My sister and I drove up to Ventura today to pick up our Color Run Racepacks for the race tomorrow, and decided to drop by Glendale on the way to visit Porto’s Bakery to see what all the hype was about.
We arrived around 1pm in the afternoon, parking isn’t the easiest, but we were lucky enough to find a spot right outside the bakery. It was still pretty crowded, and there was a queue. Fortunately, the queue was not as long as I had expected after reading tons of reviews on the place. The line moved quickly, and minutes later, we were attended to. They’ve got cases full of baked goods from croissants, to danishes, to cupcakes, to napoleons, truly a feast for the eyes.
Since it was my first time here, I took quite some time to decide what I wanted. The way the store system works is sort of in a way that you definitely know what you want the minute you’re being helped, and I felt bad for the gentleman serving me. However, he was very patient, and helped me make my choices by recommending what was good. I ended up getting the Rollito De Queso/Cheese Roll ($1.70) as there were many raved reviews online, the almond croissant ($1.15), an opera cake ($2.95), a potato ball ($0.90) and a chicken croquette ($0.90). The total bill was $6.76 after taxes.
The thing that I feel makes this bakery is so successful are the low prices. I mean who else can compete with these prices. All the Almond Croissants and Cheese Danishes I’ve paid for are easily $3-$8, yet alone $1+? I would admit my idea of prices on goods have been screwed up by Singapore as everything is so expensive there, but even in California, I’ve not come across such prices.
We got our food to go, and drove back to Pasadena. Upon reaching home, we attacked the Potato Ball and Chicken Croquette first. I had high expectations on this potato ball, as that’s all people can seem to talk about in reviews, that and the Guava Cheese Roll. I’m kind of a potato ball virgin so I had no idea what to expect, I was just expecting it to taste good. For the other potato ball virgins out there, the Porto’s Bakery Potato Ball is basically a bite sized shepherd’s pie. It’s got your shepherd’s pie filling right in the middle, coated by a thin layer of mashed potato and then lightly breaded and fried. Even though I didn’t have the Potato Ball immediately, it was still nice and crisp when I got home, I could distinctly hear the crust slowly crack open as I used my knife to cut into it. The breading was not too thick which I loved (don’t really like it when I’m eating dough), the ratio of potatoes to filling was nice too, the potatoes were soft and creamy, while the filling was seasoned well. It has nice textures, from the crunch on the outside, to the soft potatoes, to the crunchy celery in the filling and nicely cooked ground beef. All in all, a good impression, you can’t really complain with that for $0.90.
However, I can only say the opposite of the Chicken Croquette. Apart from it’s lovely golden brown fry on the outside from the panko-like breading, the filling was really weird. You couldn’t feel the variance in textures between the chicken or the potato or whatever else they put in there. I usually like my croquettes with textures where you can feel all the different surprises on the inside (so maybe it’s just me). I just found the texture really odd.
The Opera Cake could’ve been executed a lot more skillfully. The chocolate layer on the top was way too thick, and it made it difficult to put my fork through to get all the layers. The sponge was light but slightly dry, and would’ve been nicer if the sponge was soaked with espresso while the cake was being assembled. The ratio of chocolate to sponge to pastry cream could also have been improved, with the layer of pastry cream be thinner. Definitely not the best I’ve had. I didn’t finish half the cake
My sister was the one who had the cheese roll, I didn’t get a chance to try it but it didn’t look too impressive. The puff pastry did not look that appetizing, and the whole roll as a whole looked poor in assembly and didn’t have any wow factor to it. The cheese danish at Urth Caffe looks alot better.
Porto’s Bakery is probably a good place for average desserts at a great price, the potato ball was the stand out. I’ll probably go back and give other things a shot, maybe their sandwiches, but not anytime soon, and definitely would not be getting the Opera Cake or the Cheese Roll.
Porto’s Bakery
315 N Brand Boulevard
Glendale, CA 91203
3614 W Magnolia Boulevard
Burbank, CA 91505
8233 Firestone Boulevard
Downey, CA 90241
The Little Gastronomer 