Ideal Bakery

I was at the Long Grove Chocolate Fest yesterday and bought an $ 8 coffee cake from this place. All the bragging this guy did about he was better than Dave’s coffee cake and we get the thing home and it is stale, Screw you (not) ideal bakeries!

Apparent change of owner in January 2016. The grocery section of the store has been emptied and is now used producing big cheese cakes. Big loss to the neighborhood. That space used to be full with reasonably priced food items. I especially miss the Cisowionka bottled water from Poland and the wide selection of nectar and fruit juices.
On a positive note, the baked goods are always fresh and very reasonably priced. And you can get a cup of decent coffee (with half and half out of the bottle rather than some powdered creamer) for a buck.
Their prepared foods — pirogi’s and soups and other goodies are nutritious, tasty, and priced right.

I came in the morning for my breakfast cake. Ewelina who used to work there afternoons called my cake Fuka. I asked the morning lady. She did not speak Polish nor English. The lady who spoke Polish said she had never heard of the cake. She was not nice at all. When I went to pay for my tea, the woman spoke Russian to me. I dont speak Russian.

Long time consumer of their poppy seed cake, which was usually delicious. Just bought one after a long absence of their pastries at our local grocery store, and it was pretty awful. It was not out of date, so freshness not an issue.
It tasted like lard was added, even though the ingredients say vegetable oil. They must have changed ingredients to save money, but who knows. Oh well, we won’t be buying this brand anymore.

Small selection of products but they are delicious, fresh and very affordable. I strongly recomment this bakery, I will go there more often now I know there is such a place close yo my house

I definitely recommend this bakery. You must go and check it out for yourself you will not be disappointed

I like the bread very well, thank you, but, if I’m going to go all the way out to the NW Side, I WANT PASTRIES ! Real ones. Not Far North Side, two or three bucks a pop, but might not even be as good as Dunkin’ Donuts, pastries… I’ve always loved the eclairs, turnovers, canolis, paczkis (I sorely regret getting paczkis at Bennison’s last year on Fat Tuesday, they were’nt very good at all, but my GF and I were in Evaston, that day.), but, what should be their claim to fame is the cream puffs… UUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHH! (Homer Simpson voice.), So GOOOOOOOOOOOD. BIG –ASS cream puffs with real cream, sometimes dark cherry or chocolate embellishments, for, like, a Dollar. Unfortunately, they don’t always have them. I haven’t had one there for a couple of years. My timing could be bad, but, I think, some days they just don’t make them. There’s always something good, though.
But… A place with such great pastries should have amazing, or at least decent, coffee to go with them. Can I get an amen?
I had an issue, several years ago, about something I bought. But, they resolved the situation quickly and were very cool about it.
And, you know… Teresa 2 is right next door, so whatever «Nosh» is in Polish, GET IT ON !

Good place, right downstairs from me. But if they had meat, fresh veggies it would be great. I go there almost every other day. Bread is so good here.

Eh, didn’t get good service, probably because I’m not a local and probably because it took me a minute or two to decide since there was so much to choose from. Not too many breads on a Sunday afternoon (I was looking for a babka but none). I ended up with two packzi (plum and raspberry) instead. They were OK, a little dry on the inside, but maybe because I waited to eat them. They were 2 for $ 1 though — can’t beat that!

My family had gone regularly to Ideal Bakery since the ’50’s, so I’m sure the owners have changed since when we first went. For the 30 years or so that we patronized the bakery, everything they made was fantastic! I especially liked their open faced fruit cakes, and their light and airy cheese cakes. I moved to North Carolina 20 years ago and have never been able to find any baked goods here even close to Ideal’s deliciousness. I am especially craving Ideal’s cheese cake. It was light and airy like angel food cake. I never found any other bakery or individual that made a similar kind of cheese cake. I have even searched the web for a recipe. but have been unable to find anything that approximates my description. I pray the present Ideal bakery still has that wonderful recipe. I will definitely check in at the bakery when I return to Chicago for a visit in April.

Pastries are dry and bland. Coffee was watered down and lukewarm. Service was unfriendly. Overall, a big disappointment.

