Copa Cafe — Restaurant in Coquitlam

Copa (cup) of disappointment…

Picking up something in the Poco area and was deciding on some Korean food or this place. In the end, decided on this place since it’s been decade or longer since I have been to this place.

Upon entering, it seems like the interior went through a bit of change and renovation. The place was pretty empty except for 3 booths seated with customers, maybe it was near closing time (1.5hrs before closing). Everything appeared to be clean throughout the restaurant with a comfortable spacing between the tables and booths.

The service was subpar from the server, maybe she was more focused on cleaning and getting off work. When the owner/ manager took over, it was a lot better and she was more polite.

Here were the food I ordered;

Sizzling Hot plate combo B+B (chicken steak & sausages) with borscht soup, spaghetti , cold lemon tea. The chicken was a little dry and the soup was a bit off and warm only. And the hot plate didn’t sizzle at all, maybe a 3 second frisk sound? Sizzling hot place combo A+B (filet mignon & deep fried oysters) with lobster bisque, steamed rice, add lobster tail $23 extra. The filet mignon was horrible, first time ever struggling to chew a filet mignon, it was dry and didn’t taste fresh. The oysters were little midgets. The steamed rice was more like overnight rice just added a bit of water and a quick heat up by the microwave, it was dry and hard. And lastly the lobster tail was horrible; it had that bad fishy taste to it, one tiny bite from that and had to stop cause not worth food poisoning myself from it. And once again the sizzling plate wasn’t even warm!! (Facepalm) The only thing okay was the lobster bisque.

Overall, I was quite disappointed with the food. I don’t remember it being this bad? What happened? Closer to closing time and whoever the cook in the kitchen was didn’t give 2 cents about the food being served? Is it really that hard to hire a decent cook nowadays after the pandemic? And for crying out loud, it only takes 30 seconds to heat up the iron plates and how can one pawn off such a bad bowl of rice in a Chinese restaurant? I honestly would send this cook packing for retirement if working for me, definitely wouldn’t tolerate this kind of bs jeopardizing my business.

I guess I retained my good nature and composure by taking into consideration that the owner/manager was very polite and friendly; very poise and elegant with the services. I guess that’s the only good part of this experience and kept my positivity inlined. Just enjoyed a quick instant noodle when...

Be prepared to be disregarded and rudely served (IF) you end up encountering a server with red hair asian lady. My receipt says her name is Cindy.

I made an adventure out to coquitlam because i was craving hot and sour noodle soup that ive had at many other copa cafes in the past, my fave location was vancouver which burnt down.

But to my shocking disappointment, I noticed the menu looked diff and the item was no longer listed by itself as a stand alone selection and i remember a previous visit at another location my family member had to ask for it and they politely told us alot of items arent displayed anymore on the menu but its in the computer and they do have it.

So my family was telling this information to the server Cindy i had to deal with and she really hated her job and gave the worst service ever, she despises questions even if you are "chinese."

As a customer understand that you have every right to ask any questions you need considering you'll be consuming whatever they order, for example if you have an allergy ... you better make sure your server doesn't mind telling you if theres peanuts in that sandwich for example. HENCE her attitude and lack of wanting to even care is terribly unwelcomed.

I decided to test the waters and ask so hows your day today are you happy? She responded with "what?" I repeated myself and she gave me a dirty look walked away. Then walks back and said what your question? And i kindly told her again what i had asked her and pointed out she is very rude and she flicks her hair and says whatever. And then goes and laughs with her co worker.

Mind you i am proudly chinese and my english is fluent same goes with my chinese. She probably just assumes if someone speaks 1 word of english that she has a right to bash her customers but obviously anyone in the food industry can understand that type of action and behaviour will find a way to come back and bite you in the butt especially with tools like google reviews and social media. Im a proud foodie and dont mind to vocalize this terrible experience. Shes a disgrace to our culture. RACIST!

If you're wondering everybody, yes the restaurant still got a 15% tip because i understand how tough it is out there and that others shouldn't suffer just because she hates her job and...

If there was an option for 0 or negative stars, I would choose that. Been here many times over the years. It gets worse and worse. The second last visit, they gave my dad inedible food. It was so bad that he could not even eat it and my dad is a super easy going person who never complains and eats anything. The waiter noticed he couldn't eat the food at all and asked him why. He said it tasted so bad like it was stale and not fresh at all. Instead of taking it back or apologizing, the waiter ASKED IF HE WANTED TO PACK IT TO GO and charged for the container. My dad didn't complain and instead got the bill. For the first time in my dad's life (and he has gone to copa a few times before that) he decided not to give tip for the inedible food (which they charged full price) and abhorrent service. THEY THEN INSISTED HE GIVE A TIP BEFORE HE COULD LEAVE. My dad is such a nice person he paid a tip for food he didn't even eat. My very elderly dad was bullied by the restaurant. What is this-?

The last time we went was because a friend invited us for a big meal. The terrible service struck again - gave my mom the wrong dish (chicken instead of pork), gave me pasta which was swimming in sauce (more like pasta soup than pasta), and the food had so much msg we were so thirsty. We didn't even bother complaining due to the bad way they treated my dad last time - didn't want to make a scene with friends.

To top it off, prices are not cheap at all. Each person dish cost 30-40 after tax! And we aren't ordered lobster! Configuration of tables are not round so hard to talk for big tables. Portions are big but quality is so bad (and so much msg) and service so entitled I am shocked they are still in existence. Highly recommend to go to deer garden or yans garden instead of Copa. I usually only write very positive reviews but they treated us so badly I feel I need to speak up. We will...