Porto’s Bakery & Cafe

The legend of Porto’s extends well beyond California, as residents and expats alike have been singing the Los Angeles Cuban bakery’s praises for generations, and deservedly so. We’d be the first ones to say something if this chain – now six locations strong, with a seventh coming to Disneyland in 2025 – was overhyped, but it’s truly the real deal, and worth experiencing at least once in person.

“Overwhelming” typically isn’t a word used to describe bakeries, but Porto’s scope is staggering: The Buena Park location feels more like multiple small restaurants in a single building than a single bakery. And from a purely culinary standpoint, their substantially but not exclusively Cuban offerings are frequently awesome. Even their surprisingly famous potato balls (fried papas rellenas with panko outside and ground beef inside), which are especially popular among their many nationally-shipped items, are tasty enough to become addictive.

Whether you’re there for breakfast (Spanish-style torrejas french toast made with croissants dough and guava sauce), lunch (Cubano, Medianoche, and Pan con Lechon pork sandwiches), or a snack (empanadas, croquettes, fruit tartlets, mini cakes, croissants), every single item has clearly been considered and prepared to look and taste handmade. The Buena Park location offers a selection of full-sized cakes for take-out and miniature cakes to eat on the spot, each gorgeous, as well as a coffee shop with bottled cold and handmade hot drinks.

Even if the sheer scale of the bakery requires some degree of mass production, you can see bakers behind windows individually assembling cakes, and although the breakfast/lunch food operations move slowly, their kitchens are turning out hot, delicious meals. So yes, Porto’s is a factory, but it’s somehow a very human one – at least for its employees – despite its size.

That having been said, the customer experience at the Buena Park Porto’s could really use some work. Although the prices are excellent and the counter-only service is generally friendly, guests should anticipate waiting in an extended line just to get inside the building, then multiple additional lines with separate cashiers to procure food and drinks.