Porto’s Bakery & Cafe

On Saturday, the wife and I decided to go check out the new Americana shopping center in Glendale. If you are from LA and have never been to the Americana, you aren’t missing much. It is essentially the same thing as The Grove. I wasn’t blown away by the shops and restaurants in that area. However, I was blown away by the ridiculous prices of their condominiums (1.228 million dollars for a 2 bedroom / 2 bathroom unit, PLUS $1250 in Home Owner’s Association fees). Anyway, after laughing my way through their front door, we took a stroll about 3-4 blocks north to Porto’s, our favorite bakery in Los Angeles.

Last year, I had a four day training seminar across the street from Porto’s, so I stocked up with yummy pastries and baked goods. Needless to say, I was the world’s best hubby that week. We’ve had Porto’s numerous times in the past. Our favorite items were the Potato Balls and the cheese rolls…I don’t know the official names, I just point at them and say “1 dozen please” and that’s that. For this particular Saturday though, we kind of struck out. They were complete sold out of both our favorite items, so we decided to go experiment with some of their sweets.

This was the “Tres Leches” cake, which is essentially made of three types of milk: evaporated milk, condensed milk, and either whole milk or cream. It’s consistency is very similar to that of Tiramisu. Although this was a tad sweeter than I’m used to, I really enjoyed every bite of it.

I normally love creme brulee, but this one in particular was a bit of a disappointment. It was a bit too soggy for me to be honest. I like my creme brulee a bit firmer and not too creamy. The caramelized sugar was practically non-existent. It tasted more like the caramel syrup. One good thing to note is that the level of sweetness was just right.

Oreo Cheesecake was a bit too rich for my taste. Thing is, I only like one type of cheesecake, “Banana Cream” Cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory. So all other cheesecakes pale in comparison to that one. This isn’t bad, but I’m just not a Oreo cheesecake type of guy whatsoever.

I actually don’t know what this cake is called. The flaky parts tasted like a croissant and it had layers of vanilla custard, whipped cream and it was topped with a layer of powdered sugar. Not too bad, but not fantastic. I don’t think I care to revisit this one again any time soon.

This cheesecake was rather light and tangy, almost fruity. I just couldn’t tell what type of fruit it was. It had a sweet glaze on top and the inside was fluffy and soft. Overall, pretty tasty. Unfortunately, like I mentioned before, I’m not really a cheesecake kind of guy.

The triple chocolate mousse was actually very good. The only thing about chocolate (at least for me) is that I can’t really have too much. I get overwhelmed with chocolate very easily so I get kind of sick. It was a tad sweeter that I normally like, but I wouldn’t mind having it again, in smaller doses.

Overall, my only reason for giving Porto’s 5 of 5 is because no one makes Potato Balls and Cheese Rolls better than them. It is rather unfortunate that they didn’t have it available on this trip, but there will be other ones down the road…maybe as soon as next month. As far as the sweets are concerned, the only one I truly enjoyed was the “tres leches”. It just has a very different texture and flavor compared to the rest of the pastries I tried.

Porto’s Bakery and Cafe
315 North Brand Blvd.
Glendale, CA 91203
tel. (818) 956-5996
fax (818) 956-0696
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3614 W Magnolia Blvd.
Burbank, CA 91505
(818) 846-9100

Cheese Rolls and Potato Balls are THE BEST
Tres Leches is worth a flyer
Some days you get very long lines at the bakery
Lots of indoor seating and some outdoor seating as well