Zambales Bakery

Too bad I will never try their bread. The woman in charge is such a GRUMPY PANTS!!!
I used their SDGE service to pay my bill and she was the WORST and I’m not exaggerating.
I asked her why she was so rude? And she answered:
«YOU NO LIKE, DONT COME HERE»
that was her answer, Iiterally had to hold the $ to my face to make her acknowledge me…
I gave her no reason to be rude. I’m a polite and patient person… will never eat her bread!!!
I hope her bread is better than her customer service skills… I’m sure I will post future reviews so far this woman has been the worst!

The pan de sal here are phenomenal! Soft, pillowy, airy with the perfect hint of salt & sugar. I can easily eat a dozen in a seating and have done so many times over ;p
The banana bread here is also exceptional. Always fresh & moist!
The location of this bakery is odd. Tucked away within Vinh Hung Spuermarket. It’s hard to spot from the streets. So look for Vinh Hung Supermarket. Upon entering the supermarket, turn left. Zambales Bakery is in the hallway. The sign above says «Julia’s Desserts & Bakery». All quite confusing I know.
If you can’t make it to the bakery itself, Seafood City in San Diego and Los Angeles also carry Zambales baked goods. Lucky Seafood in Mira Mesa also carry their products. But it’s worth it to find the bakery itself & get everything fresh from the oven :)

Not sure why the place is called «Zambales Bakery» when their store sign clearly reads «Julie’s Desserts»? Maybe that’s what it was called when the first person to review this place put it on the Unilocal map.
If you plug the address in your GPS, it will lead you to a Vietnamese supermarket. This is not an accident, the store is located within the supermarket. During my visit, I noticed a nearly empty display case but racks, and racks, and racks of fresh-​baked pan de sal.
I bought one to sample. It was pretty good. Not as good as Valerio’s and definitely not as good as Philippine Bread House (Jersey City). I didn’t try the hopia because they only had packaged versions available, and I wasn’t comfortable committing to 6 hopia without sampling.
I also noticed that they sell women’s clothing here too. It was only a few racks, but it was confusing. I wasn’t sure if it was traditional Vietnamese or Chinese garb. It definitely wasn’t Filipino.
Parking can be a situation if you’re making a weekend visit. But if you’re here on the weekend, you might as well make an event out of it and do your grocery shopping here too.
Kill those birds…

Gosh darn their hopia is amazing! The baboy is my favorite. Can’t get enough of it!
Their buko pie reminded me of the Philippines. Very close to authentic! I could almost see myself back in the windy city of Tagaytay and buying directly from the stores near the main road.
Too bad it’s so far from where I live. Seafood City in National City started selling their hopia for 2x the price. I guess I just have to live with that

I LOVE the Pandesal. It’s bigger than the others, it’s fresh, and the texture and the color of it is outstanding. Usually the pandesal are a bit tan. but this is white. I mean it does have the hint of tan of the oven, but it still is amazingly yummy.