Porto's Bakery & Cafe

One visit to this Cuban family-owned bakery, which started as a modest cake business in Echo Park in the 1980s, and you'll be making excuses week after week to come back for fresh-out-of-the-oven cheese rolls, decadent fruit tortes and pies, authentic Cuban sandwiches, and flaky chicken empanadas. Perhaps what they're best known for, though, is the potato balls—stuffed mashed potatoes fill with ground beef and fried to a beautiful golden brown. If you're in the market for a birthday cake, Porto's has exceptional deals on cakes as well (the tres leches is tops). Can't make it to the Glendale spot? Other locations include Burbank and Downey.