Roeser's Bakery — Restaurant in Jefferson Township

This place has very rude staff and does not respect your time. Do not use their online form as it will only waste more of your time. I ordered a custom cake here after hearing great things. Placed the request for a quote online and got a response back a week later. The email specifically mentions that the quote is NOT an order and that you still need to go in person with the printed quote to place the order. This was understood. I don't have a printer, so I stopped by a UPS store to print the quote (an extra step I would've rather avoided, but I wanted to follow the instructions to be in and out as quickly as possible). I arrived at the bakery and gave the quote to the lady at the front. I explained that I had received a quote online and that I just needed to place the order in person and pay. For some reason, she asked me to wait a little while longer, so I stood to the side for 30 minutes while they proceeded to help all other customers in line behind me. Keep in mind, I perfectly followed the instructions provided in the quote. The entire point being that I wanted to quickly take care of this as it was a work day for me and I didn't have time to wait. All I needed to do was show up and pay. When the lady got back to me, she asked again what I needed (?) and when I responded she says "Oh, all you need to do is pay?". I was already fairly annoyed at this point but I didn't voice that. I just wanted to be done with the whole process and move on with my day. Unfortunately things only got worse from there. The employee passed the task on to another employee who proceeded to be extremely rude to me for no reason whatsoever. She grabbed the quote I brought in and rudely explained "This paper is NOT an order. It says so right here" and proceeds to read out loud the line in the quote. This woman assumed that I was coming in to pick up a custom cake with only a quote on hand. Annoyed, I responded with "I know that. I'm trying to place the order. I brought in the quote like it says in the paper". She only got more annoyed when I responded. I didn't care either way in the moment, I really just wanted to place the order and move on. Another thing that was frustrating is that the printed quote contains all of the requested ingredients and instructions, but they proceeded to go through the entire process with me in person. It's like they're not even aware of this online system. Finally got the cake a week later and it wasn't anything great. Would've been happier with it if they had treated me with an ounce of respect. Definitely not worth the hassle. I won't be coming back and I recommend looking for...

OK so I will say that I’ve never heard of Roeser’s before I looked them up online when I searched “Best ice cream cakes in Chicago.” Not only did they pop up under that search, but under “ Best cakes in Chicago” period! You know what…. They didn’t disappoint!! Of course it makes sense when you understand the history! Let’s break it down….

Turns out this place has been around since 1911!! that’s right, this place is well over 100 years old! It was founded by the late John Roeser Sr and his wife, Hattie. They both ran the shop for over 60 years. That’s insane! As of today, I believe they are the oldest family bakery in the city! Of course you can see why when you walk in.

Upon arrival, it immediately harken me back to my days when I lived in NYC. When there were no big box corporate chains like Jewel Osco or Marianos who had their own multibillion dollar bakeries. This is just a good ole Mom and Pop bakery that is still alive and kicking!

Regarding the my cake, I ordered the Cookies and Cream Oreo ice cream and it was to die for! It was for a special occasion and the bakery, get a very good job of getting the lettering right!

My only critique is I have to give them a knock on the customer service side for one reason: the wait time was pretty ridiculous considering how small the crowd was. Especially considering I had already paid for the cake in advance. A solution to the problem would be for the bakery to set up a “Prepaid Pickup” area. I think this will be worthwhile not only for folks like myself, but also for delivery drivers like DoorDash, GrubHub and Ubereats. The fact that it took me 20-30 minutes to get my prepaid cake when only four people were in front of me I found a bit preposterous. If it wasn’t for this, they would get a five out of five.

Overall, I would highly recommend Roeser’s Bakery. When they say is the best in Chicago, they aren’t kidding. Don’t believe me? Go give them a shot! Just make sure you have plenty of wait time. LOL! Other than that, Roeser’s Bakery is where...

Idk if this place has gone downhill or was always like this but Ive had couple of cakes that i liked. Last week i ordered one and I’ve never seen anything made with so little care for something that people paid their hard earned money. So sloppy. 2 thick pieces of cake n frosting in between, too sweet n dry and frosting on top and around, like a teen just learned how to make cake for the first time. Other bakeries would slice those thick pieces in half and put frosting in between. I am talking those thick pieces were 2” thick like bread. Of course that can never get any moisture if it’s that thick. And please don’t call this German bakery. Ive been to Germany they’re outstanding. So disappointing, and they’re not cheap. No one ate much, I could have gotten away better with jewel cake. Also the ladies there are like talking to each other with their back turned n completely ignore customers waiting acting like they’re solving something. And I ordered it 2 days in advance and they refused to do anything like rum soaked or something bc no time. Seems like the owners are decent people but fire these lazy people that work there and hire good workers. And please cut the sugar. German cakes are not as sweet as American.

Update: thank you for the reply and i know your cakes are not like this. I don’t understand what happened. Ive had even the ones in stock from the fridge and they were pretty good, this one was not up to roeser’s standards, definitely some employee messed up and was careless. I will give it another shot on my next bdy and will revise the review. I wish i had taken pictures but i didn’t think to do it because i am also not looking for free stuff, i just want to get...