Copa Cafe: Lobster dinner combo in Coquitlam
If you are a Chinese person growing up in Coquitlam, you’ll know Copa Cafe because at one point in your life, your family must have taken you there. Copa Cafe is a HK-style restaurant located in Coquitlam and is often compared to another very similar restaurant named M Cafe.
My family came here to check out their lobster dinner combo. This review is based on an in-dining experience prior to dine-in closures.
Interior
The interior of Copa Cafe has changed a lot since the last time I’ve eaten there (i.e. years). It’s a lot classier now with really tall booth seating and fake plant walls. I actually quite like the new interior as the seating is much more comfortable and private.
They also clean and sanitize everything really well too.
Food – Lobster dinner combo
As mentioned earlier, we are here to check out their “Boston lobster feast” dinner combo. They offer 3/4/5/6/ additional Chinese dishes for different prices (the more dishes the more expensive). It ranges from $98-$155.
For a table of 4 adults, we chose 3 dishes at $98. For your dishes, you can choose from a selection of 49 different dinner combo dishes.
Lobster steamed with garlic
We gotta start off with the lobster first because it’s the star of this dinner menu. You can choose how to cook your lobster from a variety of different flavours. We chose steamed with garlic, but you can also choose Szechuan style, curry, salt & pepper, cream sauce, etc.
The lobster was quite good! I was surprised. Copa Cafe is a very casual family restaurant, not some fancy seafood restaurant but the lobster was fresh and had some juicy meat to it. The garlic sauce was yummy too. We added a bed of noodles under it so it can soak up all that juice and sauce.
Braised eggplant with salted fish & green onion hotpot
This was the first out of the 3 dishes we chose. It is a mini hot pot with eggplant, salted fish and green onion. Now I love eggplants but this hot pot smelled a little funky because of the salted fish. To be frank, it was quite stinky but salted fish is loved by many (like my mother and my bf). Even though I dislike salted fish due to the smell, I found myself strangely going back to eat more of the spicy eggplant dish. It is strangely addicting. But again, smells bad.
Deep fried pork chop and walnut with salad sauce
I know this sounds hella weird, but it is a real dish! The pork chop is fried and coated in this sweet salad sauce that resembles the look of mayo. They also add some walnuts for a more nutty taste. It is a sweet and savoury dish.
Halibut stir fry in basil & maggi sauce
What is maggi sauce, you ask? Maggi is an international brand of seasonings, instant soups, and noodles that originated in Switzerland in the late 19th century. It’s quite a popular HK seasoning sauce and it is thicker than soy sauce.
The halibut had a crispy exterior and tasted really good with the sauce and basil. Big chunks of fish too.
Final thoughts
Loewe’s rating: โญโญ
This dinner combo is a pretty decent deal. For $98, you get a full lobster dish, 3 dishes of your choice, and soup (which we replaced for drinks). It is also a versatile combo as you have 49 dishes to choose from and you can choose up to 6 for $155. Again, the lobster was really not bad which makes this whole combo more enticing. If the lobster was bad then I wouldn’t have much to say about this combo.
Out of all 3 dishes, I liked the halibut dish the most. The other 2 we chose were a little strange if you are not Chinese, but they are not bad either. Of course, their dish menu has more common dishes to choose from if you are not feeling adventurous (-cough- sweet & sour pork -cough). With 4 adults, we did not have any leftovers and we left full.
I probably won’t eat very often at Copa Cafe but it was nice to return to some childhood memories. I’m glad they are still operating and doing well.
Sincerely, Loewe