Merengue Bakery & Cafe — Restaurant in Monrovia

It's like your friendly neighborhood Porto's, but without the long lines, without waiting for parking, and definitely without people ordering hundreds of cheese rolls for a party just to impress other middle-aged women.

Granted the selection is more limited than Porto's (Porto's simply has a mind-boggling selection) , it's actually quite extensive if you consider their whole menu. Everything I've tried so far has satisfied me, if not impressed, and I haven't even tried their breakfast foods (the best kind of food according to many, including myself). Staff is friendly and prices are fair... Well so is Porto's i guess. Ok enough comparisons to Porto's- that's the last time I'll mention "Porto's".

Eating my rellenos in their cozy front patio listening to some awesome young no-name indie cover band with our phones tucked away is slowly becoming my new pastime. Is that normal millennial behavior? I don't care.

Not really any good way to segue into this, but you gotta try their carrot cake ball if you're a fan of carrot cakes, a fan of ball-shaped foods (read: rellenos), or just a fan of the yummy things in life. The form factor is amusingly offputting (I've yet to ask if they make the cake first, then form it into a ball, or if it's made into a ball in the batter stage- former method would be funny amirite?), but the taste and texture are memorable enough that I'm writing an entire paragraph about carrot cake.

Try them out one afternoon. Grab a seat (or bench) outside and listen to some kids expertly cover a song way before their time. People-watching and car-spotting included at no charge! These are all things that cannot be achieved at that other bakery, because let's be real, you can't "try out" Porto's- that's like saying I'll "try out Disneyland".

Oops, there goes the...

Wish there were zero starts to offer. Ordered my wife's 40th birthday cake two weeks in advance. 8 days BEFORE the event my mother in law died (non Covid related). I called merengue to cancel my order and received a "I'm sorry. But our company policy since Covid is no cancellations or refunds. But we can give you store credit. We understand life happens". Heartless response. The cake hadn't even been made yet...this was 8 days in advance. No other choice but to take credit. None of their invoices or communication noted during ordering disclosed their "cancellation policy". I ended up keeping the cake order as we would be celebrating her birthday even in the midst of grieving. My assistant called to confirm the cake order five days in advance. Merengue had the wrong date down. If we hadn't called we would have had nothing. Day of pickup we arrived at pickup time. We were told the cake was coming from Orange County and they would be an hour late. Cake showed up thirty minutes later. Cake had numerous defects and was NOT what we ordered or paid for. At this point we needed SOMETHING so had the cake defects corrected which looked horrible and their corrections started to drip down the cake. Paid $220 for the cake which was late, defected and not what we ordered. After talking to Ricky he said "the owner" would offer $50 refund for decoration error. When I asked if they could meet half way for the poor service he declined.

We ordered numerous cakes from merengue in the past for our family functions and were sad to see such horrible disheartening service. From previous reviews looks like Ricky and the team have recently failed other customers as well.

Do yourself a favor and take your...

For the past 2 weeks I've been coming here every morning because I myself am a manager at restaurant near,the customer service was fine and I had no issues but today I got the worst experience from this place, I ordered a cold sandwich and I usually get them warmed up,the lady usually ask me if I want it warmed but this time they didn't, I asked kindly if I could get it warmed up she said the oven is not working. I had no issues then asked if I could cancel the order and get a refund ,she proceeded to roll her eyes and tell me I couldn't get a refund, l demanded a refund because I didn't want a cold sandwich, then she walked toward her coworker but made it noticeable she didn't wanna give me a refund for some reason ,as the other worker was giving me the refund the worker that rolled her eyes at me was giving a lady her order and the lady asked her nicely which was the different drink because she ordered 3 ,2 were the same and 1 was different, the worker once again roll her eyes at the lady and completely ignored her and started talking and gossiping with the girl refunding my order after a minute she went back to the lady and she told her rudely said the one on the right was different. This was the most unprofessional and most rude costumer service experience,rolling eyes should never be done as a manager this shouldn't be tolerated.Definitely not coming back. I have heard other complaints,but I would talk great about this place until today. It seems like other costumer's are right. I will be returning back to cafe de olla they for sure...