or_buffers,
+                columns=columns,
+                row_groups=row_groups,
+                use_pandas_metadata=use_pandas_metadata,
+            ).read()
+        else:
+            return libparquet.read_parquet(
+                filepaths_or_buffers,
+                columns=columns,
+                row_groups=row_groups,
+                use_pandas_metadata=use_pandas_metadata,
+            )
     else:
         if (
             isinstance(filepaths_or_buffers, list)
diff --git a/python/cudf/cudf/tests/test_parquet.py b/python/cudf/cudf/tests/test_parquet.py
index e1e7952605b..588bc87d268 100644
--- a/python/cudf/cudf/tests/test_parquet.py
+++ b/python/cudf/cudf/tests/test_parquet.py
@@ -3485,3 +3485,14 @@ def test_parquet_chunked_reader(
     )
     actual = reader.read()
     assert_eq(expected, actual)
+
+
+def test_parquet_reader_pandas_compatibility():
+    df = pd.DataFrame(
+        {"a": [1, 2, 3, 4] * 10000, "b": ["av", "qw", "hi", "xyz"] * 10000}
+    )
+    buffer = BytesIO()
+    df.to_parquet(buffer)
+    with cudf.option_context("mode.pandas_compatible", True):
+        expected = cudf.read_parquet(buffer)
+    assert_eq(expected, df)