Malaya Coffee - Arcadia

Ube Matcha perfected!

Something different and such a pleasant surprise. Delishious food, friendly staff, and lovely vibes. It's a popular spot so don't be in a rush.

Food: 2/5 Drinks: 1/5 Considering this place is new, and the huge hype of social media, I hope they do work on the food and drinks aspect as it was a huge letdown. Not sure if the food and drinks quality suffered because they felt rushed with the crowds and is just trying to get the orders out but I hope the quality gets fixed. We wanted to try the ensaymada, but they already sold out an hour into opening and they had to drive to their other location to get more… which was very disappointing. We ordered the mango tea, no mango flavor at all just straight bitter tea. We ordered two so we tried the other and the same thing. The chicken bowl was a huge disappointment. The rice was sticky rice which is a nice touch, but the chicken was overcooked and very dry. Lacked any flavor at all. The lumpia that came with it was dinky, and didn't have that lumpia crunch to it, it was very mushy. The breakfast sando was better. Had great flavor, had a kick to it. The breading was dry though, could use some more sauce to it. The other coffee drinks my partner had and said it was pretty good. Parking is good, has a decent lot with street parking also. Not sure if I'll be coming back, but if It will be to see if things have changed for the better.

I ordered lumpia crunch sando. The taste was terrible. It was too greasy and extremely sour. They named it after lumpia, just to get an attention of the consumers. In reality, it was not lumpia at all. I wouldn't recommend people to buy this. Your money is not worth it.

I'll preface this by saying I might critique a little harder since I'm Filipino myself, so take that for what it's worth. I ordered the Malaya Signature drink and the Malaya Chicken Bowl. The drinks lean pretty sweet, which I knew going in, but if you're watching your sugar intake this probably isn't your spot. That said, the espresso flavor actually holds its own despite everything going on in the drink, so points for that. The chicken bowl was just okay for me. It listed patis (fish sauce) as an ingredient so I was expecting something more savory, but it skewed sweet. They added pickled cabbage, which was fine, but I really think atchara would've worked so much better. For non-Filipinos, atchara is a tangy pickled green papaya condiment common in Filipino cooking. That brightness would've cut through the sweetness and complemented the chicken way more. The lumpia was a bit of a letdown. Pretty small, and it didn't really hit like traditional Filipino lumpia does. No sweet and sour sauce on the side either, which feels like a miss. On the plus side, parking is a breeze. Big lot, and street parking is easy to grab if it fills up. There's also a patio if you want to eat outside.