Porto's Bakery and Cafe, Glendale

This place is the best thing to happen since sliced bread... oh wait, they have sliced bread here too! If you've never been to Porto's or even heard of it, I suggest you listen in, and listen well friends. This place is nothing short of AMAZING. It's packed like a sardine can from the time they open to the time they close with offering such as authentic cuban sandwiches, cuban pastries, and other various delights as well! But the best part? It is SO affordable. You can get high end cakes and desserts at such a great price, which is the heart of why they have been so successful. I mean lunch for $3.00? You have got to be kidding me, especially in times like these, Porto's has maintained great business and great, delicious, amazing, incredibly, delightful food (I could have used about 20 more adjectives there)! Only problem is that it's quite far from where I live, that's why one trip equals us practically buying the whole store to bring home and live on for the next couple weeks!

Maariquitas: homemade plantain chips, lightly salted and served with a side of Cuban garlic sauce. This is what they serve with their sandwiches (a perfect accompaniment), and they were so good I bought some to bring home. ($2.15 for a large box with side of sauce)
Meat pie/ Pastel de Carne: delicious and crispy puff pastry filled with seasoned ground beef. Kind of reminds me of something we Vietnamese eat, but a different and equally delicious version. ($7.95 for one dozen)
Papa rellenas/ Potato Balls: Mashed potatoes filled with seasoned ground beef, lightly breaded, then fried to a golden crisp. One of their most popular items and definitely one of my favorites! How could you go wrong with deep fried starch and protein? ($35 for 50 balls)
Italian Cheesecake: Thin layers of white sponge cake, soaked with rum, marscapone cheese, and fresh pears. Basically the only kind of cheesecake my sister will eat because it uses marscapone rather than cream cheese, but this was BEYOND delicious! So creamy and sweet, one of my favorites. ($2.50)
Parisian Chocolate Cake: Devil's food chocolate cake, layered and decorated with chocolate whipped cream and finished with chocolate shavings. We bought this one for my godfather, who is a chocoholic. Though I didn't get to try it myself, he did comment on its amazing-ness multiple times! ($2.50)
Tiramisu: Thin layers of white sponge cake (soaked with espresso) and cream cheese mousse. This one I actually did not like too much. I love, love, love tiramisu but this one was just alright, nothing spectacular. ($3.50)
Mango Mousse Cheesecake: New York style cheesecake with a sponge cake bottom and fresh mango cheese filling. This was by far my favorite of ALL, it was amazingly creamy and filled with fresh mango flavor that was so strong! Basically if you love mango, you would die for this. ($2.50)
Opera: Almond sponge cake soaked in coffee, a layer of chocolate ganache, a layer of mocha buttercream, and topped with chocolate. Another one that I did not absolutely love, I'm sure if Opera's are your thing than you would love this, but I just wasn't that much of a fan of the taste. It was beautiful to look at though. ($2.50)
Tres Leches: yellow sponge cake soaked in a three milk sauce topped with toasted meringue. This was so cute but delicious as well. I love a good tres leches, but I don't think that anything can ever top the tres leches from Felix's Continental Cafe!

FOR LUNCH:

The Ropa Vieja: Cuban style shredded beef sandwich with bell peppers, onions, and tomato sauce on Cuban bread. Really delicious, tender shredded meat! I don't know what else to say that can describe this any better. ($6.55)
The Medianoche: The most famous classic Cuban sandwich filled with slow roasted pork, ham, swiss cheese, butter, mayo, mustard, and pickles on a sweet roll. I love myself a good medianoche, like the one I had at Milk, but this one was really exceptional. The melted, gooey cheese and crisp, tangy pickle really did me in for it! ($ 3.65)
The Pan con Bistec: marinated steak with grilled onions, potato sticks, tomatoes and garlic sauce on Cuban bread. This was insane as well, the steak was so incredibly tender and the crispy potato sticks added new depth that was delicious! I have no picture sorry folks! ($6.55)