Papa George

I really enjoyed having dinner at this place. I had the fish cream pasta. Unlike 99.99% of all Chinese restaurants in Markham that attempt to serve Western food, this place got the texture of their pasta right (El Dente)! So I was impressed by that.
The restaurant is quite small, so it’s very difficult to get a seat without a reservation. The prices are reasonable and food quality is good for a Chinese restaurant.

Another surprise tucked inside of a plaza. This is a very tiny Hong Kong Café. We came for afternoon tea and was seated quickly as we just missed the lunch rush. They have a good variety of items for afternoon tea. I chose the black pepper beef with fettuccine. The other dish we ordered was on their lunch menu, baked pork chop with tomato sauce with rice. Imo to really try if a hk café is good, you need to try a baked item.
First and foremost the afternoon pasta dish was a really good portion (even for lunch) and their beef was really fresh and the sauce had just the right amount of saltiness. They also added some mushrooms which was a nice touch. Pasta was cooked al dente. I would definitely order this again and would recommend it.
The baked pork chop with rice was delicious. Ingredients were fresh, sauce was tasty and not too salty.
One more thing to add is that their lunch combos come with a soup and garlic toast. The soup we got was cream of mushroom and I loved how they pureed it as not often do I see hk cafés doing this. Thumbs up!
The only thing that was not too good were the drinks. The honey lemon water was a tad too sweet and the yin yang drink was not as smooth as I am use to.
I would definitely come back though for their food!

Papa George is a small diner with around 8 – 10 tables that serves amazing HK diner food with a twist of Italian (mostly pastas). I got the chicken steak with spaghetti. The meal included soup which I didn’t get to pick nor the server tell me what it was. It also included a drink. The portion is a good size and the servers are friendly and attentive. Will def be back for the baked pork chop or the spaghetti with meat sauce.

Occasion: Saturday night dinner
Ordered:
— Gravy pork chop rice
— Black Truffle with Shrimp Pasta in cream sauce
Came with:
— 2 drinks
— garlic bread
— 2 soup
The waiting area was so small I thought I was going to tumble over on someone’s table and land on their food whenever people tried to exit.
Your typical hong kong style café except the environment makes it feel slightly more upscale. (Slightly more). Everything from the garlic bread to the cold lemon tea tasted very typical.
The clam chowder was surprisingly really good and so was the Russian borsch soup.
The gravy pork chop rice my bf ordered tasted like pizza o_​O. I don’t think I’d want to eat pizza in a hk café.
The black truffle with shrimp pasta in cream sauce was very strong on the truffle — which I enjoyed. But it was hard to really get the full taste of this «could have been wonderful dish» if they cooked the pasta just a little bit longer. The pasta was hard. It tasted like it was undercooked. Raw pasta, yuck. It could have been such a good dish… sigh.
A little bit overpriced for a hk café compared to many others. Bill came up to about $ 30 something for the two of us. Usually hk cafes are closer to the $ 20 mark for the both of us.
Don’t think I’ll be coming back anytime soon.

Came here around 8, just a bit before their last call. It was a lot less crowded in the evening, as I tried to get a table during lunch hours, the doors are usually crammed with people.
They don’t accept credit or debit, so rmb take cash with you.
Overall, great experience. Really big portions, might want to share.
I’ve heard their pastas taste great, haven’t tried yet. But will soon

not bad at all
chinese diner providing more western food (pasta and such)
comes in combo with coffee and tea

Fancy and refined does not always equate to great food and this is most apparent at Papa George. With their exclusive hours, few tables and their insistence that you make reservations I can see why they make come across as pretentious. Even their chef is all dressed up with a true chef’s hat and all.
But there’s not a whole lot of substance to hold up all that pretentious vibe. The food is OK at best. There is something lacking about this place that I just can’t quite sum it up. Their food reminds me of Dickens — the once hip HK style restaurant that was once the very definition of refined HK style café in Scarborough. They are now reduced to a shadow of their former self – seeking refuge in very defunct Richlane mall (Fu sic guy).
Anyhow, I wouldn’t necessarily say they are bad per se. You will leave with a full stomach for sure but also an emptiness in your appetite.

As a HK style restaurant, I would say this one has the better food quality and taste when comparing to other HK style restaurants in TO. But of course, it’s abit more expensive as well, but on average about 2 – 3 bucks more per dish than the norm. So for me, who prefer quality over price, especially when the difference is 2 – 3 bucks more, I would pick this restaurant.
I have tried several dishes there but the one I liked the most is the «baked pork chops on fried rice». The pork chop is thicker than the one you usually get in a HK style restaurant and actually has some real meat taste (which often lacks in HK style restaurants). So I would recommend this dish because it just work so well with my palate.
But the place closes at 8pm, i wish they would open just abit longer so it can fit my work schedule better as well. :) But I guess I cannot have the whole world.

