Racine Bakery

I went here for paczki after a reddit recommendation and wasn’t disappointed. Authentic and healthy amount of filling, and they serve paczki everyday so you don’t have to stress if you miss fat tuesday

We cannot come here enough. Every time we come it brings back the best memories with my grandma. The food is the tastiest, freshest, and for us, nostalgic. Cannot say enough good things about Racine Bakery!

I travel for an hour on two buses to get to this Bakery every Easter. It's well worth the trip. Besides Polish sausage I like to get Lituanian & I can't get it in the neighborhood. They sell other Polish cooked foods & they have cakes, pastries & kolacky.

I bought custard cream, chocolate coated, strawberry with whipped cream and cheese Pączki. They are all delicious. My favorite one is cheese cream filling. This was my first visit. I will go back again for other baking goods.

Tried their poppy seed roll from Garden Fresh up in Mundelein. It is very dense and girth to boot. They put in a lot of filling and thankfully don't make it too sweet! If you have a sweet tooth this will not satisfy it, but they have other dishes that have a stronger fruity taste.

This bakery has so much to choose from, delicious pastries and they also sell polish dishes and ingredients!! Give it a try at least once. The service is also great.

I'm Lithuanian and love this place! Everyone is so nice and helpful. The food and bakery are the best! Reminds me of my Močiute's cooking!

Most people eat Paczki on fat Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. Cause that's when they are available to the common man. Racine bakery has the best ones year round!

Not gonna lie, I looked up how to pronounce "paczki" before I walked in because I didn't want to look like an idiot. It's pronounced "POONCH-key." This is an adorable Lithuanian and Polish bakery in the MDW area. They have all sorts of European sweets as well as donuts, eclairs, and American fare. The first think that caught my eye was the paczkis, stuffed donuts with fillings like apricot, blueberry, rose hip, raspberry, and fresh strawberry. The fresh strawberry one ($2.99) was amazing, like a strawberry shortcake. The pastry itself was light and crisp on the outside, and the filling and cream was perfectly sweet. So, so, good! Note that they do have a $5 minimum to use card. Just buy more paczkis!

About a 1-1.5: I've been meaning to try Racine Bakery for a while, but our recent visit left much to be desired. Maybe it was an off day when we went, but we were pretty disappointed. This bakery offers various breads, cakes, tortes, pastries, cookies, ragoulis, various apps, salads, hot veggies, a deli counter, and catering services. They also have a small grocery section. There were no paczkis when we were there, and their cookie section was pitiful. There were some wrapped bread trays, but they didn't look fresh. No one offered to help or provide any assistance. We were in and out within a couple of minutes. Limited street parking in front of the bakery available. +non-existent service +limited selection +street parking in front of bakery

If you are in the area, you have to stop and visit this Polish bakery. The paczki, cakes, cookies, bacon buns and sweets are all very good. So much to choose from. Yes they have paczki's all year around. They have a deli section of hot foods. So much to try as well and all very good. We like the liver & onions, cabbage rolls, chicken rolls and potato pancakes. Check the website for the weekly specials.

Bakery items & bread are delicious but steer clear of their " kugelis" ! Awful!! Tastes like it was made with instant mashed potatoes, no bacon or onion taste at all !! Cheaped out and still charging way too much for a terrible product! Not a fan. Don't sell crap like that! Stick to items with quality ingredients. That's how folks go out of business. I pay for quality not crap.

Vatiety of baked goods, deli serving super packed sandwiches and polish delicacies, courteous quick service

Very good bakery and deli great service from very nice ladies. Very good prepared dishes too favorites from the Polish and the Lithuanian communities.

We tried the smaller more traditional Kolaczki and they were so perfect. Service was great. We are definitely coming back to try the deli/Grocery part of this homey style bakery.

Anytime I am there, I always notice someone from out of town or the far north side stocking up with boxes of goodies. I am a bread guy who lives near Lincoln Square. This is my favorite source for bread.

Bring your kids to this genuine bakery and deli. Prices are not bad and parking is easy. This is what grocery stores try to copy in their "specialty" departments. The quality you'll find in this real bakery is a refreshing change from the "factory" bread in grocery stores. Paczki are available year-round, not just in February for Paczki Day. It sounds like Punch-Key. They are like jelly donuts or bismarks, with a wide variety of fillings. I think wars were fought over which rye bread is best; Polish or Lithuanian. Get both and keep the peace. They make a lot more than bread -- cookies, cakes -- good paleo diet items. I need to go back and try the deli salads and sausages. Now all I can say is that they look good. Places like this need our support or all we'll have left is chain supermarket junk. If you or your kids don't eat this, you don't know what you're missing. Show the next generation how food is supposed to taste. In 2019, Chicago lost Bridgeport Bakery and Tuzik's -- RIP Ted Tuzik. Support local businesses.

