Maria’s Bakery

I love this place because Gino makes you feel so at home and welcome. The food is also very good all the time. Service is good when he has regular help but sometimes it takes a little while, but I don’t like the feeling of hurry up when I eat out anyway.
Excellent!

I used to work here and never have I ever been so poorly treated. I only worked with Gino.
Yes the food is great here but Gino is a horrible human being.
He wouldn’t let me serve bread to kids because he did not want the kids to fill up on bread. When the 7 year old boy asked for bread, his response was to me «F*$k no.»
Do not order Decaf, Gino just pours you regular coffee. Do nor order iced coffee, he makes coffee and just adds ice to it.
The «help» is not tipped. He says tip is included but we do not see it. He does not adjust credit card tips. Any cash tip you give him goes to the cash register.
He treats the women employee terribly. He came on to me several times. The food takes forever to come out because only one woman cooks back there. Sometimes she has help.
The reason there is never enough «help» is because he treats us terribly, is never organized with a schedule, and he is not an honest man.

World’s Greatest Cake Donuts. Period.
Great atmosphere — feels like a real European bakery… espresso machine and everything.

I love this place! I have ordered single entrees to go, as well as full and ½ pans for company ! Love the Chicken Lemon, Chicken Parmesan and Lasagna! Alfredo sauce is yummy, too! Top it all off with a delicious cannoli!!! You can’t go wrong here!

Great pasta with homemade sauces. Probably the best cappuccino in the area, as long as Gino is making it. Perfect with one of the almond cookies. I plan on being a regular!

I absolutely love this place, it feels like you traveled across the Atlantic and landed somewhere in Italy. The food is wonderful, the music is great and has a fantastic service.

Stopped here for lunch and ordered the Italian Panini, with the soup of the day. Paulina was VERY friendly, and welcoming. Always making sure I was ok, even brought me coffee, let me try some desserts, and even brought me 2 spoonfuls of their ice cream to try. Very motherly. I HIGHLY recommend checking this place out. Oh yeah, their coffee is AAAAmazing!

Always great! The sandwiches are delicious, Maria’s sets the standard for an Italian sub or Capresse sandwich (2 of many greats)! Coffee, espresso… So good.
Cookies and flatbreads are my kids favorites!

We ordered a dozen cannolis for pickup late in the day this past weekend. These were for a dinner party. The first statement was, «We ran out of pistachios and will put chocolate chips on them. Is that OK?» I agreed. While waiting, the man behind the counter told other customers he only had one piece of bread left for a sandwich. It was 5:30 and they were open until 8. When we opened the box after dinner we found the filling was a dot at each end with a few chocolate chips on top. I have never had cannolis filled this way.
When I called to find out why this happened the man said it was a new «girl» and said I’ll give you a few next time you come. No apologies – just an excuse. Very disappointing and very poor customer service. Have been ordering these for years but may not go back.
Think twice before ordering for a late pickup and check the box.

This is one of those places you just don’t find in the suburbs. It’s the real deal so homey and old school and they are incredibly nice. You just feel at home. Bread lovers beware you will NOT be disappointed the bread is AWESOME! I devoured my caprese sandwich… so good! I can’t wait to come back here and try more of their homemade goodness. The gelato, the baked goods all make me want to go back again already. BELLISSIMO!

Maria’s is the kind of place you want to find when out and about looking for good and authentic food. Calling it a bakery hides the fact that they also offer a great variety of sandwiches and entrees in addition to their incredible cookies, focaccia, and other delectables. I used to frequent their location further north on Sheridan Road, but I can say that the move has not affected the wonderful quality of their products. The butter cookies are my personal favorite but everything that I have tried here has been wonderful. Well worth the trip if you live in the Chicago area.

Great service and great food. I walked in and was excited to order their Italian Beef sandwich during this Christmas break. Alas, they came back a few minutes later to inform me that it was out. I had their meatball instead and, although meatball subs are not my thing, it was very good.
An excellent selection of other Italian dishes, breads and especially pastries.

Maria’s Bakery is THE place in Highwood for great food, laughter and conversation. Gino is amazing and always full of energy.
Almost everything is homemade and delicious. Try the meatball sub (homemade bread, meatballs AND sauce)…or the chicken vesuvio… or the cappuccino… just try everything. And keep coming back.

True, authentic, delicious Italian food and sweets. Yesterday was my first visit to Maria’s Bakery and I will return! After reading many Unilocal sites and reviews I decided this was the place to go. Our (mini-​family reunion is this weekend) and I wanted to bring some sweets for the festivities! We are Italian so authentic and delicious were at the top of my list. Gino and the young man who helped me were very friendly and helpful! Thank you Maria’s Bakery… we’ll enjoy the treats and reminisce about the mother-​father land all weekend long!

is this my favorite highland park/​highwood discovery? probably, or a close tie with all the mexican restaurants I’ve already raved about.
Y’all, this place is the only bakery you need. Want a cookie? get the almond crescent one, with or without chocolate! or the ones that are covered in pistachios! they are chewy, sweet, nutty, incredible. Looking for lunch? get a panini! Feel like you should eat dinner before stuffing your face with afore-​mentioned cookied? they have a FULL DINNER MENU, and it’s all delicious (especially the bolognese sauce).
The staff is so friendly– there are only ever a few employees, and don’t mind when you hem and haw in front of the bakery case for twenty minutes. Prices are totally reasonable— actually, I have no idea if it’s reasonable, I’m in such a haze of excitement about my cookies that I’ve never even noticed the charge. Totally worth it either way.

