Freshly baked cream puffs in downtown Redwood City
Reviewer: Jason
Total Reviews: 1040
Reviewed: 12/22/2006
Rating: 8.5
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I froze my ass off today at 9:50 waiting for Beard Papa to open. I sat across the street warming myself in the sun. By 10AM, 5 more people showed and I became the last person in line. It couldn't be too bad? Well...the 1st girl ordered 30 cream puffs. The next guy ordered 1, followed by 20, then 1, and finally 13 puffs. That's a total of 65 plus my order of 18.
The guy at the register had a red trail or skin discoloration from his ear to his neck. Wasn't sure if it was a birthmark and didn't want to be rude and stare. I'm sitting at the table and the guy at the register touches his ear, looks at his hands and walks to the back room. I walk to the counter to make a change to my order and the guy returns with his stains removed. OMG...that was blood on his ear and IT WAS A LOT! Looked like his upper ear piercing was a fresh hole and bleeding. Pretty nasty but thank gawd he wasn't prepping the cream puffs.
The whole reason I went to the counter was to make sure my 3 half dozens would be in 3 separate boxes for Christmas gifts. I waited 21 minutes for my order and when my order was called, the girl handed me 2 boxes. I told her I needed 3 and she gave me the dirtiest look. I go back to my table and I hear her talking to her other coworkers that whoever put the order in needs to specify blah blah blah. Re-organizing takes a very long time blah blah blah. I'm literally 10 feet away and can hear everything. I'm not pissed yet but mildly annoyed
- I'm already late for work - parking meter ran out 10 minutes ago - guy at the counter was bleeding - 21 minutes to fill a cream puff order - nearly $40 to buy these things - I have to hear a girl bitch about a mistake they made
The girl finishes my boxes and as I'm leaving the counter, another girl says 'Sorry for taking so long'. Wow, an apology, everything is forgotten and I'm happy again, time to deliver the goodies to my coworkers.
Beard Papa does 1 special flavor a week and this week's flavor was pumpkin. I ordered chocolate, vanilla, and pumpkin. I tried all 3 and my favorite was the pumpkin flavor followed by the vanilla. Today's batch was fresh out of the oven and chilling on the racks. From the racks, the cream puff preparer would fill the pastry with custard. Wrap the puff in paper and that's it. I look for a flaky outer crust, firm bottom crust, eggy soft texture on the inside, and filled with a chilled custard. Beard Papa exceeded all my expectations. It was super good.
After visiting Beard Papa in San Francisco, I've made it a dangerous habit of trying cream puffs from many different bakeries. I've tried lots of them and have to say Beard Papa tops my list for favorite cream puff. I'm kinda ashamed I was on the harsh side for the San Francisco Beard Papa review as they probably deserved something in the 8's.
Redwood City did an excellent job with the cream puffs but I think they are still working out the new store jitters. They've only been open for a month or so and it's apparent in the long wait times. As time goes on I'm positive they'll figure out the bottlenecks and improve. Parking is kinda a pain as you'll be greeted with metered and paid lots. I visited in the morning and had to circle 2 times looking for a spot. Beard Papa is on the same street as the movie theater and next door to Escape from New York Pizza.
Spent all morning in RWC today, and naturally grabbed a couple beard papa cream puffs for breakfast.
pumpkin puff - i ate this one first, very tasty and very flakey. i should of ordered two of these.
cream puff - this was the beard papa i recall, not overly sweet but well balanced. flakey crust dusted in powdered sugar i believe and not oily. good.
at about $1.50 a puff it's a good deal less then starbucks pastries and much more fulfilling in my opinion.
i'd grab antoher whenever i'm in the area.
Reviewer: ne00
Total Reviews: 187
Reviewed: 9/25/2007
Rating: 8.5
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It’s been a while since I last wrote up a review. Today I hit up RWC to visit my friend and get away for lunch. We stopped by Taqueria El Grullense for lunch and then hit up Beard Papa for some cream puffs.
I’m excited Beard Papa is opening a Cupertino location and wanted to sample my first cream puff from them. I’ve heard a lot of good things about them. The first time they were mentioned to me was when my friend went to NYC for a business trip and told me about these huge cream puffs that people lined up out the door from. That was three years ago.
This week’s special flavor was green tea. My friend had called in advance last week to ask about this. The place was empty around 1pm so our order didn’t take long. I ordered the six puffs mix and match deal, two green teas, two vanilla bean and two chocolate. The total was around $12 and they accept visa or mastercard with no minimum charge.
We sat down and waited as they took the empty pastry shells, pumped in the cream fillings, weighed the puffs and then sprinkled powder sugar on the pastry shell. It’s easy to distinguish which puff is filled with which cream since they sprinkle different color power on each puff, chocolate power for chocolate cream, green sugar power for green tea, and sugar power for vanilla.
The puff pastry is the best I’ve ever had for a cream puff. The pastry is flakey on the outside with a hint of crunch, soft and moist on the inside and the cream is like pudding but not as sweet as pudding. While I’m eating my green tea cream puff, one of the workers went outside to pass out free samples and it was funny to see people flocking like birds to the free food.
I enjoyed the vanilla bean the best and this flavor is available year round.
Pluses: Good puffs, about $2 a puff.
Minuses: RWC is hard to find parking. Would be a long wait if someone ahead of you orders a dozen or more.
Remember that one short from the Little Rascals or Our Gang short with cream puffs? You know, the one where Alfalfa was eating cream puffs laced with soap and he ended up burping bubbles while serenading Darla. Well anyways, I was in the RWC and was thinking, cream puffs.
Headed into the revitalized downtown and located the shop next to the new Century Theatres. It was about 10:00am, so there wasn't much traffic. Could imagine it must get pretty crowed considering the vicinity of other restaraunts and shops in the area.
Strolled in and noticed it was quite clean and almost like a Sanrio store. Special of the day was Capuccino puffs. I decide to get that, plus chocolate cream and vanilla. Also noticed that they have other pasteries like cheese cake sticks. Will have to try those next time. A short coffee was on point as well.
Started with the chocolate cream. Good crispity flakey crust. Nice soft cream. Not too chocolatey, but just right. The vanilla - straight rock star. I save the Capuccino for later, but end up giving it to mom. No complaints from her. The brew was decent enough and complemented the pasteries well.
Beard Pappa is an easy return. The cream puffs are the real deal. Next time, I'll eat all three.
