Sherman's Food Adventures: Copa Cafe (Coquitlam)

Copa Cafe (Coquitlam)

No, this is not a repeat. If you think you have seen a post on Copa Cafe earlier, you are not seeing things. However, this time, I brought the family out to the location in Coquitlam. Actually, Copa was not my original choice. I ended up here because Amorosa was full and it would be over 30 minutes before we would get a table. I have no problem with that; but my kids might. Not sure if the diners there would like to see 2 kids bouncing off the walls for 30 minutes. But honestly, when we leave a restaurant to avoid a lineup, we end up wasting the same amount of time going somewhere else. It could be that I just hate lineups! I dropped Viv off at Zeller's to return something, so I headed over to Copa first with my son. As I pulled up to the front of the restaurant, everyone at the window just had to look over and stare. Is it just me or Asian people like to stare for no apparent reason? It's just like how when they drive by my house and I'm outside, they have to stare at me. What? Do I have something on my face??? Wait, I'm Asian... I hope I don't stare... No, I just take photos of food and thus, people stare at me.

Seeing how we all ordered set menu items at the Vancouver location, I decided to order all Chinese dishes (well, at least HK-style interpreted dishes). For the kiddies, we started off with Scramble Eggs with Shrimp. This was not an auspicious start to the meal because the eggs were overcooked, watery and in many small pieces. At least the shrimp was cooked right and had the right texture. For good measure, we got the Spaghetti Bolognaise, just in case the kiddies didn't like the eggs. Not resembling an authentic bolognaise of any sort (that's HK-style cafe for you), it was linguine not spaghetti. No matter, the dish tasted fantastic! Lots of meat and cheese flavour and the noodles were not overly mushy. Since it was baked, it had a nice crust on top as well. I just wished they didn't serve it with a big bay leaf in the sauce. I was in the mood for some HK-style curry and selected the Curry Brisket. Although the sauce was flavourful with just a bit a hint of heat, the beef was not very tender. Curiously, this dish didn't come with rice.

The final dish is one of our favourites - Salted Fish and Chicken Fried Rice. It's definitely an acquired taste due to the pungent fish; but I gotta tell you, when it's done right... Fortunately, it was not only done right, the dish here at Copa was fanatastic. The rice was firm, there was lots of fish and chicken and the dish was well-seasoned. Pretty predictable meal here at Copa, food was generally good except for the scrambled eggs and the tough brisket. Despite being quite friendly, the servers seemed overworked. We couldn't seem to get their attention when we needed something. One server got bent out-of-shape when she spotted my son playing with the sugar packets. Only in a Chinese restaurant you will find employees scolding others' children.

The Good:
- Predictable food
- Comfortable and clean dining space
- Pretty good value

The Bad:
- Same with the other location, when you have such a diverse menu, some food may not turn out well

Copa Cafe on Urbanspoon

9 comments:

Anson said...

I had no idea they had a chain of these things? Are there more COPA reviews coming? Heh.

Sherman Chan said...

Hi Anson, yah I really didn't know they had a location out in Coquitlam until I went to the Vancouver one. I think the Vancouver location is a bit better all around though.

Anonymous said...

Hey Sherman!

I love reading your blogs since you love to eat out so often AND you blog about it too! Definitely one of the better food blogs out there. Would be nice to see a "top 10 restaurants" in the future :) Keep up the fabolous work!

Sherman Chan said...

Thanks for the kind words! Yes, I've been meaning to do a top 10 of some sorts; but as you said, it's in the future. I still think I need a larger cache of restaurants in order to do a proper top 10. Thanks for reading!

holly said...

Hey Sherman,

How about just a top 10 of your favourites so far?

I think you have eaten enough to come up with a list of your own favourites. You could start one for 2009 and then update it annually.

Sherman Chan said...

Hi Holly, that's a good idea. Should it be top 10 no matter what it is or should it be in categories?

Jeanie said...

HI Sherman!

You should have Top 10 Overall in addition to Top 10 in categories...hehehe

Jeanie (I posted earlier under "Anonymous" by mistake)

holly said...

Whatever's easiest for you.

I would prefer your top 10 favourites, regardless of category because it indicates the ones you always go to the most. Those are always the "best" in my books.

Sherman Chan said...

Okay, I think I'll do a single Top 10 "so far" list and post in a few days. Need to mull it over...

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