Lelenita’s Cakes

We’ve been faithful patron of Lelenita’s cakes for 6 years –ever since that one birthday when we were in search for a last minute cake. Fortunately, we found Lelenita’s open in the late evening. We purchased they’re already made guava filled cake (they many flavors ready available for purchase behind their glass counter). After the first bite, we were pleased with the delicious, moist bread and sweet, airy meringue frosting. Since then birthdays have consisted of their guava, pineapple with condensed milk, and caramel-​filled cakes.
Until…this last week when we picked up our cake that we had ordered in advance, the exterior looked the same as always; however, when we sliced into the cake the bread was much different. Dry, crumbly, and stale in taste! No good! We called the next day to complain to which they responded they «changed the recipe»…likely story.
Ive experienced better from Lelenita’s and was very disappointed with my birthday cake.

Love the pastelitos here! I’ve always received good customer service. The tres leches is super good. My kids love the espumillas.

Came here on a friends recommendation and I really really wanted to like this place. I invited my daily city family to meet at this place before heading out for the day.
The older man who was here on Saturday was a bit hard of hearing but equally RUDE.
I am not a mean person and kept being nice to him even though he was being a jerk…
We bought 2 dozen empanadas 12 of fruit and another 12 of chicken. The fruit empanadas were better then the chicken ones.
My great aunt 70 years old ordered some tamales they had but insisted we eat them at home. When we got home we started to cook them and they had NO FILLING INSIDE. maybe you would think it was a «bad tamale» but all 3 were like this.
My poor aunt was heart broken because she really wanted to eat them and I was upset because they were so damn expensive!!!
They do sell cakes but I did not try them so I can’t review them.
Hope this helps anyone who reads this!

I’ve been coming here for years now. Even though I live in San Jose I always make time to stop for some tres leches cake! I also recommend «pastelitos» they have a mix of different fruit fillings and chicken!

My husband and I love their tres leches cake here! When we got married we naturally decided to get a tres leches cake for our reception. We made an appointment and came in to sample different combinations of their tres leche (they had different fillings for their cake). The guy (I don’t remember his name) was extremely patient and helpful. After picking out our flavor, we chose our design from their booklets. Since our reception was in Brisbane, they had to deliver but their fee was not outrageous ($ 20 I believe). All in all our cake cost $ 500 for about 150 guests. Not bad at all since most wedding cakes cost an arm and a leg! We also left with a slice of our wedding cake flavor so my parents could try It (and it was free!)! We got compliments on our cake from our guests
FYI: I also got a half sheet of tres leche for my husband’s birthday one year and it was only $ 60.
If you’re looking for a simple but beautiful and budget friendly wedding cake, this is the place!

I love lelenitas. Anytime I buy a cake its always their tres leches.

I ordered a cake for my girlfriend’s birthday, and went with the staff over the details very carefully — colors, inscription placement etc. I also made clear that on the pick-​up date I would be on a tight schedule, so they can’t be late. I sent an email that goes over all the details again, just to make sure.
Sure enough, they were late. After waiting for 15 minutes (which I really didn’t have), the cake came out, and of course, everything was wrong. They offered me not take the cake and not pay, which obviously was not an option, so they fixed whatever they could, which was not a lot.
Now, this is a cake, not brain surgery, and it tasted pretty good, so no real damage done, and my girlfriend was pretty happy. In the box we found their business card, that says «Lelenita’s — because every detail matters», which we found hilarious. To this day this is a running gag in our house.
So we did get a good cake and a good story, but I’ll get my cakes somewhere else next time, and for good stories I prefer buying books.

They made this cake for my cousins surprise graduation/​birthday party. The cake was delicious and beautiful just like I wanted.

I’m not a fan of writing reviews, but I have to say something about this bakery. BEST TRES LECHES !!! I usually get the light one, I don’t like it too sweet.
I call, send the pic by email and they will have it ready when you wanted.
Costumer service is great, especially the young guy who works there. He is nice and very creative. I usually ask him to help me with the color and pic (if I don’t send him one) and he hits the spot always.
Keep it up!!!

Very bad customer service, owner is very rude. I call last week to ask about the party hall they have for rent and the guy told me that he can’t help me that I should go in person I ask him if it was ok to go on Saturday my only available day to go he said it was good because his boss is there on Saturday. So I went with my husband and daughter I wait in line and when finally the owner help me in a very rude way ask me what I want, I explain him that I call he didn’t let me finish when he said «go take a sit because right now my priority are the customers»
Seriously ???
I say thank you and leave.
I’m really disappointed because my three years old was very excited to have her 4^th birthday party there.

