Panaderia Nuevo Leon — Restaurant in West Chicago Township

We really wanted to love this place. We've been following it for months and planned our day around their announcement that today and tomorrow they would have vegan pan de muerto as we needed some for our ofrenda.

We woke up early and triple checked the website, Google and Instagram to make sure that we didn't miss anything and drove straight there, arriving just after they opened. We waited in line about 15 minutes as they seem to be doing a really good job of monitoring how many people are in the store at once. We saw the sign in the window with all the vegan treats noted and the street outside smelled great.

When we got in the store, we only heard Spanish being used so when a worker started speaking to me in Spanish I tried the best I could to ask for vegan pan de Muerto. All I understood back was, "no". Then the worker walked away from me. I tried to have my husband ask for vegan conchas but again was told no followed by other things we unfortunately could not understand. We got to the register and the woman there almost charged us for someone else's order because they had a tray of stuff waiting, which we didn't because we were struggling to communicate with the staff to understand the situation. We did ended up buying Chipotle tortillas and two fried items which they pointed to after saying, "no" and "vegan" a lot and left without any of the items we actually planned on buying.

Unfortunately, we only took one bite of the fried ones as they only tasted like oil. That being said, the tortillas are really quite good.

It seems like others love it and those who spoke Spanish were leaving with giant bags of stuff, so it must be good. I mean the place smells amazing. It was just sad to plan our day to go to get what we needed to finish our ofrenda only to leave disappointed and confused. I just wish something would have been posted about not having any vegan products either outside or online so we would have known before going in.

I'm sure we will try it again at some point but it took us a good 90 minutes to get there and home and we will definitely need to practice some Spanish prior so we will probably wait awhile before...

This review is on their yeast-based doughnuts, having made doughnuts myself and tried other doughnuts throughout the city. Personally, due to price (less than a dollar), hours of operation, location, customer service, and general vibe, this place has the best yeast doughnuts for me. The doughnuts come in different sizes--not just one standard size, so if you want to indulge in a doughnut as large as your head, you can (though I personally don't really see the excitement in that), and if you just want something smaller or average-sized, they have them available. As for texture, it's a great combination of fluffiness and chewiness. What strikes me as attractively peculiar is how they have a nice, yeasty flavor, but they're not too chewy. I'm not sure how they mastered the ratio of ingredients behind this combination of flavor and texture, but I'm loving it! The flavor, as I've already mentioned, is on the yeastier side, but I wouldn't describe it as overwhelming, since they're delightfully sweet as well. In short, the doughnut here tastes as if it is a homemade Mexican yeast doughnut, and I'm all about fresh and simple recipes that yield subtle but fulfilling results. For old-fashioned doughnuts go elsewhere (probably Stan's or Doughnut Vault), however; you will not...

What a cool concept: you grab your tray and a pair of tong and pick your pastries out from behind the sliding glass door cabinets. I didn't really know what anything was and some of the items weren't labeled but who cares!?! This was FUN stuff. It can get super crowded and you have to be careful not to knock some one else's tray over. The cashiers keep the line moving fast. You can take your goodies to go or sit out side on one of the few tables.

The concept is probably better than the pastries. I'm sorry to say I have had better. There was, however, a pineapple empanada that I really enjoyed and would go back for.

They also sell house made tortillas in a variety of flavors. I got some made with some kind of chili pepper. mmmmm...I ate the spicy tortilla...