Best Polish Deli I have ever been to. Awesome sandwiches made to order at a fantastic price. And the bread, try the Polish rye bread. When it's freshly baked, it smells heavenly. Their pastries and cakes are incredible as well. You'll find their bread in the Jewel Food stores too. They also bake Lithuanian bread and more.

Best Paczki's ever! The lenten special of strawberry glazed whipped cream ones are untouchable and are always very fresh! Quaint little bakery is jam packed with many commodities to include a selection of fresh lunch meats & breads. Don't forget to try some bacon buns!!

Went here on a Monday because the bakery down the street was closed. The lady that helped us was very friendly but everything we ordered missed the mark-paczki, bacon buns and kolacky. When I'm back in town, I'll be sure to get to WB when it's open.

Great polish rye bread. I travel miles for the bread. The kolackis are also very good. Staff is very helpful. Prices are good.

The cheese blintzes were excellent but the Kugelis was tasteless , non existent bacon and instead of grated potatoes it had the consistency of mashed. The Herring in tomato and onion was ehh.

Always amazing and delicious! We come here to get Polish baked goods when I visit Chicago and it always is amazing and tastes just like my grandma used to make!!!

My parents grew up in Brighton Park and I remember going to polish bakeries as a kid. On our recent visit back to Chicago, we came across this store and fell in love with it! I think we were the only English speaking people in the store. It reminded me of shopping with my Grandma and she'd speak polish to everyone. The food is incredible! You can get authentic homemade polish food like potato pancakes, borchst, beet soup and a ton of other items that they rotate out. The bakery side of the store is incredible too! They have REAL kolaches (not the puff pastry kind you find at every bakery in America). They also have a ton of other cookies and treats I remember eating as a kid in Chicago. Since we were only visiting, we didn't get to buy anything from the shop or buy any of their delicious meats and sausages. But I'm sure they are excellent. We loved this place so much we swung by on our way to the airport to catch a quick dinner and ate it in the car. I have 5 kids by the way and they gobbled up all the good and couldn't get enough. I wish they had something remotely close to this in Texas, but they don't. *As a side note, I have a lot of health issues where I can't eat out a lot, and this place did not bother me one bit, so you know that everything is made from scratch.

Best any kind of sandwich you want , they pack the sandwich could only finish half under $5 , the soups are amazing they can run Out so go early , had the mushroom soup Delicious home made soup $3 , the bakery is very good , the rye bread very fresh Been good for years love this place

Only a few traditional Polish bakeries here. Very good rye bread. Pastries are delicious. Get authentic Polish paczkis here during lent.

I only subtract one star because of the smell upon entering the place, it was terrible (probably due to the meat though). Otherwise, everything that pertains to the bakery was great. I visited this place looking for sweets, and I found them. I ordered two muffins: one blueberry and one banana nut. The blueberry was moist and tasteful, but I have had better banana nut muffins. I randomly ordered a sugar cookie, it tasted like a normal sugar cookie. I ordered two raspberry packzi's, they were just ok. Under the above circumstances, I had to subtract one more star. But I think my own rating is misleading, although I attempt to remain objective, this bakery is worthy of a visit to try for yourself.

Fantastic bakery. The chocolate covered custard filled paczki (doughnuts) are my favorite. The nut cups are wonderful and the cookie style kolacky are good. Fillings in items were generous and tasty. The large cheese kolache was very good. Everything was very fresh and the women behind the counter were very pleasant, helpful and patient.

When I was a child my parents used to go to Racine Bakery, so I have eaten food from their my entire life. Now that I live out of state, when I return, I must also go back to Racine. Everything is excellent, but their Bacon Buns , Kolach, and Polish Crullers are the very best!!!! I go and get them every week when up in Illinois. I really don't like too many sweet things and they have just the right amount of powered sugar on them. 63 years of Racine Bakery and not tired of them yet!!!!

Wow, what a treasure! We stopped by on a whim and were VERY happy we did. I truly don't understand how they can make such wonderful baked goods and sell them at such low prices. We got four items (rum ball, muffin, doughnut, cheesecake slice) and the bill was $5.00. If this was downtown Chicago, the bill would have been two or three times that. Very good quality!

I love this bakery. The Paczki's are fresh, delicious and authentic, not your grocery store variety. They bake them year round not just for Fat Tuesday. The bacon meat buns are also delicious. The bakery shares a parking lot with the restaurant next door, so it can get crowded. The bakery is in Chicago, so don't forget to bring a bag or pay seven cents for one. ENJOY!

