Valerio’s Tropical Bakeshop

There’s nothing like hot pandesal fresh from the oven. This Union City location has more of a variety of Filipino bakery/​dessert/​merienda options compared to other Valerio’s locations around the Bay. You can find all types of different kinds of bread, pies, siopao, sticky rice cakes, cheese rolls, and more at this location. All freshly baked in house. It’s right next to Island Pacific, another Filipino supermarket. Feels like you’re in the Philippines!

There are two Valerio’s location near my house and none of them are as good as the Union City location! Often called the «Daly City» of the East Bay, Valerio’s is settled in a plaza FILLED with quite possibly every Asian establishment you could think of, so you could imagine my Filipino mom’s excitement as we pulled up into the plaza. Valerio’s is modest in size, but filled with virtually any and every bread you could think of. The employees were very friendly and even friendlier if you speak Tagalog lol.

DON’T GO IN THE DAY BEFORE A BIG FILIPINO HOLIDAY. It is a tiny place with lots of filipinos trying to get pandesal.
No complaints about their pandesal though. It’s the best. Especially the fresh ones. They always have fresh pandesal ready!

I love Valerios. I’ve been going here to the one in Island Pacific since I was young.
A couple weeks ago, we bought two pork pandesals from their little heated shelf. My boyfriend took a bite out of it in the car and the pork was rotten. I tasted mine as well to compare, and mine was completely bitter, clumpy, and disgusting as well. We had to spit it out because it was literally spoiled. Spoiled pork is super dangerous. We returned them and warned them of it.
I had a stomach ache from the little bit I had in my mouth. It was really a disappointment because I loved this place. but hopefully this was just a horrible mistake and they have disposed of the rotten meat by now and have fixed the cause of it.

This is my go to place for Filipino breads and pastries whenever we shop at Island Pacific. My favorites are the Spanish bread, ube basket bread, hopia and other goodies.
But this location is so cramped, its hard to decide what to buy here. You have to know what you are looking for.
Minimum card is $ 10 purchase, so please bring cash.
Although I do not recommend the sapin sapin and the sans rival. Not the best.
Every bread and pastries are good here.

I would go with 3.5 stars because the place is cramp and women occasionally try cutting you in line (kills the mood of bakery happiness) but I do like their products, so I will round up. Bring cash; credit card use has a minimum is $ 10.
I have been buying carbs from here for over 10 years. Before I could drive, I would walk from my home to grab chicken empanadas for lunch or snack. Those are a long-​time favorite. I introduced them to friends who live close to Valerio but never went. They liked the empanadas but still do not stop by (sigh) so they only devour them when I buy them some. I used to bring a bunch back to So Cal when a new college quarter started and friends down there loved the empanadas too. Over time, chicken empanadas gradually grew more expensive; no longer $ 1.00.): They were like $ 1.25 or $ 1.50 the last time I checked. Oh, inflation… Making all the prices jump. At least many things here are still cheap compared to eating a meal at a fast food place.
Chicken or pork adobo pandesal are my new go-​to items for a cheap lunch/​snack. I love how the bread is so fluffy and the meat fillings are tasty. $ 1.50
I am a sucker for anything «cheese.» Note: The «cheese» is like cream cheese in the buns. Cheese ensaymadas ($ 0.75), cheese haba haba, cheese rolls — drool.
Little ube rolls are good too, if you like ube.
Those karioka (fried coconut rice balls on a stick) are tasty but I feel heavy after eating a few of the balls. Chewy, sweet, goodness though. I love it when people have these at parties.

I live in Chicago, but I have been going to the Bay Area (almost every year) ever since I was child — so I know there are hundreds of Filipino restaurants and bakeries to choose from. Usually we’d bring back Red Ribbon or Goldie Lock’s or the nearest Asian Market breads and pastries. Let’s just say, wherever the bakeries came from– it’s better than Chicago’s. (Trust me!)
My best-​friend moved to the Bay Area last year and when she came back to Chicago for a visit she told me I had to taste the Ube min bun from Valerio’s. I am so happy she found this place because the Ube bun was like Nirvana! And the mamon! I would imagine that’s how a cloud would taste like. I was in the Bay Area this past weekend and, needless to say, I left personal items behind just so I could fit the goodies that I bought from here!
Hopefully, the pasalubong that I brought back with me will last us a couple of weeks… but it doesn’t look like it will. So I guess until next year I would just have to wait… :(
Missing Valerio’s and missing the Bay Area already!

