Cerritos: Leelin Bakery

Leelin Bakery is a Filipino family restaurant and bakery located across the street from the Cerritos Mall. It used to be the home to Goldilocks Bakery. That’s because Leelin used be part of the Goldilocks company.

In 2014, after 37 years operating under the Goldilocks brand, Mendrei Leelin, along with his brother and nephew, decided to part ways with their aunts’ iconic Filipino company to start their own establishment, Leelin Bakery.

You can still find traditional Filipino food, from the Philippine’s national dish, adobo – stewed pork or chicken in cane vinegar, bay leaves and soy sauce – along with popular the noodle dishes such as pancit – sauteed rice noodles with meat and vegetables.

They’ve added some fusion dishes, but overall, you really can’t tell you’re not at Goldilocks, except the iconic blue and yellow interior is gone, now replaced with a dark, mocha interior.  Also, check in on Yelp and get a 10% discount.

The portions are larger than Goldilocks, as we found out when Karen and I went for dinner. We shared an order of the lumpia, a Filipino style eggroll, an order of the chicken adobo, and an order of the Pancit Bihon noodles.

The lumpia came out piping hot and crispy. Even though it was fried, it wasn’t overly greasy.

The adobo, however, was a vat of grease. A layer of grease could be seen as we spooned the chicken and the addictive sauce on to our plate. The chicken was disappointing, as there were mostly bones and little meat. Overprice for what we got. It would have been easier to just ask for the sauce, and skip the meat.

The pancit was the best of the 3… large portion, enough for 4 people, perfectly cooked noodles with vegetables and meat.

Like any good Filipino place, you need rice to go your meal. Carbs? what carbs! They do charge you for the rice per person, but if you want to watch your carbs, you can get 1 serving of rice or garlic rice for $1.50.

There was too much food for the 2 of us, and we took home leftovers. It probably one of the most unhealthiest meal I had for the week… If I were watching what I was eating I would probably have to count it as 2 “cheat” days. Fortunately, I don’t count days.

If you’re still craving the real Goldilocks, they opened a store down the street at 17218 Norwalk Blvd.