Cooking Cooking — Restaurant in Santa Clara

This restaurant is now call Papa Express, and it's a different restaurant from Cooking Papa including the owner. The ordering format has changed too where you order at the counter, and the staff will bring the food out.

I want to preface that my family loves Cooking Papa, and we have been going for years and went enough that some of the staff knew us. It's hard to find good and authentic Cantonese/Hong Kong style food for a good price in South Bay, and Cooking Papa used to hit all those marks. I once got off a flight from Hong Kong, and headed straight for Cooking Papa without batting an eye because the food quality was decent enough to compete with some places in HK. I sadly can't say the same about Papa Express...

Tonight was our first time there, we got the BBQ pork and duck combo with rice, beef brisket noodles with beef bone broth, and added the T-bone with mushroom sauce with egg fried rice because the portion of the first two items were not enough food for two adults and a preschooler. The BBQ pork and duck was decent, but the portion is SMALL and served in a disposable divided container even though we dined in. The tender brisket and QQ egg noodles was sadly overwhelmed by the salty beef bone broth. The T-bone was a good size for the price, so if you like your meat cooked medium to medium well then you will like it.

Overall, the food was meh, but quality is not as good as Cooking Papa based on the dishes I tried. I will probably go back at least one more time to try some of the other stir fry dishes, but I was not impressed with what I had tonight. Also, I noticed the restaurant served some dishes like chow fun were served in plastic to-go containers even when people ate at the restaurant which isn't environmentally friendly. I was sad that they don't serve hot tea any more which is so common at a Canto/HK BBQ restaurant.

I'm hoping they will work out some kinks such as tuning their food quality because I want to keep going back to eat at a restaurant that tasted awesome for so many years. It might be time to start looking for a new Cantonese/Hong Kong BBQ restaurant to eat in South Bay. I will try to update...

Well, it's not all it was hyped up to be (in my head. I'm speaking from a Westerner's perspective of a Chinese restaurant's 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. I've 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 wouldn't 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 don't care to make guests comfortable.

To the restaurant's defense, we were the only all non-asian table and don't speak the native tongue. So we'll 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 can't ignore me.

The food arrived quickly and hot. Roasted duck was ok, I've had better in SF. The pan fried noodles were good, the walnut shrimp were ok, walnuts tasted...

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. Don't 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 don't like close quarters or noise beware. I'm 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...