I hung out with a couple of Yelp friends at the Citadel Outlets, and from there, we decided to go to Mexes Cafe. One of them had been before and invited us to go along with her.
Mexes Cafe is located in East LA, a part of town I wasn't familiar with, so I almost thought parking would either have been one of two four-letter words that starts with "p-a-i"^. Luckily, they told me it wasn't, so off we went to Mexes Cafe.
From Citadel Outlets, I took the 5 and 710 North before exiting at Ford Blvd, taking a left at Floral, and then pulling into the small parking lot right before hitting Eastern. If you take the same route I took, don't go straight on Floral; otherwise, I would have gotten back on the freeway.
How small is the parking lot? Pretty small that it can hold only about 15 cars tops. However, even with the three of us in separate cars, the lot was only about half full when we arrived on a Saturday at about 4:30 PM. There are two entry points into this lot, one on Floral and one on Eastern. I can't be certain it's wide enough for two cars to pass each other; if it is, it'd be a tight squeeze.
The other two were interested in a latte art, which would have entailed having to scan a QR code by the register and going through the process of selecting the desired artwork. While probably not arduous, I didn't feel like going through the trouble, so I simply went with an iced chai latte. Actually, I was looking for something non-caffeinated, but the barista, Angel, mentioned that only the options from the kids menu were non-caffeinated. It was getting kind of late in the day, but since it wasn't *that* late, I figured a chai latte would keep me company for the next hour and a half.
I asked Angel how long the wait would be, and she estimated five minutes, which was spot on.
The first friend who recommended Mexes got there first and placed an order of a Mazapan Latte with a latte art that resembled an anime character. The other friend got a Strawberry Matcha using art from a photo of a caricature that we had just gotten from the Citadel Outlets. However, he made a mistake and got my caricature on his drink when he was trying to use his caricature instead. It made for quite an awkward moment where he'd be drinking my face LOL.
But wow, they nailed the latte art of my face perfectly! Well, at least the caricature version of me lol. As he was drinking the Strawberry Matcha, my caricature remained mostly intact for a lot of the time we spent there.
How did my iced chai latte taste? It tasted great! Exactly what I was expecting out of a chai latte, which used to be a guilty pleasure of mine around when the pandemic hit.
We enjoyed hanging out at the cafe for over an hour until they closed at 6 PM, but they didn't really kick us out. They politely let us know it was just about closing time and gave us ample time to gather our belongings and use the restroom prior to leaving.
Mexes was a great spot to just chillax after spending the majority of our afternoon at the outlet mall. However, I did have some gripes about our visit there.
First and foremost, the music inside was too loud. For a cafe, the music should have been way softer that it kind of got hard to hear my friends, though we certainly weren't trying to shout over the music.
Second, the table I was sitting at was pretty rocky and unstable. The cup I was given for my iced chai latte didn't have a lid, and I was getting nervous that I'd spill the drink all over the table. I had to hold the cup to ensure I wouldn't.
Lastly, my drink had quite a bit of ice inside. A little less maybe next time please?
Service from Angel was quite good I thought. She was also pretty helpful in addressing my friend's questions about the latte art and how to submit the desired artwork to use on his drink. However, I was a little perplexed that I couldn't get a printed receipt, even when the order tablet gave an option to print. She mentioned it could be texted or emailed to me; I chose to enter my phone number into the tablet to receive the receipt.
Mexes Cafe also has a stamp card where if you purchase 5 drinks, your 6th one is free, which is quite generous I must say! At other shops, you'd have to purchase almost twice as many drinks to get the free one.
They do have some eats, but at the time we visited, they only had pastries, which I wasn't in the mood for. However, I noticed on their Toast ordering page that they offer pozole and birria on weekends only? Something worth asking if you go earlier in the day than we did.
Overall, a good solid cafe to visit. I don't go to East LA, so I can't be certain of when my next visit will be, but if I lived nearby, especially within walking distance, I'd almost certainly be a regular. My other two friends live closer, and I can definitely see them making return visits to this cafe whenever they swing by the area.
^ If you're not sure what either of the last letters are, it's the 4th and 14th letters of the alphabet. read more