Papa Yu — Restaurant in Houston

Went to Papa Yu for lunch... Do not recommend. They saw us walk in and we waited and waited and waited for 10 mins no one even came to ask us until I said excuse me excuse me twice they came out. We ordered food, and I asked for a cup of ice... Never seen the ice and didn't see them again. 30 mins later people started coming in and waiting. We finally got our appetizer.. that shouldn't take but 3 mins took them 25 mins to bring out and she brought an order that wasn't even ours. Then we waited and waited and 10 mins later another easy item came out that shouldn't take but 5 mins... Stephen went up to ask for my ice .. they have this little cup with 5 cubes...? They gave us 3 little napkins... Then other customers started complaining about them getting the easy stuff cause they have to go and why is it taking so long. They finally started working on those customers stuff... There were 3 of them and they moved so slow most of the time it looked like they were just standing there. Finally, my ramen after 45 mins waiting I asked if my ramen is ever coming out .. then she said oh they are working on it .. then came out and said we are out of pork... Like... Really? This entire time y'all finally work on it and y'all out of pork, they said it's beef ok? I said I guess. 10 mins passed I asked about the ramen and she said it's coming up .. the ramen came out and it did not look good .. the eggs were cold cold, the noodles were so soggy it was gross... It was a big...

The staff is super polite here, I have no complaint about them. They were very kind, so this is not any criticism of them.

I haven't tried their poke bowls or sushi items, so I am not gonna speak on those. I saw some people eating those though and it looked good!

If you go here....just don't get their fried items.

I ordered a katsu tray and a popcorn chicken appetizer to share with my husband , Both of these items were VERY greasy/oily compared to other places I've ordered these SAME dishes from. The popcorn chicken looked kinda BURNT too.

Yes, I understand it's a fried food item, it will be oily/greasy, but I've eaten these 2 items at MULTIPLE places around Houston for years now and I've NEVER gotten a sore throat like this afterwards. I couldn't even finish HALF of the food and I just got a lid and took it with me, I didn't wanna be rude and throw it away.

By the time I got to the car, I was coughing hard and trying to clear my throat, which felt VERY irritated. My husband agreed, he only ate a couple bites and stopped because it was irritating his throat as well because of how oily it was.

I've gotten these same 2 items (pork katsu and popcorn chicken) from multiple places around Houston and I do NOT have a sore throat after eating it like I did here. Thankfully I got a drink there, it helped soothe my throat enough...

I really love Poke. Like really really. So it's kinda weird that Papa Yu isn't in my regular lunch rotation. Plus it's right next to @99ranchmarket and THREE dessert places! But at least I go there sometimes. I actually have a pretty long list of places to visit and things to do and I don't actually have great reasons for not doing a lot of them. I'm gonna do a post next week going into more detail and share my list with you. So stay tuned.

Back to Papa Yu. I gots me a Vietnamese Coffee, a Memorial Sushi Roll (Tuna, Cucumber, Topped with Fresh Salmon, Avocado, Green Onion and Masago) and a Texas Spicy Bowl (Spicy Ponzu & Papa Classic Shoyu, Spicy Tuna, Cilantro, Jalapeño, Green Onion, Cucumber, Edamame, Masago, Tomato, Crispy Garlic over Brown Rice). It was delishes, of course.

The thing I love about Poke is that I feel "clean" afterward. Like I did my body a favor. I mean, y'all know I loves me a bacon double cheeseburger but I'll admit it makes me feel like I done clogged my pipes with grease and I need a nap. But I sure as heck ain't gonna stop eating bacon double cheeseburgers, I'll just maybe try to work some more poke into the rotation....