Came in for a cake my baby can take pictures with I asked for an all pink cake with big white polka dots so I was really upset to see they took it upon their selfs to make the cake how they thought would look better. It had a purple outline and tiny white dots everywhere (I’ll add a pic) so I told him, that was not what I asked for and went on telling me about how they thought it would look nice their way so after he seen I was not amused he offered to fix it to my original design I had asked for when I ordered it. After about 10 mins he brought back out the cake I pictured in my head just how I wanted in the first place I was so relieved I felt I was being pranked with the first cake and for him to come out again with my actual cake all that was missing was for him to say «just kidding» so after all this he seemed a little upset that I didn’t like his idea which was not my fault so I didn’t much care I realized I still needed a candle and instead of giving it to me for the inconvenience and making us late to my baby’s photo shoot he charged me 2.50 for a simple number 1 candle the only reason I’m giving him 4 stars is because he fixed the cake to exactly what I wanted and it came out very nice.

Really delicious slices of cake, cane sugar bottled sodas, and tamales to go (pisques, rellenos, and nacatamales). Whole cakes can be ordered for future pick up and there are some cakes in the case that they will write on for you.
There are a couple tables for you if you can’t wait to eat your cake!

I can’t believe how awful this cake was that my coworker brought into work from her husbands birthday last night. She went and picked the pineapple cake up after work yesterday and her husband did not like it. She brought it in to work today for us to taste and we thought it was horrible. We told her to call the bakery and let them know no one was satisfied with the cake and maybe they will offer a refund/​new cake or something, but instead they told her it was supposed to be hard and dry and to drink coffee with it!!! I can’t believe the customer service after she nicely explained to them the cake wasn’t good. It tasted like cornbread not cake.

TerribleTerrible Cake Very Very Very Dry, Dry. Family & close friends ask me Where Did I Bought this Dry Cake???

Worst tres leches ever! Should not be dry, I highly recommend going to Dianda’s, it’s nice and moist. This place also has horrible service but the one star
Is for their good presentation.

Hands down, this establishment serves the best tres leche cake I have ever had. For my daughter’s first birthday, we ordered a vanilla custard tres leche and the result was out of this world. So rich and milky. The cake was nicely decorated, too just how I wanted it to look. I was concerned that the cake would start to drip and melt sitting out for a certain length of time but it didn’t.
I will definitely keep this place in mind for my husband’s next birthday. We are fans!

I needed to purchase a retirement cake for my mother. We had almost 200 guests attending. We decided on the Tres Leches cake. I must say, the cake was perfect. Not too sweet, just enough flavor! The only downfall was they only made full sheet sizes. As a result, I found myself having to purchase two separate cakes.
Overall, the staff was friendly and provided samples of the different cakes and mom was really happy with the Tres Leches!

I came specifically for a slice of the Tres leches, which after a lot of research ( Unilocal, chowhound) Lelenita should have the best of in SF.
It disappointed though. I have a major sweet tooth, and even for me this was a little too sweet. It wasn’t nearly as moist as a great homemade tres leches, and was just a slightly moist sponge cake.

I had ordered my son’s cake here for his 1^st, 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th and 7^th birthday parties. All of the cakes I ordered were customized according to what my son was into at that time. Lelenita’s accommodated all my requests. I brought in pictures and toy figures and they do the rest. They made it all pretty and really close or even better to what I had asked them to do.
We took time choosing the flavors and fillings. It was always a hard decision as they were all delectable. We had ordered guava, strawberry, chocolate… all got good reviews from our visitors.
This is definitely the first choice for cake for my every occasion. I know I can have that special unique cake at every party I host.

I was put in charge of a birthday cake for a friend’s party, because «[I] can be trusted with food decisions.» Talk about pressure! Jillian R. wanted a cake that was fun and clever. She specifically said «something with Cinderella on the cake or in the shape of a hamburger.» Where the hell was I going to find a cake like that?! After thinking it over, I decided I wanted a portrait cake.
Obviously not knowing much about bakeries, I turned to Unilocal and typed in «sheet cake,» in the search bar. Several options came up, so I started calling everyone on the list. Several bakeries (names aren’t important) did not offer portrait sheet cakes. Others did, but I was told that a quote would not even be possible for 6 faces on a cake because it would be extremely expensive. Great… now what?
Lelenita’s Cakes was 6^th on my results list, and the last option I had to explore. I spoke with an Elmer over the phone, and was extremely polite and happy to help me out. We decided that I’d stop over to show him what I wanted and discuss pricing. This was on a Wednesday. By Saturday morning, I picked up the most fabulous colorful cake I’ve ever seen! And at an affordable price too.
Check out the pics I submitted for this business so you can see the cake. Needless to say, the cake was the hit of the party and there were more pictures being taken of the cake than there were of the birthday people!