Panaderia Ortiz Bakery — Restaurant in Peoria

Review Date: June 27th, 2013

The place for Mexican baked goods in Peoria.

Laura and Matt told me about this little bakery in Peoria that I had to check out. So, doing what I do, I told them to meet me there the next chance we go. We grabbed Tim along the way and headed there for some baked goodies.

I will admit that I had no idea what the place was when I was told about it. All I heard was a Mexican bakery I need to check out. I didn’t know what to expect but what we experienced was definitely not what I imagined. Most bakeries, when you think of them, are those glass display cases loaded up with tons of bakery items. Breads, cookies, rolls, etc. When we stepped in Panaderia, it was all that and then some. They had the display cases full of stuff but they also had these metal rack holders with racks of baked goods on them. Whether there were for public purchase or they there using the main part of the building as a cooling off area, I don’t know. But the smells were overwhelming, in a good way. The place smelled heavenly, even if I wasn’t sure what I was smelling.

We moved over to the display cases and started to pick out a few things. Some of the things were easy to figure out while a few of the things required us to ask the cashier what they were. He was more than willing to help us pick out our snacks. We all picked out a handful of goodies and headed out. I didn’t realize until after we left that they sold pizza as well. That seems odd at first but if you think about it, it does make some sense. Do you not bake a pizza? Don’t bakeries bake things? Just put 2 and 2 together and you have a winning combo.

As we walked to the car, we snacked on the goodies. I tried to stick to the safe stuff that I knew I would like but I did get a few unknown things as well. It turned out, even the safe bet food took me by surprise. A chocolate chip cookie is a chocolate chip cookie but you add cooking methods used by different ethnic groups and you can find some nuances in how the final cookie tastes. Panaderia is just that. Offering you things that you are familiar or unfamiliar with but adding a bit of Mexican-style of baking to it. My treats were delicious and I have been wanting to go back to get more and to try...

Update, Dec 16, 2021 – Menudo, menudo, menudo. What a beautiful soup. I'll let the picture speak a thousand words instead.

Nov 7, 2020 - Good Sunday morning Peoria, if you're still asleep you're missing out on a really amazing Indian summer day. The sun is shining and the birds are chirping.

Many of you already know I like to go to Panaderia Ortiz located at the intersection of Spring & Monroe in the North Valley. But what you don't know (all my Hispanic friends do of course) is that they also have off the menu items.

One such item is called Menudo, which is the Mexican hangover soup. What I really love about this is that the food culture comparative to where I am from is similar, we love to have good and tasty comfort food, we love soups, broths with lots of different bones and other ingredients in them.

When can you get menudo? I spoke with the owners as I left, generally on weekends and sometimes during the middle of the week. If you're wanting to get some during the week, your best bet is to call first to avoid disappointment.

#mexican #comfortfoods #menudo #hangoversoup #peoria #illinois #offmenu

Dec 9, 2020 – Where else do you get chorizo tacos like these? Continually amazed by the consistency of their quality food offerings.

Nov 2, 2020 – Breakfast Burrito (egg & chorizo or egg & ham) is an off menu item. You have to ask for it. Bet you can't only eat half.

Tacos, tamales and tortas are...

We want to buy bread that we like has cheese and hum inside when we got there there was abt 6 of those breads we got em all I my self ate one right as soon as we got out the store it kind tasted little funny but because we have been coming to this store for a long time I thought it was just a different taste, when we got home I started feeling bad of my stomach this was abt 4 pm I took some medicine and I continued to having a really bad stomach pain keep on throwing everything out of my stomach until like 3 am the next morning ,finally was able to go to bed later on when I woke up I was little hungry after Being sick of my stomach for hours and hours so I went to grab one of the left over breads that we got the day before and not only one bred have maggotts but all the left over bread had em at that pointe i kind of thought why i was so sick the day before , We will never go back this this panadería if these guys can sale u bread that is bad what else can they sale u that is bad , my wife called the next day and she spoke to the owner all he did he apologized , we told em we won't ever come back to their store and we haven't bought anything from that store since then ,, What a disappointment...