Saturday night, my family had an emergency meeting of sorts. Our favorite Chinese restaurant, Papa Jackie, is closing for renovations for two months as of May 8th. My brother sent out a text alert Thursday announcing that he had made supper reservations for Saturday night at six o’clock. We responded quickly like any dutiful family member would when there’s a promise of a good meal. So there we were, eleven of us, squeezed around a table for ten. Every table in the restaurant was reserved and most likely, so was the next seating at eight.  

Papa Jackie is a small Hong Kong style restaurant in Brossard that serves Cantonese, Szechuan and Chinese-Canadian dishes. The waiters know their customers well including my brother who is a regular. Because it was the restaurant’s last weekend, they created a special selection of set menus for large groups. My brother chose one called Happy Family that listed ten dishes, most of it seafood. And yes, it lived up to its name. I wish I took a photo of the menu, but you can see some of the dishes in the pictures below. Move the cursor over the photo to see what they are.

The big bowl is a seafood soup. The smaller bowl is corn soup for the kids.

Crispy chicken

Bok choy and abalone

There’s an old saying that you can tell a Chinese restaurant is good when most of their customers are Chinese. With the exception of two tables, all the other customers were Chinese.

Steamed fish

Lobster

The fish and the lobster are always fresh because they are kept alive in large tanks. We once ordered an eight pound lobster! Because there are so many varieties of dishes to choose from, they have more than one menu, and the waiters know even more. Papa Jackie also makes a great General Tao.

The restaurant is expanding into the empty space next door. When they reopen, I have no doubt that my family will be there in July to celebrate.

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