Every time we’ve gone it’s been nothing shy of phenomenal! We initially started with the Italian subs and some seasonal sugar cookies –amazing!
Decided to go back to carb load for our pre-​marathon meal. Sat and had some vegetarian pizza they heated up and some glasses of water; one slice was sufficient for the two of us. We waited while they prepared our meal that we took home cold to reheat later. I had the spinach mushroom lasagna and he had the salmon farfalle. We also threw in a loaf of bread. Both meals were more than one could eat in a sitting and for all that we still paid under $ 35!
The customer service is great, they remember you and are very friendly.
They really took a personal interest, asking many questions about our run and then carried on to talk/​reminisce about Italy! We had a great time.
They also have a catering menu with very reasonable prices — if we would have known sooner we most definitely would have ordered from them for our post marathon party — next time for sure!

Good things come to those who wait. That’s what my placemat said. I couldn’t stop looking at it for some reason. It had great purpose for so many reasons, but mostly for the fact that I waited to come here (I don’t know why) and it was so worth it!
I’ve been to Italy. In fact I spent a month over there, and I have to say this place is the real deal. I’ve passed by it a million times and have read all the wonderful reviews. Everyone is spot on. Greeted by Gino, my hubby and I took Mike B’s advice and went for an afternoon pick-​me-​up. I had the vanilla latte (made by Gino himself) and my hubby had the Americano. We opted for some cookie treats. A biscotti, sugar cookies with chocolate on top and a pecan tassie (Meghan H can attest to these). I expected the chocolate on the tassie to be hard, but it was soft and so was the shortbread and everything inside. Wow, what a delicious and flavorful complement to my latte. The cookies here are moist and the variety is fantastic. They are by the pound, but I didn’t see a sign anywhere. Overall, we had two fancy coffees and five cookie/​biscotti treats in total for under $ 10.
The service? The menu? Just like being in Italy. The aroma of warm your tummy food enticed me to get a menu from Gino, because here you can pick up large orders of take-​out food for your family… whatever size. They have different portions available, and I honestly can’t wait to have my family visit so we can pick up some family meals.
Wendy E I’m thinking the lasagna is going to be coming home with me one of these days, and did I see something about a meatball sub?
For those who are into fall food, they have pumpkin ravioli on the menu (all the time) and I’m sure it’s wonderful. Also, I betcha’ the minestrone is nice and authentic.
Seating is limited here and there are only a few tables inside and out. I don’t know how busy it gets during the lunch hour, but we came at 2:30pm and it was pretty quiet.
Funny, Under The Tuscan Sun is running this week on cable, and it seems to be playing each time I turn the TV on. Perhaps this is my week to celebrate Italy.
Oh! 4 out of 5 stars because I didn’t eat anything off the menu. Stay tuned…
Ciao!

Very good Italian bakery. The sweets are to die for. Order the cannoli’s in advance, as they make them fresh to order. MMMMMmmmmm.
Pizza is very good… it’s a thick sicilian and big slices. Have it heated there or take it home to reheat. Many vey good dishes to choose from. The bread (not made here but delivered fresh every morning) is outstanding. Really like this place!

Holy butter cookies! (the entirety of their bakery selection practically consisted of nothing but them) and, sorry to disappoint, but I’m not too keen on butter cookies (too dry and crumbly: p) so I skipped on these guys… this time…
I was a tad disappointed because I was looking forward to trying their cannolis (that have gotten rave reviews on here), but I didn’t see any when I dropped in :(and I was there on a Tuesday a mere ½hr after they had opened… soooo I’m guessing cannolis weren’t ‘on the menu’ for today… bummer!
I did end up trying the chocolate biscotti and a mini pecan shortbread tartlet, which rang up at $ 1.73 — nice. The biscotti was decent as far as biscotti is concerned. I’ve never been a big biscotti person, but I found that Maria’s has more of a chewiness to it, rather than the rock-​hard-​chip-​your-​tooth-​crunch that biscotti is notoriously-​known for, so that was exciting. I didn’t expect much from the little shortbread cup, thinking that it was just a little shortbread cookie with a sole pecan on top. But when I took a bite and realized that it was a true mini version of pecan pie, I was quite a happy camper.
If I do ever come back here, it’ll be to try their cannolis (of course), their GELATO (that I happened to spot upon walking in — YES), and perhaps their actual food offerings as well, as I noticed that they serve Italian fare too (pastas, sandwiches, and the like).

Maria’s is a great place to catch a coffee and a pastry afternoon pick-​me-​up.
They are expanding their menu and hours for dinner service. The items on the menu (mostly traditional Italian dishes) certainly look tempting. I promise to report back when we have tried dinner.
Next time you are overheated– give Maria’s Gelato a try!