Came here on a Saturday afternoon. The place is very small just like everyone mentioned already. There was a small line up but we only had to wait about 5 minutes. I think service was very fast. Within 5 minutes from ordering the food began arriving. Everything was made fresh too since all the food we ordered was scolding hot.
From the all day breakfast menu we ordered the black truffle scrambled eggs with toast, fruits and potato wedges $ 9.99 — tried some of the eggs and it was pretty good. Meal comes with drink so we got milk tea.
For my own main dish I got the smoked salmon and chicken pasta for $ 8.99 — It comes with garlic toast, soup and the milk tea. For the pasta you can choose the different types of pasta they have available like angel hair, spaghetti and fusilli. You can also add extra cheese for $ 1. For the sauce there are no options and came with a cream based sauce. As for the smoked salmon it came sliced thin and had four large pieces. For the soup we all choose the clam chowder and it tasted okay. Not overly salty and decent flavours but with very little clam. Overall, I thought the main part of the dish was pretty average but good value for all the things you get with it.
I also got to try the curry fish with rice $ 8.99 — The fish was soft and smooth plus the portion was very generous. The curry sauce was not overly spicy but it had a small kick to it with all the ginger flavour it had. Comes with the garlic toast, soup and milk tea. Once again, average dish but good value.
Finally, for dessert we shared the French toast cubes $ 5.99 — The size of this thing is ridiculously huge. They were more like French toast bricks. Deep fried to perfection with a slight crisp on the outside but still soft on the inside. Drizzled with maple syrup and butter. This dish is definitely for sharing because if one person were to eat this thing then you would have consumed all the calories you need for a day in one dish.
To sum things up; average food, good value, fast service and a French toast which is to die for. +0.5 for the amazing French toast.
3.5 stars

I’m not sure if the food I received is more of an acquired taste but for even for the low price I paid I was bitterly disappointed. I got a fettuccine with beef in pepper sauce and it was awful. The beef was essentially rubber and the sauce was edible at best. I tossed it out as soon as I got home.
I got a lemon tea that was 90% lemon and 10% tea. Basically by the end of this meal I had to go eat another one.
2 stars just because of how cheap it is.

Looking for a warm plate of HK style pasta the way your mom used to make? Craving that cup of HK milk tea that you had during your travels in Hong Kong? Just looking for a bite on the fly, but you don’t want to drop more than $ 15 on a meal? Well Big Papa George just might be your jam.
This place is similar to any staple HK café you have been to, except the quality is a bit better. The milk tea is great, and the selection of dishes certainly keeps you coming back for more. I usually order the spaghetti and the rose sausage pasta in particular. It’s good and fills you up, I mean it’s not like eating at Scarpettas in NYC or anything, but what do you expect for under $ 15.
Come here if you’re hungry and don’t mind the crowds. This place is relatively new to the area so it gets packed quick. Also it closes mad early, at like 6pm or so on weekends (weird I know), so make sure you come for lunch and don’t stay for dinner knowmsayin?
I love it when we eat at Big Pop-​pa.

3.5
If I could describe Papa George in 2 words it would be Dickens lite. Papa George is a nice HK style café to come for lunch or a very early dinner.
Pros:
Very friendly staff
Food quality is pretty good
Cons:
Small place
Hours are strange
If you’ve ever been to Dickens, Papa George will have a similar feel for you. As soon as you walk in, there’s a European feel to the place. It feels like a small chalet nestled somewhere in France. One think i notice it the clientele ranges from teens, families to the seniors. Groups of all ages frequent this place.
The place is rather small. There are about 10 tables total and it’s fairly busy most of the time.
We had come twice before but it was so full that we had to go somewhere else. One look at the menu and again I was reminded of Dickens. We ordered the pan fried chicken steak with rice and the Portuguese chicken on pasta. All meals come with garlic bread, soup and a drink here. (just like Dickens)
The food comes rather quickly which is nice. My chicken steak is very nice. I ordered the same thing at Dickens and it looks very much the same, right down to the sauce. overall very good dish. My GF’s Portuguese chicken though, was more like a curry than Portuguese sauce. Portuguese sauce should be a lighter coconut based curry. When it’s more curry it takes away from the dish. It was still OK, but could of been better. Another thing to note, the drink (like Dickens) is served at the end of the meal. If you want it with your meal, you will have to tell the server.
The servers here are all very nice. There were many regulars there the servers knew well and the conversations were almost like the servers were eating with them They maintained good service while still mingling with regulars when they could very well. Another thing to note is the hours of this place. They close at 8 which is early by HK style café standards. If you want to have dinner here which I know I would, you have to have an earlier one. It’s a very strange hour to close for HK style cafes but it is what it is.
Papa George for me is basically Dickens with a smaller menu, space and hours. It still does things very well though. If it weren’t for the hours, this would be an excellent choice for dinner. If you’re a fan of Dickens you should definitely give this place a try.

