Stopped by Merengue Bakery & Cafe in old town Monrovia to pick up some pastries for tonight's wine…read morepairing dinner at home. Super excited because the mini fruit tarts are going to look amazing on my newly purchased dessert tray! I was feeling a bit sleepy so I decided to fuel up & eat breakfast while I was there. I ordered a Vanilla Latte & a side order of 3 eggs + Sausage Links. If you're a big eater and want the additional potatoes and pancakes, I recommend paying a few dollars more and ordering the Breakfast platter. The Vanilla Latte came in a paper cup (a bit bummed out by not being able to take a more IG worthy picture of that), but it actually tasted really good! Same with the sausage links - it was probably one of the best tasting ones I've had for breakfast in a while. Aside from their wide selection of pastries and food options, their customer service was phenomenal. Every customer that walked through the door was greeted upon arrival and thanked on their way out. The restaurant was very clean and the cakes looked so beautiful behind the glass case. I had a pleasant experience today at Merengue Bakery & Cafe and can't wait to come back soon to try a slice of their chocolate cake!

Located in the heart of Old Town Monrovia on Myrtle near Lemon Ave, this Cuban gem offers…read moresandwiches, pastries, coffee, cakes, & more. Street parking can be tough during peak hours, but there are public lots nearby.  For the past 12 years, this has been our go-to spot, and their Guava Cake is the ultimate family favorite! This past Mother's Day, Mom wanted that exact cake. We stopped by in the morning to pick one up as usual. However, the lady at the counter informed us they would not have any ready until 2 PM and was quite dismissive and short with us. I was next in line, it was now the second person at the counter helping me, ( male ) once he knew I was looking for a guava cake, he immediately went to the back going out of his way to check and ensure we took a fresh guava cake home right then and there. He saved Mother's Day !!! I must also mention Danny and Lissette are amazing every time we order cakes for family events. It's always a great experience, and we'll definitely keep coming back for their goodies.

We finally stopped by the bakery in Duarte to sample their signature beverage and pan dulce. Their…read morecafe de olla, was served hot, a nice blend of cinnamon and sweetness. We bought an elote, tortuga and can't recall the third piece of pan, and alfajores. The elote was delicious, I love that you can see little specs of cinnamon, soft and tender and vanilla scent. The tortuga was a bit more spongy, fragrant, and nice balanced of sweetness. The alfajores were buttery, crisp and smeared with dulce de leche. I needed a bday cake and decided to order the strawberry shortcake, because it looked so pretty. The cake was a hit with the family. The frosting was super light, the filling is one layer of custard and the other of light whipped cream and berries. The sponge is moist, the cake is not sweet, but decadent in its creamy texture. The inside of the store is aesthetically appealing, traditional glass cases showcase the pan. I'm so glad to have a nearby bakery and cake shop!

Cafe De Olla Bakery is conveniently located next to Club Pilates, my workout spot. While I am very…read morehappy about this (I love Cafe de Olla in Monrovia), getting coffee and a pastry post-workout might very well become my routine if I don't exercise enough self-control! Like some of the reviews already mentioned, this location is more of a "grab and go" type of place. They have a solid selection of cakes, pastries, and drinks. If you are looking for their full breakfast menu, the Monrovia location down the street is where you would want to go! When I visited, they were celebrating their 1-year anniversary with an outside table of samplers. They had a balloon arch outside to signal to the community that they are celebrating something special as well. The lady out front shared with me what they had to offer, and she also mentioned that they do catering! I like my coffee strong but also on the sweet side. When I asked for the stronger option, I was recommended to get the cappucino rather than the latte and they can make the caffeine a little bit more concentrated without sacrificing the flavor. The cookies were a little dry for my taste but maybe it was because the samplers were sitting outside for a little too long. I would go back just to try the breakfast sandwich, but the experience of grabbing food was pretty fast and the food was flavorful enough! Excited to have a closer Cafe de Olla to me and wishing them so much success!

Ordered a cake here for my best friend's birthday. I'm so glad El Monte has an Asian cake place…read morebecause I hate the heavy frosting of grocery store cakes and could not subject my friends to that. $32 for a 8 inch cake. Great solid cake. Would choose this spot again

I needed a quick additional cake for my kids birthday party to feed all our guest…read more I purchased a half sheet on a whim. I wanted the most basic asian strawberry cake. This cake turned out amazing! Everyone ended up loving this more than the cakes I custom ordered. Thank you for your quick service and delicious cake.

First if they know that they run out of talames by noon why don't they make more???…read moreTheir bread is average and nothing to write home about! The attitude of lady attendant is rude and demeaning! If you pay with credit card only debit card they charge $1 regardless of the charged amount! I would not recommend it!

