Cooking Papa

Went to lunch today with friends to check out Cooking Papa that reopened again. It was still under a soft opening with new management. No dim sum carts like before and very limited dim sum selection until the soft opening is completed -- so service is slow in one aspect. Food is Cantonese style that was delicious and priced reasonably. Crispy pork, black peppered beef, shrimp egg chow fun, dried shrimp fried rice, snow pea shoots with fish broth, stirred fried pork with inoki mushrooms, and egg custard donuts were some of the items ordered. The tablet ordering system takes getting use to; but should go faster once you figure out how to use it. If you add another order later in the system it goes to the bottom of the queue. Cashless payments by credit /debit card or smartphone payments -- all worked. Oh yeah, they charge for hot tea.

Dinner last night at Cooking Papa's was delicious. In particular, the broccoli with garlic was cooked perfectly - fully cooked but still very crisp and fresh. They have a new menu with three types of tea, at $3.50 per pot. Everything we tried was good.

Cooking Papa is embarking on a soft opening as a cashless restaurant, and will not accept cash any longer. You must pay with a credit card or debit card. I think they also take Apple Pay. The waitress was very helpful in showing us how to order using an iPad. The service in general was very good. The food arrived promptly. They have applied for an alcohol license which they hope to have soon.

They are also now open 7 days a week. Prices seemed a little higher but given the increase in minimum wage and difficulty in finding help, it is understandable and still more affordable than most. We spent $130 for five people, but it included fresh Dungeness crab.

(Latest inside scoop: it may reopen again after all this time. Let us hope the kitchen area will have great improvement. No more unpleasant surprises on the dishes.) Latest update: there was a fire recently and I have heard that would be closed permanently. Probably too expensive to rebuild it and meet the regulations. Too bad. Not much real good Chinese restaurants in the area now compared to other cities a little bit north.