Beard Papa - Plaza Bonita

What would I do without all of my FOYs(Friends of Yoso), the minute Beard Papa opens in San Diego, I get 3 emails letting me know! So thank you, thank you, EdL(a longtime FOY), Sam, and Ricki. Ever since, I first read about Beard Papa in a post by Reid, I've been fascinated by the phenomenon. Though unlike Kathy, I don't have much of a sweet tooth, which I think is my saving grace, we really didn't hunt Beard Papa down during our road trips to LA....well, I didn't need to. Before you knew it, a Beard Papa opened in the food court at Marukai Gardena. The Missus and I shared a single vanilla cream puff:

And in spite of my lack of a sweet tooth, it was quite good. The shell(Choux) was thin, light, and crisp, and filling was not too sweet, but still rich.

And that would be it, for the next time we went to Marukai Gardena, Beard Papa was gone, and a "post for a rainy day" went down the tubes. And even though I ran into Beard Papa in other places, like San Gabriel and in Costa Mesa, I never really had the urge to visit. I'm just surprised that I hadn't deleted these photos.

So being in the vicinity of National City recently, I dropped by Plaza Bonita, and headed to where I thought the most likely location of Beard Papa would be. And there was no Food Court...at least where I thought it would be! It had been a few years since I'd been here, and the entire food court had been moved. They sure are trying to pretty the place up.

The set-up looked kind of haphazard, but there it was the signature Beard Papa yellow. The prices, were $2.50 a cream puff, a bit more expensive than I remembered. I did purchase 6 cream puffs($10.50 for 6), 3 vanilla, and 3 of the other flavor of the day, chocolate.

When I arrived home, I opened my little yellow box, and checked out the cream puffs all snuggled in.

I had one vanilla, and noticed something; either my tastes have changed, or the filling is a bit sweeter than I recalled. It was not quite as rich as well.

It was also a bit more "lumpy" than I remembered. The shell had not traveled well, it was soggy, and the bottom hard like a pie crust.

The chocolate was too sweet for my taste.

Though I found the shape of this cream puff to be a bit amusing.

 

I'm not quite sure if it was just grand opening inconsistencies, or if Beard Papa has lowered the quality control standards, but these were not as good as I remembered.

EdL mentioned in his email, the interesting choice of locations for the first Beard Papa in San Diego. EdL thought, like I did, that Beard Papa would open up somewhere around the Kearny Mesa/Clairemont area. But at least you can now get your Beard Papa fix locally if you need it.

Beard Papa, in the Plaza Bonita Food Court
3030 Plaza Bonita Rd
National City, CA 91950 

Comments

[RONW]

only the vanilla filling lived up to my expectations with my experiences at the Beard Papa's franchise in my neighborhood. Their chocolate filling is indistinguishable from chocolate pudding, to me.

[Rachel Chan]

Hmm even though I have seen it first in Singapore then later in Sydney, I have never understood the beard papa craze. I mean, even normal well made cream puffs don't sell very well. How does it justify a chain all by itself??

[Carol]

I have a sweet tooth but for some reason never really got into cream puffs. That chocolate filling does look like pudding.

[jeff c]

Kirk,
I have had these freshly made and 12hours after sitting in a box. The ones just out of the oven and piped with the creme is just heavenly. The ones 12 hours later were soggy messes. I guess its all in the timing. AS for them being overrated, I could say the same for the craze of macaroons.

[Dee]

Yes, Plaza Bonita does seem like an odd choice for their San Diego location. Don't get me wrong; I love that it's so close to me, but I found a lot of people just passing it by and not giving it a second glance. My favorites are strawberry and green tea!

[caninecologne]

i agree with you and dee that Plaza B is a strange choice for Beard Papa. doesn't fit with the demographics. not trying to stereotype here! that being said, i'd try one of their cream puffs at least just once to see what the the hype is about.

[Ed]

$2.50 now? When I got mine about a week ago, they were only $2! What gives, Mr Papa ;)?

