Chiu Quon Bakery — Restaurant in Chicago

Very clean and pleasant place, usually very busy and crowded during peak dinning hours; breakfast, lunch and early dinner hours. However, it is not busy at all when got there after 3p and before 4p? Maybe weather got warmer now than earlier during day. So people are staying home, instead of eating out. Lots of bakery goodies to choose from, all were excellent, but slightly on a higher end pricing. For an equivalent item, it is 15% higher than nearby bakery store. And it does not offer sit down dinning experience; there are areas in the front end of store, still inside, that one can eat and drink items brought there and stay standing as long as it's not crowded in the store. Nearby bakery stores have tables and chairs to sit and to eat, enjoy the nice fresh bakery items purchased. However, the tastes of this store products are better than nearby bakery store. Can't say staff are friendly yet they are approachable and helpful and patience, as compare to rude and impolite in other stores, maybe this store is usually busy and staff do not have time to appreciate customers and their needs. Staff must get to next customers as fast as possible, which makes any waiting time short and sweet. If they can improve on with available tables and chairs in back or front part of store for a sit down to eat, and more staff hired to help and to work, so they will not be rushed to finish one and get on with next customer; thus, have little time for customers service, that will make it the #1 store overall, an addition to its good reputations for fresh best bakery items for sale in the store. Nothing more to add in addition to last post Same goodness, same store conditions, same short comings Maybe more orderly in placing orders, a line formed. But that is mostly by efforts of customers, stores do...

This is why I go to Chinatown.

Sure, I like Dim Sum, and will on rare occasion end up at a "menu" place (although all of my old favorites have, sadly, closed), but the lure of the bakery items at Chiu Quon is always tempting me to hop the Red Line south to Cermak.

I am particularly enamored of their BBQ Pork buns and the "sesame balls" with the red bean paste. These are favorites that I can barely stand to NOT buy if I'm in the neighborhood. I've had other "savory" buns as well (I have one Pork Sung bun waiting in the kitchen today for lunch - purchased because they were out of the BBQ when there the other evening), and they've all been at least "good" (if sometimes not quite to this round-eye's palate). The sweet buns (with the singular exception of the VERY addictive sesame balls) are not things that I've indulged much in over the past decade or so, but my kids tell me that they're great ... and the cookies are always a treat.

I don't believe we've ever tried their "fancy" (birthday/wedding) cakes, but they have these available by the slice in a number of variations. Also, there's a whole cafe behind the bakery storefront, which is a bit off-putting if you're not Chinese (it's really not set up for ordering in English!), but we've eaten there at least once, and the experience was interesting and the food (I believe we had some sort of noodle soup) was tasty.

However, for me, this is all about the pastries. I suppose it's a good thing that it takes a bit of planning/time/effort for me to get there, or I'd be bulking up on my favorite items many times a week, rather than every...

Aug 2023 Update on items we tried, see pics Honeydew cake roll - had to try this, as you normally don't find this flavor at the bakeries (eg. Original yellow cake, mocha, coffee, or pandan). Honestly, the cake roll itself is very good, moist, not too sweet, with just a thin line of cream running through the center. However, it was hard to taste any honeydew. If it's in the cake, then it's very faint, else the only difference is the light green color its been given.

Mini moon cakes in lotus and winter melon - love moon cakes any time of year! They had little mini ones in various flavors that were so cute. These bite size are perfect, since a whole regular moon cake is usually too much in one sitting.

Picked lotus, which is an all time favorite, and it did not disappoint! The lotus paste inside was smooth, sweet, and delicious!

Never had winter melon before... and this was certainly different in taste and texture with just a hint of sweetness. It has actual dried pieces of the winter melon inside. It reminded me of eating the little pineapple cakes. It's good but not one that I'd crave anytime soon. Like eating Chinese dried fruit candy. It was popular, as I watched others order it too!

If you're looking for a good old fashion Cantonese bakery, go to Chiu Quon! It's located in the older side of Chinatown on Wentworth. Standard fare of buns filled with bbq pork, curry beef, red bean, coconut, custard and so much more. Regular and Portuguese egg tarts... among other items. A good stop when...