Klein's Bakery & Cafe (Buena Park) — Restaurant in Lake View Township

This is an authentic Venezuelan bakery. Bakeries in Venezuela are part of our every day life. You go once or twice a day. Very strong influence from European bakeries. There is one in every corner and each one claims to have the best something (the bread, the cachitos, turnovers, fruit tarts, you name it) they are all great. I missed this. After so many years It felt good to come in here and feel like home for a moment. Happy shiny people recommending what's fresh from the oven with a big smile and good coffee. Great quality. This is the real deal people. I love that Chicago is so diverse and offers so many options from many countries. I'm happy to recommend this place if you want a taste of Venezuela 🇻🇪 different than the famous arepas

Today we got Cachitos. Everyone love those. Profiteroles and Golfeados* I warmed them up and added more cheese (because that's how I like them) and it felt like a Caracas hug. It activated the time machine.

*Call them cheesy rolls or sticky buns, or afternoon snack. These are a wonderful Venezuelan sweet and salty treat that combines robust panela sugar with a semi-hard cheese. Serve these rolls with a hot beverage for breakfast, a morning snack, or afternoon tea.This particular bake good is our very own, from Caracas and has a particular flavor profile that we love.

Y en español 🇻🇪 Cachitos de Jamón, jamón y queso crema, Golfeados , profiteroles y el café que estaba mundial pero no llego a la casa. Debí haber.comprado dos 😁☕☕ 🥐 Probé todo y mis papilas hicieron vuelta canela (vueltas de carro) eso sí, cuando probé el Golfeado morí y resucite tres veces (no estoy exagerando, es verdad 😂) Que delicia! 🇻🇪 La gente súper amigable, atentos en ambas tiendas.Vi como preparaban tartaletas y debo decir que se ve el amor con el que trabajan.

Me encanta ver a mis paisanos venezolanos...

EDIT: 5/2/2024 this place had a great run. Unfortunately after having brought my girlfriend here on multiple occasions to enjoy breakfast and/or lunch hours, we were met with a very unreceptive worker there. She displayed disgusting behavior towards me and my girlfriend for no apparent reason. Considering my apprecaition for the cafe, I decided to bring this up to the owner. Who by the way is a sweet hardworking lady. She informed me that her employee said that we had given her attitude and that every time we visit the cafe we are not respectful to her. To which the owner herself told me that she had informed her that in fact it is quite the contrary. The owner stood by us as she has known us before we had encountered this lady. As a result, this left a bad impression on me and I really can’t say who in there will suddenly feel disrespected by you even though you are doing nothing. I would recommend that worker to seek help and therapy because making assumptions on people from thin air is unacceptable. In case anyone is wondering the cashier in question is photographed on here. Great run, great business but I caution the owner to not allow her workers to possibly jeopardize her business.

If you see this person behind the counter the day you decide to go here, do yourself a favor, turn back around and go to dollop a block east. She’s not right in the head and will develop hatred towards you without you even knowing that that’s what’s going on...

The coffee is good, however at what price?

Their service could be described as the worst experience in the city.

When you walk in, you will not be greeted. You will not be advised as where to order and where to pick up. There are no signs, no systems, it's pure chaos. It might not sound like a big deal, you might be thinking just ask someone?

Well, if the person in front of you is wearing headphones and the person standing over there is being rude to you when you ask if he's ordered or not, and you can't get the girl playing on her phone's attention, and one staff is making coffee while the other staff is eating a sandwich... and this experience happens EVERY SINGLE TIME. All of sudden it turns enjoying a delicious cup of coffee and supporting local business, into a long drawn out unpleasant experience.

The owner received an email yesterday right after this experience consistently happened to me for the 4th time in a row and chose not remedy the poor customer experience before sharing this with the world. If you have ordered coffee here recently, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Enough is enough. Please stand up and let Kleins know this service is not acceptable!

I will note: there food and beverages seriously are some of the best food ever. That doesn't negate the service. It's not one or the other. Unfortunately in this case, the poor service is out weighing the pro's of...