D’amato’s Bakery

Major disappointment! I’ve eaten lunch here before and the food is usually pretty good. Not this time.
My boyfriend went to pick up lunch for himself, his buddy, and me. 3 Italian beef sandwiches, dipped — 2 without peppers and 1 with hot peppers. The order is ready. Only 2 sandwiches. What about the 3^rd? And, which has the peppers? So, more waiting while they sort this out. As someone in a prior review mentioned, the service here is a problem!
Finally, 3 sandwiches. He brings mine back for me and it’s supposed to be dipped. So, I’m expecting it to be juicy and the bread to be soggy. But, it’s not. It’s dry. Bummer, but ok, I’ll live. Then, I take another look. Where’s the meat? Look, I do believe that American portions are out of control and we are often served way too much food. And, I get that this is a bakery and bread is their thing. But, this is an Italian beef sandwich, dipped. It should be loaded with beef. It should be juicy and I should need several napkins to get through it. But, there is so little meat on this sandwich, it doesn’t even cover the bread. And, it’s dry. To be fair, the little meat there was and the bread did taste good.
Still, I feel cheated. Yes, cheated. I don’t eat Italian beef sandwiches often because, let’s face it, they aren’t health food. So, I was looking forward to this treat and it was a major disappointment! I have to say, this will make me think twice about going back to D’Amato’s for anything besides a loaf of bread. Especially when there are several Italian places on the same block!

Decent sandwich, great bread. Customer service is a Problem. hard to believe that they suggested i go two blocks down the street for a bathroom with my 5 year old who had to go minutes after sitting down.
My issue is if you do carry out only fine, no bathroom. But you have tables now, so expect that people may need to use a bathroom or perhaps wash their hands before eating.

This joint reminds me of the traditional bakeries in NYC. It’s a no frills, no seats to rest your derrière kind of place, but *Mama Mia* the food earns its standing room! The sweets are great, but the pizza is delicious! Being from the East Coast, I’m not a fan of deep dish, but their pizza — an amalgamation of delicious crispy buttery bread with flavorful mozzarella cheese, fresh tomato sauce and just enough crunch — is a fantastic alternative!

Wow. We came to Chicago for a fun weekend. We thought we’d have a nice little bakery tour. This was one of our stops. First, there’s NO WHERE to park. I drove around for maybe 8 minutes looking for parking. Finally I parked illegally and ran in.
We ordered a napolean, a variety of italian cookies (7 different varieties) and a long puff pastry thing with custard inside and chocolate on top. Just to be clear — they make their own breads and pizzas.
Napolean: I can GUARANTEE that this was bought (by them) premade and cut in the store. It was truly AWFUL. Grocery stores sell better. It had custard in the layers. The entire thing tasted of the chemical preservative that was used. Ugh. Two bites and in the trash it went.
The cookies — again, clearly premade and dolled up. We had one that was a butter cookie with caramel and chocolate icing. The best of the lot. The plain macaroon — shockingly dry and premade. Lemon knot — made in house and DRY AS A BONE. Maybe that was the goal. I don’t know. It wasn’t good. We had the chocolate crescent and the powdered crescent. Clearly the same cookie — premade and dolled up to be marginally different. Blah and not remarkable in any way.
The long cream puff pastry thing was gross. Ganache should get to the point where you can touch it and it not stick to you. This is an oil based premade chocolate icing. As such it never crusts and stays sticky and messy. The puff pastry thing was okay. The custard inside those was clearly purchased, not made in the bakery.
In the end, they had some things that were likely made in the store — the cannoli, the bread, the pizzas. We were just wanting to try some nice bakeries in Chicago. The counter girls yell at you. Not pleasant. It was truly awful and not worth the money. I would NEVER recommend this place.

I would give my life to save a piece of their focaccia.
This bakery has so many options, and not just for bread, you can stop in for a lunch on the go, or to stock up on little Italian snacks.
I prefer their little pre-​made focaccia pizza things. The cheese is so good and mixes well with the soft, yet crunchy dough. This place is one of my all time favorites — not just as a bakery, but as an Italian restaurant. And that says a lot because Salerno’s is across the street and they serve some pretty sweet pizza. But nothing beats D’Amato’s. Seriously nothing.
If you want to know what an actual Italian bakery is like, come here.

I use to come here every week as I used to work right down the street. I came for the cheap pizza. Their fresh subs are pretty descent, the Italian is probably their best– the bread never agreed with me it was always too crunchy. 3 stars because they have excellent pastry and the atmosphere is quaint and sunny.

D’amatos is a pretty straightforward commercial bakery that opened up a deli and seating area with some of their extra space. They do subs, antipasto and focaccia type items. As baking is their primary means, the subs predictably are served with good, flaky, puffy french bread but the meats are not exactly your Boar’s Head high-​end variety. There are pizza-​like items in a warmer by the register that are popular and sell out as well.

This D’amato’s is not related to the one a few blocks away (rumor has it this one is the product of a contentious relationship between family members many years ago). It has its own bakery plant in back.
I tend to like the bread here better than the other, unrelated, D’amatos, and of the three places that serve subs in the neighborhood, I think these are of the best quality (if not just because of their awesome bread. The panini are very good. I also like their mini pizzas and focaccia bread. If you order a cannoli, they fill the shell freshly, rather than giving you one that’s been filled for a while with the shell getting soft and wet from the filling – a sign of a good Italian bakery.
Unfortunately, the hours of this venue are few (no sandwiches after 4, bakery store closes at 5, not open on Sundays at all). The beverage selection is limited. The service is slow (if at all – there have been a fw times I’ve walked in, waited a couple of minutes, and left because nobody came out from the back to serve me).
If they were open longer hours, 7-​days, and had better, faster service, I think I’d be there a lot more.

I found a hidden treasure today when my friend took me to lunch at D’Amato’s. This isn’t the bakery– it’s actually further down the street and it’s the deli and bakery. They have a seating section, and the best sandwiches I’ve had in a long time! It’s not the most attractive place from the outside, and once you get in it’s a bit dingy, but it’s really good food! They have a few options for sandwiches/​subs, and I had the Ham sub which was huge– the small is 8 inches and the large is 11 inches. It was piled with ham, lettuce, tomato, cheese, and seasonings. So good. It was so good that I almost ate the entire thing. But I had to save room for the baked items since my friend guaranteed me that the cookies were delicious. They were good but I wouldn’t say delicious. But the subs were awesome. I’ll never be able to go back to subway after this place!