Beard Papa's Denver — Restaurant in Denver

I go to the Boulevard Center regularly and have glanced at the Beard Papa's sign, but I had no idea what it was about until I finally checked it out.

I'm a little confused about the concept. I know this chain is very popular, not just in Japan, but around the world and even in the U.S., although this is the first location in Colorado. These creampuffs seem like street food, but they are impossible to eat.

The store has lots of seating, but no plates, utensils, or even napkins that I could see. The very pleasant staffer handed me a to-go bag without even asking. I'm glad I took the hint and left. Trying to eat my puff on-site would have been a disaster.

The store is cute with clever wallpaper, a little "history" of Beard Papa, a nice display of the plain and topped puffs, and a friendly staffer. The sign warning, "THERE IS NO CASH IN REGISTER," was a little off-putting.

The puffs are packed in little sleeves that keep them in position sideways in a colorful bag or box. This packaging is well thought-out. I also appreciate the concept of filling the puffs to order to keep them as fresh as possible and to keep the pastry cream properly chilled.

I got home and eagerly tried the first puff. Fortunately I put it on a big plate because, after two bites, pastry cream was running everywhere. So much for a hand-held treat. I set it down, washed my hands, and finished with a knife and fork.

I tried refrigerating my second puff. This firmed up the pastry cream a bit, but still a knife and fork item for me.

I thought the pâte à choux was nicely baked, fresh, tender, and flavorful. I tried the Original and the Honey & Butter. I really liked the Honey & Butter; it was very tasty. I also tried both vanilla and chocolate pastry cream. I thought these were well-balanced and not too sweet. There were also eight varieties of puffs with a candy coating, more like an éclair, but I did not try any of those.

These seem like a great snack to eat on the go or to offer at a cocktail party, but they are impossible to eat without making a huge mess unless you use a knife and fork. I think they're just too big. I'd go for the Minis if I tried this again. The smaller size seems much more...

Well, leave it to Denver to screw up something so delicious and simple. I tried these for the first time in Atlanta, and they were so delicious. Perfectly crispy on the outside and filled with scrumptious cream on the inside, as if made by your fairy godmother. I was thrilled to learn we had one here in Denver, but made sure to tamper my expectations. I assumed they'd be missing the delicate crispiness, because Denver under cooks all their baked goods, and predictably disappointing, Denver disappointed, just as I predicted. Not only were these eclair shells flavorless, they were stale. It's easy to assume the turn over just isn't happening, so they need to keep they shells for days, rather than baking fresh every day. The place was empty. The location for this type of business is completely wrong. Beard Pappas needs to be in a location like an ice cream shop..lots of foot traffic where people stop in and grab dessert after dinner or while shopping, like an outdoor mall. It's currently in a strip mall, with a few businesses, but none to encourage window shopping or browsing. No one is going to make a special trip for eclairs, and certainly not these stale, flavorless eclairs. We bought 3 boxes of the 6 mini's. 2 for our neighbors, and one for us. Sadly, we only tried 2 and put the rest in the fridge....to which I assume they'll be thrown in the trash today. I don't know if this a franchise or corporate owned, but whatever it is, it needs to follow the model of what made Beard Pappas successful and UP...

I'm not sure what place these other reviewers are visiting. This was my first and last visit to Beard Papa's. Overpriced and under-delivered. I purchased 3 full size "cream" puffs and 6 mini's. The cost was $20!! (I'll come back to that). Instead of a delicious cream-filled dessert, I received 9 pieces of deep fried dough with little to no filling. This wasn't dessert, this was a big crouton. And for $20 bucks! I could have bought two dozen filled donuts at dunkin and they would be tastier than this. The mini's had almost no filling and hardly any powdered sugar leaving me with the aforementioned deep-fried dough. The regular chocolate eclair had a thick, hardened layer of dark chocolate. While I'm not a fan of dark chocolate, it would have probably been okay had there actually been the vanilla cream I ordered (and paid $4 for!). Plus, the chocolate was thick and hard, like it had been sitting there for hours. Right off the top of my head, I can think of a half dozen places I could spend $20 for dessert better than this. I brought my family with me for this thinking it would be different and delicious. Instead I should have stopped at king soopers and bought a box of frozen cream puff and a box of eclairs for $8 and they'd taste better. What an embarrassment! I won't be back....