Valerio’s does Filipino carbs right. I love their pandesal, ensamayda, turon, and pork siopao. My girls go crazy over their cheese bread and american cheese bread. My little one can eat her weight in ube bread and ube baskets. The prices are so affordable, too! I like how the staff wears hair nets. I have a fear of finding hair in my eats. Can get crowded in the mornings, but it is worth the wait. The staff is very friendly, too! :-)

Leave it to Filipinos to have a «gimmick» about live and active marketing strategy. While on line the workers begin to serenade you with their catchy jingles of daily specials or announcement of hot off the belt items. Some may agree that there is a cacophonous sound to the Tagalog language but these ladies have a way of crooning and making it sound melodious — there’s nothing subtle about their marketing.
My intent was to buy a bag of fresh hot pan de sal. However, while on line I was bombarded with catchy tunes:
«Bibingka –ah-ah.bagong luuuu-​tohhh!» Translation — bibingka-​freshly made.
Or
«Embuti-​DOH– masa-RAP…bilin nyo-​NAH!»
Translation-​embutido yummy. Buy it.
«Tu-​RON! Ma-TA-mi-iiis…kunin-NYO-NAH!
Turon-​sweet– come and get it!
Pretty overt and it works. And the hits keep on coming.
So I walked out with pan de sal, bibingka embutido and Turon.
Had I stayed longer. I would have ended up with all the bakery items. If you have no clue of what I’m talking about then you just have to experience it for yourself.

Valerio’s Tropical Bakeshop is to the left of Island Pacific Market. the entire place is very cramped. looks like they bake everything on site. not a place to be browsing, just no elbow room
eats: «turon» (.89)
–jackfruit and banana slices wrapped lumpia like and fried.
–dusted with sugar. tasted very sweet. too much for me
–first and last time for this dish here.
crumbs:
–lots of pastries, cakes, cakes, etc. on display
–probably better than goldilocks where everything is made in central kitchen.
–4 stars is there was more space.

I love Filipino sweets… Puto is yummy and moist… I tried chismosa a few days ago I loved it… I definitely recommend this place :)

love this place. everything is good specially the pineapple flower bread. the only reason i gave it two stars… customer service is horrible. went there on a sunday and this old lady asked the cashier if she can help her bring her order to her car; suprisingly the cashier said no.wow. what a customer service.

Every time I go here… I feel terrible because I usually cannot refrain myself from buying so many goodies! I could easily spend $ 20 even though the bread etc are usually in $ 1 — $ 3 price range…(talk about gluttony!)
Most of the items I bought are usually pretty good although… their pork siopao is not as good as it was before… the bun has gotten too sticky on the mouth. very weird.
I still love the empanaditas, cheese rolls, turon, little cheese bread, and cheese pimiento (bread with cream cheese and bell pepper fillings). I used to buy their pandesals too… I like it better than safeway’s dinner rolls.
. most of the stuff here though. so rich and buttery … totally NOT a diet food.
CASH only!

Pan de Ube is sooooo good. Breakfast for pocket change. Customer service is abrasive at times just like everyone else says, but that’s alright as long as I’m getting my bread.

Delicious snacks, delicious prices! :D Customer service can use a little uplifting though. Although it is a fairly small bakery, they really should consider expanding instead of having 2 of the same bakeries across the street from each other. I find that rather unsual, why not just have ONE big bakery instead of 2 small ones???

Customer service can be rough, but the all the carbohydrate goodness that this bakery has is worth getting over the people who work there.
I love the haba haba pineapple, and the ube. Plus, their steamed chicken buns are a much better and tastier alternative to the pork bun (especially when comparing to the pork buns at Goldilocks. yuck!).

First off… The workers here have really bad customer service… And I mean service with no smile. If you aren’t having a good day, don’t bring that shit to work! At least smile.
I came here during Saturday night just to buy A bag of Pan-​de-​Sal and the line was frigging’ out the door. I mean, yeah. The place is pretty small but it was busy. Instead of ringing customers out they were rather concentrated on what was on TV. Come on girlfriends… No one cares about how feminine looking Vice Ganda’s legs look on showtime! (TFC subbies know what I’m talking about). I’m standing there for a good ten minutes and finally my turn to get rung up.$ 1.99 for the bread but MY BADD for not bringing cash cause I couldn’t use my card. Ten dollar minimum. The girl was extremely rude. At least tell me nicely.
I will not come here unless I’m desperate for something to eat. I’d rather go to the Valerios across the street. Let’s hope they aren’t as worse!

For New Year’s, my mom got some Ube Putos, Chicken Pies, and Buko Pie. The Ube Puto was delicious. Not strong of an ube flavor (taro for those who don’t know), but nice fluffy and big. The chicken pies were small and easily eaten. They were ok. Nothing particularly spectacular about it, but it’s a good snack. The buko pie was a bit of a disappointment. Buko is coconut by the way. Then again I was born in the place of the original buko pie, so I have pretty high standards. I was not a fan of the crust or the pie top. The filling was not too sweet which is something I did like. Considering that it’s one of the very few Filipino bakeries around and my mom frequents them enough, I will continue eating their goodies as long as my mom keeps getting it.

oookk. I didn’t know they opened up shop across the street. Must have happened after moving away about 2 years ago. Anyway, they’re cash only and didn’t have any shopping baskets to put the goods in. Convenient for grabbing something on the way out of the adjacent grocery store. I, on the other hand, was making a pasalubong run for the family, so I dropped off as much as I could carry onto their cashier counter and went back for more. The cheese bulilits– bite sized sweet bread filled with cream cheese– are addicting. The pork asado siopao– steamed pork bun– was tasty even though it could have used more filling. They’re strictly a bakery (panadeira) and don’t offer the food selection like jojoli does. You’ll have to get your palaman for the hot pandesal somewhere else. All in all, 40 bucks worth of baked goods felt like a steal.