Klein’s Bakery & Cafe (LakeviewEast) — Restaurant in Lake View Township

Disappointing Experience at Klein's Bakery

I visited Klein's Bakery in Lakeview East around 4:30 pm on 3/2/25. I purchased four items, only to discover that I was overcharged for each one. The item names on the checkout display didn't match my order, and when I questioned this, the store assistant claimed they cost the same anyway. After pointing out discrepancies between the display prices and my receipt, the assistant became visibly annoyed and proceeded to serve a new customer before addressing my issue. Once she finally attended to my problem, she called someone and spoke in a foreign language about voiding the original charge and processing the correct one. There was no apology, no offer to make it up to me. She simply handed me my items and the correct receipt silently, so I got my $4 back. Despite the high quality of their baked goods, the lack of customer service and apparent overcharging practices...

I have patronized the Klein’s Bakery branch on Diversey, just west of Sheridan in Lakeview several times and highly recommend their pastries. Their pumpkin pie is delicious and nicely priced at $20—the crust is heavy duty and perfectly baked. This pie beats any other pumpkin pie rivals in the city!

For the Xmas holidays I ordered one of their Buche de Noel traditional French Yule log (see photo below) which I picked up today. While I’m not a cake person, after having a slice of the Buche, I died and went to heaven! For $30, this cake will serve a whole family and is such a masterpiece when it comes to appearance. Treat yourself to this wonderful dessert made with chocolate cake rolled with chocolate mascarpone buttercream and topped with chocolate ganache! 😋

I have also tried the flan, ham & cheese croissant and the chocolate cake and each one is rich and flavorful and baked to perfection...

TL;DR: It's a Venezuelan joint - get the Venezuelan goodies.

I stumbled on the Uptown location a few weeks ago, tried a ham & cream cheese cachito without having any clue what it was, and was delighted. Stopped by the Lincoln Park location today and made the foolish decision to try the ham & cheese croissant to see how it stacked up since I'd been torn between the two on my first visit. It was resoundingly underwhelming. Not enough to drop their rating down a whole star (because I still like the place overall and the croissant itself was fine), but I was the only one in there and it still took ten minutes to get a $7 (with tip) sammie that ended up being two suuuuuuper thin slices of ham that were completely overwhelmed by American cheese. The cachito was stuffed to the gills with tasty ham and seemed like a great deal; the croissant sandwich was definitely disappointing and overpriced...