Ninong's Pastries and Cafe

I held on to a Groupon voucher for sometime for Ninong's Pastries. They talked about Ube pancakes; ube for those of you who never heard of it, is a purple yam. I am not crazy about it but a lot of Filipinos like them. After our workout at the gym 2 weeks ago, I decided to take Sandi to experiment on this restaurant which I have read about. At 7:30 a.m. I drove all the way to Granada Hills. That drive on the 405 Fwy. was a nightmare. It took us almost 2 hours! We finally go there and saw what we liked. A cute cafe with some pastries displayed.

I couldn't contain my excitement when I saw a few familiar Filipino delicacies on the menu. We ordered the typical breakfast with was Fried Garlic Rice with Eggs and Longanisa (Philippine pork sausage), and Tocino, meat prepared with a special marinade. These meats are great, usually eaten dipped in vinegar with crushed garlic. We split the 2 varieties of pork to go with the disappointing garlic fried rice. The rice was not cooked right, I think it was fresh rice they used because it was mushy. Fried rice should never be mushy that is why it best to cook it with old rice. I had her order the Hot Chocolate which was from the Philippines. When I asked her how it was she said it was just o.k. so I had a sip and thought it was bad, only because it was unsweetened. This is not your typical chocolate drink, this is a lot stronger and if unsweetened, it taste bitter. With some splenda, it was drinkable.

We had to order the Mango Pancakes. It looked better than it tasted. They were heavy pancakes with something mango but much to sweet. We didn't finish the one order. I had to try the Egg pie which I used to love. It was just o.k. Sandi liked the Buko pie which is "young" coconut custard pie.

There were many other items on the menu but I doubt I would drive all the way back there judging from our recent experience. I am confident that there are far better Filipino restaurants close to home. The saving grace was we discovered a very good Mediterranean Meat Market across the street. We bought some ground chicken and beef with the typical spices they mix in it. Sandi cooked it that evening and it was outstanding.