Why do my parents insist on making Papa George our go-​to lunch place (other than dimsum)?
Could be that the prices are amazing for the portions.
Could be the properly JOLTED Hong Kong Milk Tea.
Could be the nice selection of salads, should you be on the market for «healthy» hk café food (relatively speaking).
Could be the friendly staff, who quickly learn who their regulars are, and greet them happily.
Could be their chicken steak. Get. it.
Many reasons. Whatever it is, there’s usually a line in the tiny little space They serve the minestrone or cream soup with garlic bread, and ends with a nice tea/​coffee, if you choose the combos. Their tea time menu is a steal, and ensures you get a lot of bang for your buck.
Oh, could also be their free wifi. Their password is conveniently on the chalkboard too!

Papa George was definitely a huge surprise for me. I originally visited on Tuesday, but they close every Tuesday… so I came back today to try this place out.
The design of this restaurant looks like some sort of French cuisine, but it is a western HK style café. It’s also very small, so I can imagine long lineups on weekends, especially considering there was a small lineup at 3pm on a Wednesday. We were serviced immediately and were given the menus, but that was pretty much it to the extent of good service.
I ordered the spaghetti with clams and rose sauce, while my dad ordered the satay beef instant noodle soup. Despite the fact the presentation wasn’t the best, the food itself was very good! The rose sauce was very creamy, there were plenty of spaghetti, and the clams didn’t have any sand in them. The satay beef instant noodle soup had probably one of the best satay broths I’ve ever tasted. To make things even better, the beef felt like it was from a tender steak; thick but chewy! Definitely something I would personally try in the future as well.
Both the iced lemon tea and iced milk tea were nothing memorable.
Despite the shoddy service after the initial phase, I’m still confident in giving this place 4 stars, and will certainly come back. I wish it opened till 10pm though… oh well.

The reason for visiting this place was because it was so mysterious and hidden. I had no idea what this place was and what the rave was all about. My brother had recently visited the place and said it had good quality food for the price/​portion. Decided to come try this place tonight and I was immediately impressed.
I had high hopes for this place, but seeing the exterior of the restaurant made me feel like I was going to regret coming. Walked in and was greeted immediately — didn’t have to wait a second before a gentleman seated us. Service was polite and snappy, unlike other western HK cafes. I ordered the pork chop + chicken steak w/​honey mustard sauce and my lady had the tiger shrimp pasta. The (veggie) soup came first, which I must say was pretty good. They didn’t go easy on the salt though, which was my only gripe. However, the entrée was a totally different story. The pork chop was unbelievably tender/​soft (something I can only dream of cooking one day) and the chicken steak was juicy to the point of no return (what I mean is you will never EVAR go back to eating chicken your old way). Maybe I’m exaggerating a little, but I reckon I’m not far off. Mine came with spaghetti and that was also to perfection — soft enough to be chewy. The pasta was also very good, but I think it might need some cheese. perhaps I’m just picky with pasta (bc I’m pasta man), but I usually take my pasta with cheese. NOMS! I also had HK milk tea that came with my dinner, which was also gracefully made. I had such a FUL-​filling night (hee hee I’m so CHEESY)
Before I end this, I have to backtrack all the way to when I was being seated. I had to use the mens room so badly, I barged in and was stunned to see… A TABLE AND TWO CHAIRS IN THERE! I think that’s a great idea, especially when the place gets too busy. They won’t need to do renovations to make more room — just send guests into the washroom! They get a private dining room + all you can pee private toilet! lol
Before before I end this, I really liked their idea for this restaurant. I know for a fact that they already thought of how to run this place. They strategically planned their kitchen at the front of the restaurant, while the back was for cleaning. So when they’re working, there’s always a free flow type of motion — they get the food, send the food, pick up dirty dishes on the way, bring them to the back, go back to the front and the cycle repeats itself. That’s pretty damn smart. well done, Papa George!
Before before before I end this, I took off 0.5 because of the «private» room service lol. I don’t want to do my business in there and feel like someone is sitting there or will be sitting there. It’s kind of scary if it was darker in there.
Again, well done! Till we meet again.
Jennifer K mentioned that the kitchen was at the front prior to Papa George being there, so props to the previous owner! :)