[funnytummy]

I wish to eat a cream puff the size of a basketball...

[howie]

Yes!!! This is the only food fad of recent years that I can really get into (unlike cupcakes and yogurt and boba). I hope they get the kinks worked out though.

[kat]

I think you and the Missus need to make a trip over to Japan, the cream filling is light and not lumpy!

[Kirk]

Hi RONW - Yes, that chocolate is puddingish...

Hi Rachel - Hyperbole does it.....

Hi Carol - You know, a well made cream puff, a la Liliha Bakery is quite nice, but this really tasted mass produced.

Hi Jeffrey - These didn't even hold up for 30 minutes. The problem to me was the huge pile of pastry shells lying in a bowl....who knows how long they were there? Lack of quality control. As for over-rated, which I never said once in the post.....let's start with fro-yo, than cupcakes, before we even get to macaroons.....

Hi Dee - Actually, I was kinda excited about the green tea flavor, but they only had chocolate and vanilla on the day I visited.

Hi CC - You should have someone grab you a cream puff or two to check out. The one we had in Gardena was excellent....these not so much so.

Hi Ed - Yes, $2.50!!!

Hi funnytummy - i think you'll have a tummy ache the size of one too!

Hi Howie - Ah yes, there's a craze that fits everyone!

Hi Kat - that first one we had in Gardena was excellent...I'm not sure about their formula....maybe it's just a quality control issue.

[jeff c]

Kirk, apologies to you. WIth all the hype that goes with this place, I felt the general gestalt of the blogosphere was that there was hype. Warranted or not depends on preference. I like them but very fresh.

[Kirk]

Hi Jeffrey - No apologies necessary....I really don't keep up with the latest fads, so I learn what they are from you all.

[Nicole]

Beard Papa's in San Diego?? Yes!! I've only been once and that was in New York City and I had an awesome cream puff there! I will definitely be taking my husband there soon so hopefully they'll iron out the kinks by the time we get there. Plus, I've never been to Plaza Bonita, so it's a good excuse to go check it out!

[Kirk]

Hi Nicole - I hope you get the best cream puff that Beard Papa can make! please let me know how it turns out.

[CrawDaddy]

I'd agree that they still need to work out the kinks. I tried one the other day and the custard ran out, all over my hands, the table, etc. it was so watery!

[Kirk]

Hi CD - Ugh, that's pretty bad....

[Denny]

Kirk,

Me and the missus are both creme-puff fans (Liliha Bakery) and were so excited with this post. We've visited Beard Papa's 4 times now and of the 4 visits, we were only able to buy pastries in 1 instance.

The 3 other visits.. Well the oven was broken (Saturday mid afternoon) and wouldn't be fixed till the next day, another day they ran out of custard and ingredients for custard and finally they ran out of puff pastry. Not once did they apologize or even look apologetic. This upset me, but not as much as their obvious lack of respect for my time and energy spent just to buy a stupid creme puff. UGH!

In the end I purchased a dozen plain (coincidentally they "ran out" of custard again and had to make more for my order - 20 minute wait). The creme puffs were good, but in hindsight, not great. I'll stick to making my own (rather having the missus make them for me).

Sorry for the long rant, but terrible service like this and a mediocre product deserves the negative publicity.

[Kirk]

Hi Denny - That's terrible...sounds like they don't really care about the customer.

[kaii]

I live in the area and tried them. My mom is an ADDICT and although they are expensive, they're a treat for my mom who does not have a sweet tooth but loves to endulge in a cream puff once and a while.

Once they did run out of strawberry, and I had to wait a bit, so I asked for a sample or something free to compensate for my time. Being good servers, they did give me one free of charge. I commend them on that.

Living in the "Plaza Bonita area" aka Paradise Valley, we don't see a lot of upscale japanese bakery things around these parts. I thought it a blessing to have the store in our homely Plaza Bonita, maybe I'm just weird. I thought it was pretty nice they put their San Diego location here instead of downtown.

All in all, an expensive place, but worth it when you're treating your mom!!