I came specifically to get some tarts as a little souvenir for my housemates back in Omaha (we're all from O'ahu). I had seen pictures of the ube tart on Yelp at both Paina Cafe and Hi-Coffee Cafe and tried tracking down the source (Ono Sweetz 702). After some intensive research, I managed to contact Annette, the mastermind behind the goods. She informed me that she no longer sells to Paina and Hi-Coffee and instead takes online orders. Unfortunately, I was leaving in a few hours and we agreed it'd be cutting it too close to place an order at the time since she makes everything to order. She suggested I head over to Paina as she personally trained them on her recipes.
I decided on two each of the ube, Iilikoi/guava, chocolate haupia, and chantilly tarts ($1.40 each). I also picked up an ube flan roll and a coco puff ($2.95 each) to share with a friend.
My favorite was the ube flan roll. Although the outside was a little dry from being refrigerated, the inside was soft and had a light sweet potato flavor. Huge fan of the flan and ube cream in the roll. Coco puff (cream puff with chocolate filling and chantilly frosting on top) was yummy. I'm not too big on cream puffs, but I could go for another one of these. My friend who has had Liliha Bakery's (home of the OG coco puff) said it's pretty similar, except Paina's is like twice the size. Also ended up trying some of the tarts I brought back haha. They were pretty good, but not worth $1.40 for such a small treat (especially when Annette sells a dozen for $10)!
Paina had a good selection of the tarts left around 2PM, but I was kind of disappointed with the selection they had of the other pastries. I didn't see the Moana roll, matcha/ube cream puff, or guava cake (all of which I wanted to try after seeing pictures of on Yelp). I highly recommend ordering through Annette herself if you can (give her minimum 2 days notice) as it will be FRESH (who knows how long it's been sitting in the display at Paina) and CHEAPER. If not, Paina will do.