Came here for lunch on a Sunday.
Make sure to come early or make reservations because the restaurant does get filled due to them having roughly 25 – 30 seats available.
Décor/​atmosphere, it is decently decorated, nothing fancy. They don’t play loud music so it is nice, good place to chat with others.
Service, typical Chinese, they did come by to take our order which is nice since I normally expect to flag someone down. They did come by once to get the bread basket back and once to refill our tea. No issues here.
Food, typical Chinese café food in my opinion. It seems to be rated well, but I don’t understand why. Meals all seemed to be combos where you would get a soup and drink or some where you just get a drink. Things like baked pork chop on rice, curry chicken, and some Italian pastas are present in the menu.
Cost, for a lunch combo (I didn’t see an option for it not to be) it includes a soup (clam chowder or borscht along with garlic bread), a Chinese style drink (hot milk tea or coffee, cold drinks was $ 1.25 extra) and your main dish (they have a variety of baked dishes like pork chop, ox tongue, curries, and others) for roughly $ 10 before tax/​tip. Price isn’t bad for what you get, seems typical for what I expect to pay.
I don’t think I’d come back. I wouldn’t say it isn’t worth it, but it is your typical Chinese café. If you didn’t have to wait, it is okay, but I don’t think it is worth waiting for. We arrived at 11am when it opened and it didn’t fill up quickly, but by the time we left at around 12:30pm, there were customers waiting outside to come in.
Cash only! This is slightly annoying to find out at the end (unless we missed the sign).

I come here whenever I need to satisfy my craving for hk Café food. The milk tea is good and I always order the all day lunch black pepper sauce chicken steak with rice. I haven’t yet found another dish that comes to par. The potato wedges are very bland in my opinion. I hope they expand the menu soon because there isn’t too much variety to choose from. The employees treat every customer very nicely. But the restuarant seems a bit cramped up. Their honey garlic wings are to die for! But if you ever pass by or are near by you definitely won’t be disappointed by papa George!

I gave it 4stars based on comparison of other HK style restaurants in the surrounding area. Food is reminecent of «Dicken’s» café back when they were at Chalmers gate but this place seems better in terms of taste.
I came here for lunch. Ordered truffle oil and shrimp angel hair pasta, and baked tomato rice with ox tongue. Lunch set menu are about $ 8~10, includes soup, garlic bread and drink. I enjoyed their clam chowder soup.
Truffle oil pasta was quite good in flavour. I wasn’t crazy about the baked ox tongue dish. Portions indeed are big.
Next time I might try their crispy fried pork cutlet or baked chicken with gravy with roasted veggies. Seems like they have option to opt out of rice or pasta as a side and load up on the veggies instead. Saw other tables eating it and looked quite good. Gotta study the menu more next time.
Hopefully they will keep the quality of food high and prices at a great value. Did I mention they had great service too? For the nine or ten tables, they had 3 attentive servers. That’s a bonus point for any Chinese restaurant!
Tip:closes at 7pm.

Papa George. definitely promising if you looking for good quality well prepared Hong Kong Style Café food.
This restaurant is small and packed. This may not be the coolest new and hot place to hang out for a foodie but with all the Seniors eating here, you know it is good value.
Black Truffle and Shrimp with Pasta with Cream Sauce Meal Set ($ 9.99).
At this price point, what I served really exceeded my expectation. Garlic Bread and Soup with a choice of Borscht or Clam Chowder. Pasta with a choice of Spaghetti, Linguine, Penne, Rotini and more. And of course a choice of coffee/​tea.
The portion size of the pasta is huge. Easily can feed 2 people. I can assure you that truffle oil had been used as I can smell and tasted the aroma of truffle. A few thing they can improve is not to overcook the pasta and not overdo the sauce. The pasta was a little to soggy and mushy for my taste.
I might try other items maybe their curry dish. Afternoon tea from 2:30 pm-6:00 pm.
Closes 7 pm with last call at 6 pm. Early dinner anyone?
Cash Only!

Grand opening today and it’s packed. Even though it’s packed; the food have been arrived fast. We have a few things to share: Pork cutlet with fruits and salad. It’s nicely presented with fresh fruits. The pork cutlet is crispy golden brown on the outside and tender inside. Both the curry veal on rice and baked chicken A La Portuguese are rich in flavor. The veal and chicken are juicy and tender. The lunch set comes with soup and drink. I love their borscht soup. Just seeing its rich tomato red color makes my mouth water. All of us ended our meal with a cup of hot milk tea. It’s great to warm us up before going out in the freezing cold day!