Cooking Papa
| Address: | 2830 Homestead Rd, Santa Clara, CA 95051, USA |
| Phone: | +1 408-247-3748 |
| Site: | mycookingpapa.com |
| Rating: | 3.9 |
| Working: | 11AM–2:30PM 11AM–2:30PM Closed 11AM–2:30PM 11AM–2:30PM 11AM–2:30PM 11AM–2:30PM |
Location
Photos 100
Reviews 7
MA
Mario Sanchez
Well, its not all it was hyped up to be (in my head. Im speaking from a Westerners perspective of a Chinese restaurants expectations, so bear with me.... The place was dirty, window sills need some degreasing. The staff needs some manners, and the food was just ok. Ive been to other Honk Kong style restaurants where the food and experience is way better. I will not be going back. My family and I went in at about 7:30 on a Saturday night. No greeting at the door, just a lot of patrons standing around who clearly knew what to do but wouldnt share how to get your name on the table list. After I had to interrupt the host huddled over receipts and credit card machine did he say, "put number on paper and wait". We are seated and given menus. And we wait for about 5-10 minutes for a waiter, and wait some more for anybody to acknoledge we want to place our order (this is after me loudly saying "excuse me!", and they walking right past us at least 10 times). A waiter did stop and let me ask to take my order, only to have him walk away, and not relay the message to others. The place was busy, every seat was taken, so maybe they just dont care to make guests comfortable. To the restaurants defense, we were the only all non-asian table and dont speak the native tongue. So well put this one in the language barrier category for good measure. We are finally asked for an order after I flag another waiter down and he cant ignore me. The food arrived quickly and hot. Roasted duck was ok, Ive had better in SF. The pan fried noodles were good, the walnut shrimp were ok, walnuts tasted stale. Meh.
KR
Kristin C.
Cooking Papa has solid HK style cantonese food. My favorites are the chicken and chestnut clay pot, bbq pork belly and duck combo, fried eggplant and pumpkin appetizer, XLB pork dumplings, egg tofu, mongolian beef, and variety of clay pots. For veggies, the Dau Miu (snow pea leaves) with garlic is always fresh and delicious. I love their extensive selection of Jook (rice porridge). The congee is really smooth and they have a lot of different add-in options ranging from black eggs to dried scallops. Dont forget to save some room for dessert--you absolutely must try the Egg Puffs! Your table will be fighting over 4 piping-hot, light, fluffy balls of sugary goodness. These are cooked to order and take about ~15minutes so order them when you are finishing up your entrees. Food comes out extremely fast and at times, service can feel a bit rushed. The restaurant is very casual but full of hustle and bustle so if you dont like close quarters or noise beware. Im not the biggest fan of the servers pouring piping hot tea into plastic cups but what can you do. The parking lot is small so you may have to search for parking about a 3-5 min walk away in the nearby residential area. It gets crowded during peak hours and the food TV that showcases their dishes and coking process will make you drool as you wait to be seated.
MA
Marco VanGo
Average food with horrible, rude service. The first entree came out immediately, the second at least five minutes later. They didnt bring the rice for another 10 minutes after we asked for the rice we ordered several times. We were almost finished when they brought the spring rolls (listed as an "appetizer" on the menu). Since we were wondering why the spring rolls were taking so long, we were looking for our waiter. We saw him sneeze into his hand, pull a crumpled handkerchief out of his pants pocket, wipe his hand then blow his nose and stuff the handkerchief back into his pocket. He immediately reached for a plate that just came from the kitchen and arranged the food on the plate with his hand. It turned out to be our spring rolls. When he arrived at the table, we told him we just witnessed his behavior and didnt want the rolls. He copped an attitude and bitched at us. We asked for our check and got gruff from another waiter. When the check arrived, not only had they charged us for the spring rolls, they charged us for two orders! We walked to the front and told the lady at the cashier what happened and she brushed it off saying it was the waiters first day. When we started to explain this was unacceptable - first day or not - she said "yeah, yeah, whatever."
ME
Merry Yen
They do everything right at Cooking Papa. You can make your tea selection when you sit down. They serve you actual tea, not the "whats in this bag" stuff. Once youve ordered, the food shows up very quickly. Sautéed pea sprouts were fresh, perfectly cooked and seasoned, and not too greasy. My 1 year old ate it by the fistful. Peking duck came with steamed buns. The skin was delightfully crispy. The duck meat was falling-off-the-bones tender. Pork chops and eggplant in clay pot was not my favorite (though my husband liked it). The pork chops were breaded, fried, then put into the clay pot. The pork chops were super tender, though a bit too salty for my taste. The eggplants were well cooked and seasoned. Fried noodles with shredded pork had the crispy noodles on the bottom, with a sauce of shredded pork, sprouts, and chives. The sauce was light, great with the noodles. Milk tea was of the Hong Kong style (not the Taiwanese style). Service was quick and friendly. The one issue we had was they didnt have high chairs. So we brought in our own booster chair. We arrived at 6:30 pm and got the last 4-person table. When we left there was a line about 20 people deep. Plan on getting their early! Well be back!
PI
Ping Chen
The service wasnt particularly good (typical Chinese restaurant I suppose). The food was also disappointing. It wasnt bad, just wasnt particularly good. The HK style ice tea was good, that was about the only highlight of the meal. For reference, we got the chicken + mushroom clay pot rice (which was ok, not particularly flavorful like what I expected from a HK style cafe). BBQ duck and pork belly. The duck was pure fat and very little meat. Like literally it was skin and large chunks of fat... it was kind of disgusting. The pork belly was good, with a perfectly crispy skin. We also got fish rice noodle soup (fish ball, etc) that was ok, not too bad. We also got the mandarin style chili pork lo mein, that was a bit disappointing. It was just a huge plate of lo mein with very little sauce, and the sauce wasnt even that good.
VI
Vicky Tan
This review is based on several observations.I hate to write about it but I have to in hope that they wouldnt do it again . Their roast duck is among the best ,but their chefs are the most dishonest people I have ever known.I dont mind to pay $25 for the whole roast duck,but I dont like to be cheated. I asked my husband to get me the whole roast duck on his way home today.When he got home, I opened the container and showed it to him.There were 4 small pieces of breast meat and the rest was skin and fat from other ducks uniformly tucked under legs and thigh pieces.I hope they werent reselling scrapes from other customers.In any case,that was a last roast duck for me.
VI
Vicky Leung
Good Cantonese food! Ive been here twice and both times were excellent experience. My favorites: Beef Chow Fun, clay pot rice, rice noodle roll (with shrimp or deep-fried dough). Although the clay pot rice has too much rice than preferred, it still taste original. Prepared for a long waiting line at lunch times and dinner times. But if your group is small, you should be seated quite quickly. Last time I waited for about 15 mins for a table for 2 at 12:30p Friday. Their "Egg Puff" is actually "Chinese Donut". I was excited until I saw the picture on the menu. Restaurant is clean and has modern decorations.
