while heading west on J...
There was a new Cuban place open in Chula Vista that I hadn't known about. Los Pollos Cuban Bakery is located in the strip mall next to the Grocery Outlet (formerly the old Seafood City), between Quintard and Palomar. It's in the corner next to the Teriyaki place.
It looked familiar because it used to be a crappy Filipino bakery that TC and I visited a few years ago. I don't know when Star Bakery went out of business, but now Los Pollos took its place.
They've been there for about three months now according to the friendly owner, a nice Cuban gentleman.
It's very small inside. There are two cases (now mostly empty), filled with savory meat pies and sweets, along with cakes and other desserts.
Seating is very limited. There are only two narrow counters with three chairs on each side. Outside, there are several narrow tables that only seat two.
This was their last menu and it must have gotten wet and then dried that way because when the guy opened up the trifold, it was all messed up and torn.
We decided to eat in (since seating was available)...Four empanadas (missing was the Cheese and Onions). I got one of each flavor, Chicken, Spinach, Beef and a spicy Chicken version.
Unlike their menu photo of the empanadas, these were baked and not fried. It would've tasted better fried. The empanadas were served warm but the baked shell was not appealing to me. It was dry and kind of bland.
Bert liked the spicy chicken the best, surprisingly (the owner said it was a mix of jalapeno, serrano and habanero peppers in there). I liked the beef but we probably would have liked these much better if they were fried. Maybe there were baked since it keeps better than fried?
I originally ordered a double shot cortadito. The guy said, "How about "Miami Style" instead?" to which I replied why not. Turns out that Miami style is coffee with evaporated and condensed milks.
It was super sweet but also super hot. I had to wait for it to cool down. The guy was eager to see if I liked it or not.
Our dinner trio - Cuban sandwich that Bert and I shared. The mangled quartet of empanadas (ordered knowing there would be leftovers) and TC's Chicken Bowl.
The sandwich was $5.95 and chock full of meats (ham, pork), pickles, swiss cheese and mustard on crusty bread sliced on an extreme angle.
Delicious!
The chicken bowl was a lot of food (chicken, beans, onions, and rice at the bottom). TC barely made a dent in this.
TC's drink was the apple flavord Postobon, while Bert had the Ironbeer drink (not an alcoholic drink) which was too syrupy for his liking. It kind of tasted medicinal which equals not so good for me.
As we were finishing up dinner, the owner came by with a plate of complimentary cheese pastry rolls. He said, "This is for you, please enjoy". Wow, this was an unexpected treat.
The flaky pastries were overflowing with cream cheese and were a nice way to cap off our dinner with these treats. Although they aren't quite as good as Porto's, I'm happy that there's a Cuban cheese roll close to home. Second to Porto's is Azucar Patisserie's version which is more refined.
I bought a few more pastries for us to take home. A large group came in after us and bought out all of the pastelitos de carne (meat pies with ground beef) and the mango pastries too. Dammit all to hell!
I consoled myself by getting these four (sniff, sniff). The coconut pastry (Bert really liked this):
Guava and cheese:
Another cheese roll...
And since I couldn't get the mango, I got roll with mango and cheese. A good combination.
The pastries were kind of flat but tasted all right. My favorite was the mango with cheese followed by the guava with cheese. I'm thinking of getting my sister the coconut pastry for her upcoming birthday (along with an assortment of other coconut items).
So that was last night.
Earlier this afternoon, TC and I went out for lunch and did a few errands in the area. Since we were close by...I thought we should stop by and get the pastries we didn't get the night before.
Here is a look at that stripmall - Subway, nails, barber, laundromat, and random 99 cent store (more on that in another post)...
Here's a better shot of the signage in the daytime. Looks better than the shitty night post through my car's lovely dirty window.
There's the limited seating I told you about earlier. It was kind of wierd eating facing out.
The cake case. The blue one and the rainbow sprinkle one wasn't there the night before. The pacman looking cake was lemon mousse, the other was mango mousse.
The owner remembered us from the night before and thanked us for returning. While bagging up our trio of meat pies (yes!), and duuo of ham and cheese croquetas, he said he wanted to give me a slice of cake, on the house (chocolate mousse it was).
Another nice gesture, but I know he also wanted to get rid of the last few pieces. I remembered seeing that cake the night before, ha ha. Like last night, there were no mango pastries. I didn't want to wait for the new batch which gives us another reason to visit. We definitely have to try their family special (buy 2 chickens, get 1 free, and it comes with tortillas and two sides).
The croquettes had a nice breaded coating and were filled with chopped ham and onions. Bert liked it more than me.
Here's that free cake slice...
What I liked best was the cake layers which were very very moist. It tasted like dulce de leche! The mousse itself had a faint chocolate flavor. I was expecting it to be more chocolatey.
The meat pies...
It was more puff pastry with not much meat (it could have used more seasoning) Not sure if I would get this again. Bert thought the meat was more pasty than ground beef crumbled texture. Maybe this is how it's supposed to be? I could probably make this better (seriously, I will give it a go!).
The worker was really nice and I noticed he is friendly with all of his customers. The night before was a diverse mix of Mexicans, a family from the Bronx, and as we left, Filipinos other than us.
Here is my post on Star Bakery (the previous incarnation of this establishment):
December 2013
Their stuff sucked!
Los Pollos Cuban Bakery
1372 3rd Ave
Chula Vista, CA 91911
(619) 870-1225
There is no website but here is the mixed bag o' reviews from you know where (listed as Los Pollos Rotisserie & Cuban Bakery).
6 comments:
I just went to a Cuban place on Friday, too! But I went to one up in Point Loma. I remember I tried to go to Star Bakery before but it was closed. Bummer the empanadas are baked, they don't look quite as good. The pastries look good though and the cubano looks good. Nice that he remembered you and gave you a free slice! :)
You didn't miss anything when it was Star Bakery. They sucked.
Los Pollos has promise thiugh. I wish they had better seating. That cake slice was pretty good.they should really fry their empanadas.
The empanadas looks so fat and plump. I can't remember if I've had a baked or fried on in the past though. I was laughing at the 'extreme' cut of the cuban sandwich. That is a funny way to slice the sandwich in half. Nice observation about the free slice of cake - I'll have to notice that next time I get a dessert on the house :)
The empanadas might have looked nice but baked doesn't taste as good as fried. The extreme slice for the Cuban sandwich is actually traditional.
Yeah, freebies of stuff means getting rid of day olds, haha.
I've seen two types of empanadas dough in freezer cases- one for frying and one for baking...never looked at ingredient differences. I went to Starry once- you'll notice I didn't post about it... Will be back in this area soon and will stop in, it looks good.
I haven't noticed that before, so that is good to know. Star Bakery was dismal. I was on a mission to go to all of the Filipino bakeries in South Bay to try their hopias. They were not at the top of the list. Yes, give Los Pollos a try. I need to actually their their namesake too, ha ha.
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