I love this place!
A huge loaf of multi grain bread for $ 2.75 — hell yes! Sliced on the spot if you want and oh so yummy. Desserts are heaven. Not too sweet and filled with light fluffy cream. Their is a mish mash of canned and frozen goods from Poland. The vegetables are fresh and I stop on the way home to pick up potatoes and tomatoes every now and then.
I’m not Polish nor do I speak Polish, but I’ve been coming hear for a year and a half and I’ve been treated well every time. Today I couldn’t decide what dessert to get and the woman working gave me a mighty size portion of each to try and then packed up the left overs for me to take home. Yes — many of the people who work here speak very little English — that’s one of the reasons I love it — it’s authentic. If you are nice, smile and laugh then they will too. I’ve read several comments saying they are unfriendly and that just hasn’t been my experience. No — none of them have come out from behind the counter to hug me, but they have always been friendly as long as I’ve been friendly.
Also — they seem more than happy to tell you which pastries they think are the best if you can’t make a decision.
I’ve bought stuff there for myself, friends and family members. So far everyone has been impressed with the food I’ve given them from this bakery.
I feel lucky to have this place just a few blocks from where I live. It’s not some trendy overpriced bakery. It’s old school Chicago — the Chicago I fell in love with before it became too hip for it’s own good.

We used to love the Ideal Pastry shop when it was owned by the original owners. Since it was closed and reopened it isn’t the same. Don’t waste your time.

My dad is a Lithuanian Rye connoisseur and it’s been hard to find a worthy rye since the closing of the Baltic Bakery. I’ve brought home loaf after loaf from nearly every Eastern European bakery in the city and his response, «eh, not bad.» Then I brought home a loaf of Ideal Bakery’s Lugan Rye. Dad was in heaven. According to him, it’s the closest to what he can remember eating as a child. The loaves are enormous and bargain priced. My recommendation is to go sans sunflower seeds and skip the slicing (to avoid the dreaded drying out). So Ideal Bakery gets 5 stars for their Lithuanian Rye.
I’ve bumped ‘em down a star because I’ve found some of their desserts aren’t as amazing as the bread. I tried a few paczki flavors and I found them to be heavy on the dough and light on the filling. Yet, I’ve found their cannoli to be better than some Italian bakeries. Go figure. If you’re in Portage Park and want to check out an authentic Polish bakery (with killer Lithuanian Rye bread) swing by Ideal Bakery!

Small selection of groceries, but excellent bread at a very reasonable cost.

I really need to take some photos of the creeepy 1970’s fake bread products in the display case. They have got to be older than I am!
I can verify that other Unilocalers are spot on with the purveyor’s pro-​Polish tendencies. We stopped in to get some sandwich fixings on the way home from the park and the girl practically threw our deli meat at us. Plus, she stopped slicing our bread to take care of a Polish-​speaking customer with multiple requests. I have decided to accept it as a quirk of the shop and not take it personally.
The bread is worth the slight abuse and the fruit and Polish products are incredibly fresh. I picked up some loose tea and I am looking forward to trying other foreign brands.
However, if she throws my deli meat at me again, I might just lob it right back.

we stopped in here as part of the neighborhood tour. I bought a chocolate covered cannoli with pistachios on the ends and it was nice and chilled and tasty. I also bought three pierogi: blueberry, cheese, and sauerkraut and mushroom. They were ok, but I have had better. Also, I got the feeling the counterwomen did not enjoy having us in there. I wanted to ask about more things in the case and would have perhaps bought more, but I felt put off.

No one was falling over themselves to help us out but I witnessed a few smiles here and there so maybe these ladies take a while to warm up eh?
Whatever the case, I think they could be a little more outgoing, welcoming, friendly.
Now.the goods. The cheese danish I tried was a mouth full of awesomeness and the other items I sampled (thanks Lauren & Johnny) were pretty good as well.
i live fairly close so maybe when construction ends I’ll drop back in.

I love the products from the Ideal Bakery (I usually buy them from the Family Fruit Market).
I stopped in the bakery the other day, however, and was disappointed with their selection in sweets (breads were great though). I ended up getting eclairs which were really good, but didn’t really see much else I’d even like to try.
But what really doomed Ideal to 3 stars was that we were the only people in the store not speaking Polish and we were definitely treated «differently» let’s say.
I’ll stick to buying their products from the Family Fruit Market, or maybe I’ll just patronize another local bakery.

Whoa — another Patricia B in the neighborhood — weird!?!
Anyway, I don’t love this place. They have really excellent pumperknickel bread, and their pastries are pretty reasonable — but 1.) they don’t refridgerate their cannolis — or other pastries that need to be — and this scares me 2.) their cookies are too light to be «bakery» cookies in my opinion 3.) if you aren’t Polish, it seems to me from the many times I’ve been there, that you don’t get as pleasant of service. I hear a noticeable different in tone and disposition when I get taken care of versus someone who was just speaking Polish. Kind of saddens me (my heritage is partly Polish!) cause it makes me not want to go in there. But $ 2 for great bread, I can deal for 2 minutes.
I’ve never looked or bought anything other than baked goods — so I can’t comment on that part of the bakery.
FAMILY FRUIT MARKET on Cicero carries some stuff from here if you get there early enough.