Red Ribbon Bakeshop

This is a solid cake shop. We always order or pick up the mango cake and it’s always a crowd pleaser. People love it. It’s kind of pricey but the cake is really light, airy, and the icing and mango is not too sweet. Service is fast and smooth, the inside of the shop is clean and well lit.

Great place to get cheap Filipino pastries. The Halo Halo was great! The place isn’t that big, but the service is fast. If you want to get cheap baked goods then come to this place.

Red Ribbon has so much potential given the brand and their unique chiffon cakes, but unfortunately whoever is managing this particular location, is running it into the ground.
I’ll start with the positive:
Various family members and I have ordered cakes here for special occasions and generally the cakes have been a crowd pleaser. We’ve had their Ube (purple yam) cake, an incredibly purple chiffon cake that is light and moist with a pleasing Ube flavor. We’ve recently ordered the mango cake and this time the mango flavor was a bit lacking but the light fluffy texture makes up for it. The cake also keeps well after a few days. Not to be a killjoy (I got that word from my Dad), but we think there must be tons of preservatives that allows the cake to remain «fresh,» just like a Twinkie. I suppose we will never know…
I also like their mamon (mini butter chiffon cakes), ensaymada (sweet bread topped with butter, grated cheese, and sugar.), and their pan da sal buns. These serve as handy snacks.
Now for the negative:
What I find really odd here is the presence of hot Filipino entrées (including Diniguan!) The food is not made on the premises and is simply microwaved by the cashier. Where it comes from, nobody knows. Bad idea and they should stop selling this immediately. This is what gives Filipino food a bad name.
The employees here are bored kids who basically need a kick in the butt. A smile or a greeting would be nice. We recently ordered a cake here and when we arrived the writing on the cake was not prepared. They waited until we got there. Customer service needs a serious overhaul.
The Jersey City location seems to be doing well. Perhaps the owner here should ask them for some advice.

1.6 stars, for review in stars see below the WOT (Wall Of Text.) If this place only served baked goods/​drinks, I would have given it a 3. I wish to give it a 1 for the dinguan alone however.
Hot food was bad. Had the dinugan (pork blood/​innards) stew whose flavor was spicy but one-​dimensional and just well not tasty. It made me a little sick afterward also. The rice with it was flavorless which did not help. Also had a siopao (pork bun) which was ok… reminded me of a poorly flavored char siu bao with less meat and more bread. The other person if I remember right had chicken teryaki (the same as any Japanese takeout albeit less flavorful.) I found it weird that this was better than the Filipino food.
Hot food is only worth it as it comes with a choice of a piece of one of their cakes. Ube Macapuno (Purple Yam [aka Taro]/Coconut) cake was great. Also left with a Halo-​Halo (hard to describe in general English) for dessert, kinda like a Taiwanese dish that I can’t remember put into a parfait. Weirdly flavored but solid.
Inside was nice and they were nice enough towards white people (unlike some places around there) but the hospitality reminded me of a McDonalds with some random Filipino guy instead of some either Hispanic or out of work/​in college Caucasian student.
Hot food
Blood pudding stew: –3 stars (0 star dish –1 for the rice and –2 for making me sick)
Siopao: 0 star, good sized bun… due to the excess breading, meat inside was meh as well)
Chicken Teryaki: 2 stars (yes…the random Chinese takeout style Chicken Teryaki was better than the Fillipino food.)
Desserts:
Ube Macapuno cake: 3 stars, best thing by far
Halo-​Halo: 2.0 stars, ok
⁴⁄₂₅
or 1.6 stars
In short, stick with desserts or you might regret it. If you wish to experiment, get a Halo-​Halo as well.

To Filipinos who long for the sweet Ube cake that their manang manay crafted at home, this place is a half baked paradise set for a collision into the iceberg of failure. If the manager is reading this right now, I suggest you fix a couple of things, like your workers — who just pop things in the microwave and run around behind the counter like children. Get some cameras and an actual cook, please.
In summary, one side of this largely spaced restaurant is a number of few usually occupied seats. On the other is the a la carte selection of delicacies. Sweets like chiffon cake, pan de sal, ensaymadas, and a load of more Filipino goods are stocked freshly for sale. The center of this store is an oddly made void of emptiness — it seems as if the seated diners and the wrapped food is staring at you while you watch the show of dumb employees yap in Tagalog.
Prices are unfair; just for one fist sized plate of pansit (noodles), it was over five dollars just for a bite (which brought me back to my roots quite joyfully). I mean I could buy a fat meal at McDonald’s for the same price. With these prices, there were other mediocre foods — pork sinagang, lechon, and empanadas. Most of them are made using nuclear power and not with the love of a real Filipino chef. How disgraceful.

My awesome Philippino neighbor brought over the most wonderful, not-​too-​sweet taro cake. It’s purple in color, aromatic with a pleasant aftertaste with real cream. After swallowing this cake with my family, I visited their bakery to discover the other flavors available as well. They also have mango cake, other chocolate cakes and more. I also noticed that they have hot baked goods, but never have tried it. On my next visit, I’ll update this review.
The reason why I gave this a 3-​star rating is based on their cake product offering and have not tried their hot foods offering as of yet. Service was okay, not friendly, but not rude.
Reason why this bake shop is better than the American ones:
Before I explain the why, I’ll give a background on a typical Jersey bakery. Jersey bakeries usually cheat customers with phony cream toppings on top of their already-​sugar laced cake. It’s sugar on top of sugar. Come on!!! Why can’t Jersey bakeries take a lesson from French pastry chefs and learn from the best??? How pathetic is that!!! How disgusting is it when the frosting is comprised of mostly sugar and artificial flavors and colors!!! For those of us who appreciate real baked goods, you know what I’m talking about. I think Red Ribbon is in that direction by using real cream as their «frosting» and the interior cake is not that sweet.

The bakery stuff is alright. Ensaymada is ok, mamon is ok. I do like the brazo de mercedes though, and it keeps well for a few days in the fridge. I mean, the Red Ribbons in the Philippines are obviously a thousand times better in comparison. (I wish the American branches had the banana nut cake… when it’s warmed it’s absolutely foodgasmic).
I don’t really like the warm food they have – a lot of it is seems like it’s shipped frozen and reheated. Whatever, don’t come here for the warm food, this place is supposed to be a bakery anyhow.
One thing that’s great is the ube shake. It’s one of my favorite purple foods. (Not that I eat a lot of purple food). It’s basically ube/​purple yam ice cream in shake form with black sago/​tapioca balls.

The bakery is pretty decent, but all of the warm food is absolutely disgusting. Everything is microwaved and nasty
The workers are unpleasant and is overall a bad experience. I would definitely stay away from this bakery.

I walked in there and walked out. Since there is no real Asian bakery around except Gateaux or something which is a bit farther to drive out, we headed here to see some Filipino treats. The prices are quite expensive in comparison to some other Asian bakeries. There was nothing special about the items offered and even the drinks are a bit pricy. I found some of the bakery items mushed or flattened. Not nicely decorated or displayed. Nothing fancy and a bit overpriced.
I prefer Tai Pan (if you can find it or head to C-​town) or Gateaux or some other Korean French Bakeries. They’re a bit more friendly and the store is cleaner and prettier.

I prefer Christine’s Bakeshoppe for baked goods but sometimes you can find better prices at a chain.
Red Ribbon is a Philippine-​based business that has become a successful multinational business. One taste worldwide.
Their ensaymada is ok. Their choco mocha is good. Their pan de sal is adequate.
They also prepare hot dishes like adobo baboy here too so if you’re looking to OD on some Filipino food then have at it my friend.
Christine’s boy…