Aliya Lavaland

“ I LOVED the pastries here! The lava just oozing out and it was just delicious! The creations are beautiful, flaky, rich and moist! A friend of mine picked them up for me and asked if I was planning to share during my dinner party in a couple days - NOPE! was my answer. LOL It did take me a while to get to them, but they were still super fresh when I did! Will definitely go again. They make great gifts too! ”

“ This is exactly the kind of shop people mean when they say, "Support your local small businesses." I believe it was the owner who helped us, and she was as sweet as her desserts. The concept is simple--they specialize in flaky pastries filled with various flavored mung bean pastes, with the option to add a rich, eggy lava filling for an extra $2.05. The store itself is small and charming. What We Ordered: Half Dozen Box - $21.70 (Eggy Lava Filled) These pastries lean on the sweeter side, with a dense, rich, and ultra-gooey texture. After refrigeration, the filling takes on a more jam-like consistency, which I personally enjoyed. * 2 Ube (Pink Pastry) - Deep purple inside with a distinct ube flavor. * 2 Black Sesame (Black Pastry) - Subtle black sesame taste but still delicious. * Taro (Purple Pastry) - Light purple filling with a noticeable taro flavor. * Signature (Yellow Pastry) - The most egg-forward in flavor, rich and satisfying. I didn't get the matcha this time but maybe next time. They are pretty pricy, but these are very specific type of dessert, when I'm craving it, I'll definitely be back! ”

“ Delicious pastries!!! The service is very quick and the place is small and casual. But that's all that's needed because it's perfect for pucking up the pastries. I love the pastries with the egg yolk lava inside. They are all good and the taro one is my favorite because of its fragrance. ”

“ Checked out this place for their lava egg yolk pastries. Small place with plenty of parking in the back. There was no wait at all when we went during the evening. Customer service was nice and helpful! We got a box of 6 to share. It looks really vibrant and aesthetic from the outside! I'm a huge fan of lava egg yolk so I also really enjoyed the inside of the mooncakes. However, I found the outside to be a bit dry. Maybe it was just a one-off thing. I'd go back to get more as gifts for sure. ”

“ Colorful desserts great for sharing with friends and family, and they also look beautiful in photos. Would recommend the big white boxes for presentation (rather than the smaller clear plastic clamshell). Lava mooncakes are the specialty here with an interesting golden filling - would recommend them. Thanks to Yelp for helping us discover Aliya Lavaland as we were visiting Monterey Park. Convenient location with plenty of parking in free parking lot or street parking. Relatively busy with a few other customers coming in while we were there, it's a good sign. ”

“ Such an aesthetic little spot! Definitely worth trying. We didn't try any of their lava mooncakes (salted egg yolk) but would love to next time. Not sure if it was intentional but the mooncake crust had faint floral taste almost like rose. Crust was soft and flaky, not too dense. Hawaiian Ube Regular Mooncake - ube flavor wasn't as strong as I anticipated it to be. Taro Regular Mooncake - was my favorite! You can taste really taste real taro. Matcha Regular Mooncake - my second favorite. Matcha blended well with mung bean. Black Sesame Regular Mooncake - was my least favorite. Black sesame didn't mix well with mung bean, filling was very dry and incoherent. I personally didn't like it one bit. I would not grab this flavor again. ”

“ Ambiance: it's a small dessert store located in Monterey Park, takeout orders only Service: very friendly and patient with questions Food: they made the cakes fresh daily, and they can last about one week Assorted Box of Regular Mooncakes - **** recommend for the variety Signature Regular Mooncake - *** With Half Salted Eaa Yolk Hawaiian Purple Yam Ube Lava Mooncake - **** the lava was so tasty, recommend Price: each cake costs about $2 to $4, and the combo pack has the best value ”

“ I've always seen recommendations for this place pop up on Yelp whenever I'm looking for a dessert place in the area. They do close a bit earlier though (6 PM), so I haven't had the chance to try their lava mooncakes until recently. I ordered for pick up ahead of time on the Toast Tab app and they have a points and rewards system through that. I ordered the special Lunar New Year 6 pack ( you can choose 5 of the flavors) that comes with a special no filling tangerine cake that looks almost identical to a real tangerine (leaves and stem and all!). The instructions on how to store, refrigerate, and heat the cakes are in the shop (I believe 8-10 seconds twice) and the service was polite and already had my order packed up even before the designated pick up time. The interior is cutely decorated with some artwork from I believe a young child patron or the owner's own family, very cute. There are some outdoor tables in the plaza surrounding too and some seating if you want to dig into your food then and there. I got 1 of every of the flavors that they offered, which were taro, Hawaiian pink yam, matcha, black sesame, and their original. I got this in lava style which means that there's yummy gooey salted egg yolk inside. This went great with the slightly dry flakiness of the bun on the outside. Delicious and even my coworkers who have never had this pastry before, and were somewhat wary, really enjoyed it. The solid orange one is also very good and you can taste that they include a bit of orange zest in it too. Not too sweet or tart either. Perfect yummy desserts for the Asian palate! ”

“ Got a few flavors to try. Orignal lava is what you'd expect. If you don't like the salted egg lava, then you won't like this, but if you do then you would love it. Flaky pastry and has somewhat floral thing to it. Black sesame lava is heftier from the black sesame paste. Filling is the same salted egg lava, for some reason we were expecting black lava. Same, has pretty strong floral thing to it. You either love it or hate it. But we could tell this was made with a lot of care. Black sesame regular is basically just without the lava. Yummy. Been wanting to try this place for a while, but the price is a big deterrent. Also they close pretty early (granted, not dinner dessert type of thing). Good for gifts or indulgence here and there, but there's a reason they don't offer party tray! Staff is nice tho. This place is located in the plaza across from amc. With half/half, sunright, and thai paradise. ”

“ Aliya Lavaland is located in the same plaza as Sunright with a parking lot in the back and also street parking available. My husband and I came for a visit two Saturdays ago, around 2:20 pm. We were greeted by an employee behind the counter. We ended up purchasing: 5 piece box, $18.25 + Orange Moon Cake, $4.50- This special box set comes with a flavor of each lava moon cake and one moon cake that looks like an orange/ tangerine. Aliya Lavaland is well known for their lava cakes, which is a flaky baked shell that holds a salted egg inside that oozes out when you take your first bite. I normally do not like salted egg but this filling has more of a nice light custard flavor. Each of the flavors that my husband and I tried were good. My mom also enjoyed one of the moon cakes. My husband and I split the orange moon cake, which we were told is only offered during lunar new year and during the harvest mon festival. I liked the light orange flavor and appreciated that it wasn't too sweet (neither were the lava moon cakes). ---------------------------------- (Total= $22.75, no tax) Service was friendly and wait time was probably about 1 minute long. There are 2 small benches to sit on inside and some outdoor seating. There are not restrooms available for customers. Aliya Lavaland is a nice treat to have and also would make for a great gift for family and friends. I know I will be back in the near future. ”