Address: | 949A Edgewater Blvd, Foster City, CA 94404, USA |
Phone: | +1 650-577-1830 |
Site: | mycookingpapa.com |
Rating: | 4.1 |
Working: | 11AM–2:30PM 11AM–2:30PM 11AM–2:30PM 11AM–2:30PM 11AM–2:30PM 10:30AM–3PM 10:30AM–3PM |
AL
Albert Lee
Craving for some tasty Chinese / Cantonese HK style yummies? Well look no further my friend, for Cooking Papa (yes, not Cooking Mama) is LEGIT. First off, its in a nice little plaza where you should be able to easily find parking. Secondly, when you walk in, youll notice that the place is fairly large, and pretty clean and well kempt. If you manage to grab a table by the windows in the back, youll notice a nice view of the lake in the back facing some residential houses. Ducks periodically fly by and relax out on the lake. Now, down to business, the food here is excellent. And by excellent I mean authentic and quite flavorful; your taste buds will scream out in delight! For one, the Rice Noodle Roll w/ Flour Crisp (ja lerng in Cantonese) is amazingly fresh and crispy (not soggy like most other places) The Sampan rice porridge/congee here is tasty and also fresh. I also like the Pan Fried Noodle with Beef and Tomato Sauce!! The steamed Shanghai Dumplings are a bit smaller than most places that I have been to, but they still taste good. The secret to eating Shanghai Dumplings is to first pick it up with your chopsticks and place it onto a soup spoon. Then, take a small nibble off the top of the dumpling so that theres a hole at the top....pour some vinegar inside the hole and then slurp up the entire dumpling into your mouth!! YUM! Last but not least, please MAKE SURE that you order the Hong Kong Style Egg Puff (sa yung in Cantonese) The egg puffs are coated with sugary goodness and comes in a giant plate of 4. Its probably the best sa yung I have had anywhere! Service is great and food comes out quick! Whats not to like about this place? I will definitely be back to try out the rest of the items on the menu!
MO
Morgan Lai
Authentic Hong Kong styled food. Great atmosphere by the water, and always crowded, usually a line for waterfront seats. From the Specials menu, the 懷舊叉燒飯 was a good value for $5.99. Update 5/25/12 - now changed to $6.50, ugh! 雲吞面 broth was amazingly flavorful and reminiscent of anchovies, instead of the noodle cleaning water that many places use. There might have been MSG. Noodles al dente, vegetables not too soft, very well executed. 燒味 comes on a side dish if ordered with the 雲吞面. In fact, 叉燒 came on a side dish even on a 叉燒面. They have 玉子豆腐 here! Not very common type of tofu perhaps with a Japanese origin, made not entirely with soy but instead also with eggs, so it looks slightly yellow and tastes extremely smooth. Good in the 鐵板 dishes. The 炸鬼腸 was on the big side, came with the proper dual sauces (芝麻醬 and 甜醬), and was crunchy and slightly oily. If only it came with a stick with the 腸 smothered in 芝麻, and in a bag, that might evoke memories of the HK street carts. 時菜牛肉煎面s noodles were perfectly pan fried, but the beef wasnt particularly memorable, nor was 菜心 available without a surcharge of $1.50 (!) Instead, 白菜 was substituted and just didnt taste the same. The 蒲式海鮮飯 is gigantic enough to feed 3, has a good curry sauce thats slightly spicy, but a bit stingy on the seafood. 白粥 is soft and well boiled. 及第粥 filled with pig liver and stomach, but no heart, clean tasting. 港式奶茶 is small but strong, made me shake with caffeine everytime afterwards, but filled with condense milk goodness. 星洲炒貴刁 at $7.95 could be spicier but the super thin vermicelli was well done, not wet. Takes credit, easy parking in a plaza.
NE
Nei Ng
Came here for lunch, and I got wonton noodles with milk tea and tried some roast pork belly. The pork belly wasnt bad. It was seasoned well, and the skin was nice and crunchy. The meat couldve been more tender, but it was ok. The wonton noodles needed more flavor. The broth had a hint of the correct seafood flavors, but it wasnt bold enough. They do get bonus points for garnishing the broth with yellow chives though. Yellow chives make everything taste better. The noodles had a decently firm texture, but the lack of flavor in the broth negatively affected the flavor of the noodles. The wontons turned out to be the bright spot of the bowl. They were plump and stuffed with large morsels of firm and smooth shrimp. The stuffing was seasoned with the right warm spices, although they still couldve used more. The wontons here were still probably the best Ive had in the Bay Area. Lastly, the HK style milk tea was pretty good. It had a strong, smooth, and earthy black tea flavor. They used a bit too much condensed milk, and its flavor was starting to overshadow the teas. Typically, I prefer the more traditional preparation with evaporated milk and sugar over condensed milk. However, Id have no problem ordering it again next time I come here. Its better than most places milk teas.
KR
Kristin C.
I am a big fan of the Santa Clara location and have been to this Foster city location a couple times. Same delicious HK cantonese style food, casual atmosphere, and quick service. My favorite dishes remain the same: Dau Miu (snow pea leaves with garlic, XLB pork buns, Chicken & Chestnut clay pot, pork belly and peking duck combo, and HK egg puff dessert. I recently tried their watercress and pork soup that was delicious -- the delicate flavor of the broth combined with the tender pork was perfect for a rainy day. During the fall, the Foster City Location adds seasonal seafood specials at the back of the menu. My coworkers and I loved the spicy Singapore garlic fried crab. Its very spicy so make sure you are a fan hot food (and garlic) before you order this. I saved the garlic seasoning with the leftovers and used it to make amazing fried rice the next day. I tried the oysters off of this seasonal menu but they were not as good as the usual sizzling oyster plate that is on the regular menu. There is lots of parking in the plaza. You cant see cooking papa from the parking lot and will have to walk between two restaurants closer to the lake to find it. There is lots of seating inside for smaller parties and larger groups.
ST
STEVEN VONG
Such a fun name, but it is not related in any way to the nintendo game "Cooking Mama." Although it has one of the coolest restaurant names, the food had its up and its down. They have a big variety of chinese food to choose from, I think there menu is almost ten pages long or more. They have appetizers, vegetables, soups, poultry, seafood, pork and beef, noodles, rice dishes, clay pots, specialties and desserts/drinks as well. I got to try A-choy, duck, Portuguese baked rice, pork, steamed dumpling (xiao long bao), hong kong milk tea, and the egg puffs. The vegetables I had were too oily, the meat (duck and pork) was too cold and portion was too small, and the steamed dumplings were subpar. On the other hand, the baked rice was delicious and very generous (portion-wise), the egg puffs were amazing and I liked my Hong Kong milk tea. With so much inconsistency between the food, this place is only OK. Plus, the food is pretty pricey. The nice thing about this location in particular is the view of the nice homes in Foster City and being seated next to the water. Otherwise I suggest only ordering their specialties.
LO
Louie Yao
This place is a legit Cantonese/Hong Kong style of Chinese food. I have gone for both lunches and dinners at the place and it has not disappointed me ever. What you can expect is good quality of yummy Chinese dishes that are really well made. If you are lucky, or go early enough for lunch or dinner, you can probably find yourself sitting at a table overlooking the beautiful Foster City lagoon. One thing to be mindful is that the service level at the place is not on par with a more western oriented cuisine restaurants. The waiter/waitress are generally very very busy and they are there to basically take orders and pass food onto your table and not much else. If you are expecting high quality services then this might not be the place for you. If you lower your expectations in regards to service then this place definitely gets two thumbs up from me based on its location and food quality.