The bread is old and kinda hard. Not fresh at all. At least the ones i got. Never coming back here.read more

Pastries and desserts are good and standard across all PB locations. Ample parking which is a plus…read more However the negative review pertains to the ineffective management and poor customer service. It's better to come in during the morning because by afternoon, there is a good chance you will see a fly in the glass casing touching all the pastries. Yikes! It's happened on multiple instances. Also, employees do not use gloves when handling pastries whether that be from putting your pastries in bags at checkout, warming it up for you, or bagging individual pastries to be put on shelves. No gloves used. Now for the poor customer service and management.. I believe the unprofessional customer service stems from untrained management as employees are often frazzled and seem clueless on effective time management. If there's more than 2 customers in line, employees suddenly don't know what to do. They go from taking an order to ignoring the next customer in line to go make drinks for 5 minutes then come back. Then while waiting for drinks, people who ordered drinks after me got theirs first. I want to call out two specific employees (1 male with ear piercings and 1 female) on Sunday morning 04/26/26. There was no one else behind me as I ordered 2 drinks one being a frappe. They were conversing the whole time which I don't mind but it hindered and slowed down the timing in making my drinks. While the girl was making my frappe and pouring it in the cup, she STOPPED AND PAUSED TO CONTINUE HER CONVERSATION. while we were standing there just waiting. It's just extremely unprofessional. Also might be a management issue to have poorly trained team members as employees don't seem to stay for long.

I'm going to leave an honest review…read more They are overly stingy with shopping bags and to-go boxes. They stack the bread so much that it gets crushed, and when I asked for a bag, they said they didn't have any. The service is also very slow. The taste of the bread is still the same, though.

Some drinks and bread are good. It really depends on what you get. We've gotten cakes from them and…read morethey have been good overall. Thank goodness we didn't have any of the unpleasant experience that other people seem to encounter. Similar pricing to 85C Bakery & Cafe. Service is okay/fine. Got our drinks within reasonable time. DRINKS: Peach Oolong Tea 4.25/5 Decently good. Tried it when they have a BOGO deal. At 50% sugar, the sweetness level and taste is good. Lemon Cooler 3.9/5 Taste like an Asian Style lemonade. Light and not as tart. SNACKS/DESSERT: Napoleon Egg Tart 4.5/5 $1.49/ea. These are pretty good and the price is lovely. These wave edged egg tarts have a crispy/flaky outer shell (edge) and they're delicious. I like the ones from Little Swan Bakery too, but they're bigger and more expensive ($3.49/ea I believe). Portuguese Egg Tart 4/5 $1/ea. Like the price. This one is not bad just like the ones from Mumoo Cafe, which is also a dollar per piece.

Parking: plaza with a lot of restaurants and bad parkers/drivers parking on the top. There is a…read morelower level area to park. I came here for a cake that I saw on their website but it felt like a diy knockoff. But at this point I didn't want to go to another bakery to get a cake. I got the blueberry yogurt and it didn't match the picture on their website. It was shorter with less fruit and the decorations were smaller. The cake itself was mediocre. The blueberry jam was flavorless and the strawberries were raw, blueberries had a couple that were moldy or not cleaned, and strawberries were sour given that it was strawberry season. It seems like the ingredients weren't sourced very well. There was way too much cream. The checkout person was very friendly and seemed like it was a one woman operation or the owner only hired her for the day. She was working fast but definitely had a back up.

Been here several times and they have a good system in place. If you just want drinks, there are…read moreseveral kiosks available so you can skip the bread line. There are multiple places to find different items so you don't have to wait or squeeze your way in to get the bread you want. Selection depends on what they're baking that day, but everything I've tried has been good. It's spacious with places to sit and eat/drink, and there's a good amount of parking that's shared with the other businesses. I ordered 200+ milk pudding buns for my mother's birthday banquet from this location and they had everything fresh and ready to be picked up that day. Just wish they would bring back the squid ink garlic bread. Lol.

I really want to like this place. First things first. The…read moreplace is very clean, bright and a warm place. The service is friendly and quick enough. I like the presentation of all the pastries and desserts. The drinks are OK but nothing special from what I've tried. Granted I don't drink coffee or much tea so that throws out a lot. These are why it gets 2 stars. Now for the disappointing. While the pastries look great, they have that La Croix feel. The ones that say chocolate have the faintest aftertaste of once being near a cocoa bean. The texture of most of those are perfectly fine, with the rare exception of the partially cooked muffin I just had. Thus is the main gripe I have with this place, the pastries.

I went back to Bluejay because I missed its cake so much…read more With my luck, it had a couple of slices of cake for me to buy. I got the black sesame cake, mango, rose, and durian. All of them tasted good and had a balanced flavor. Although the hours are kind of odd, it was totally worth it.

A small hidden spot!…read more We came to get other things but stopped by for their huge cookie! For $4 we got the rocky road cookie. It was delicious, soft and chewy and crunchy outer border. They also had very fancy cakes and cake slices for sale.