I visited Racine Bakery on Archer avenue in Chicago's Garfield Ridge neighborhood a few times in the last year. This most recent visit I didn't get there until about an hour before closing. I was initially impressed with the large selection of rolls, breads, cookies, and pastries. Then I noticed every product was being packed up for sale the next day. When I inquired, they stated they sell most things for two days and refrigerated pastry for up to five days. Really? I've been to some bakeries where you may get two days on a refrigerated eclair but breads and rolls have a one day shelf life. I'm happy they were honest but unimpressed with the shelf life and logistics of baking fresh items. What items I did get looked fresh today and I was happy with the quality. I also picked up some meat pierogi from the freezer and some kugelis from the deli. Both were delicious the next evening for dinner. There aren't too many ethnic European delis and bakeries any more so it's nice you can find some of the older traditional foods or fixings that grandma used to make. They do carry some pazcki but just one or two flavors. In the spring during lent they often carry 15 flavors. Be aware these are European sweet and not the typical sweeter American sweet you can find at Weber's Bakery farther west on Archer. Don't buy Racine pazcki for your American friends as they will likely not find the fillings to be sweet enough. They share a large parking lot with Three Brothers Restaurant, making a stop here easy most days and times of the week.

Oh, wow! Whether you're leaving Midway or going, take a few minutes and grab a snack here. We ordered five items, ranging from beautiful sugar cookies, fruit tarts, Bavarian cream donuts, and two items I'm not sure what they call them, but they looked amazing. Everything was light, fresh, and tasty. And as I said, what an great price! The lady behind the counter was also very pleasant--and patient--as I took forever to decide what I wanted.

Came in for paczkis in August 2019...I was so happy they had a whole assortment of them year round! The only thing that was kinda a downer was that there wasn't a lot of filling in them and was mostly dough. But they also had a lot of other Eastern European pastries that looked delicious as well as savory meats and meals that I would probably try if lived in the area! I'll definitely go back one day!

If my mom's not cooking it, this is the place to go for all the Lithuanian goodies I crave. Koldunai in the frozen section are very good. We buy the mushroom or meat filled dumplings. Boil for 15 minutes, add melted butter, sour cream and bacon bits and you've got the perfect comfort food. They are quite small which I like and the dough is very tender. The hunter sausage, which is similar to a beef stick, are good, but not as great as the ones distributed 20 plus years ago. These were fatty and much drier than the current offerings. Nevertheless, they still make for a nice quick snack with plenty of spices for flavor. My husband claimed the bakery's bacon buns were not as good as my mom's. Surprising, since she always cuts the fat in every recipe. Racine's version is all about richness, and the buns conveyed that beautifully. I loved them. I briefly warmed an individual roll in the microwave wrapped in a wet paper towel. Oh my. I closed my eyes to savor each and every bite. The ponchkas, which my grandmother used to make in the 60's and 70's, were good but not as good as bobute's. The fruit filled doughnuts were light and tasty but had something missing. Perhaps not enough raspberry filling which serves an important flavoring for the end result. Not enough, and you end up with bites of dough that lack any real flavors. My only complaint is with the Lithuanian Rye. Bleached flour as the first ingredient? No no no. The recipe has changed I'm sure for cost reasons, but that to me is a cardinal sin. Bring back the original, and this yelper will give you 5 stars. Yea right, like that will do anything. LOL.

I was initially apprehensive to go here because it was so out the way for me. I was really craving some paczki, and I briefly googled a place to go and this came up. The employees were really helpful because I wasn't sure what I wanted. I was really surprised when the bill came because it was a lot cheaper than I had expected. And once I tried the paczki I thought it was amazing. I got custard, blueberry, strawberry, raspberry, and rose. I thought hands down the custard and blueberry were the best. I couldn't tell much of a difference between the strawberry and raspberry, but they were both really good. The rose was good for a few bites, but then I thought that it was overwhelming. Totally worth the drive!

I really really really love their donuts and sweets. Also not expensive. I have tried their warm food as well and it's great for lunch if you need something good. Definitely going to be back again and again

The Polish rye is out of this world great. The deli is Awesome and the bakery is Awesome, especially the cheesecake.

I love Chicago and love Polish food even more! My love for Polish brought me to Racine Bakery. It's a Lithuanian/Polish deli and bakery place. Both languages of origin is Slavic, if you're curious about it. It's a tiny place with a massive private parking lot. Since the Thanksgiving Day is approaching, they were quite busy with people preparing for this holiday's arrival. I was there to get some bakery items for my boss and co-workers for the upcoming Black Friday retail mania. I think some sweets can help us sustain our stamina. I love their kolaczki (a type of pastry appears like a "seashell" and wrapped with different flavors of jams, such as raspberry, orange, and strawberry). I've had them because Montrose Deli in Dunning and in Portage Park carry their pastries as well. I also picked up the Lithuanian poppyseed cheesecake, the other kind of pastry containing walnuts (sorry, I don't know the name of this; they just looked so cute that was why I picked them up), and a loaf of pumper nickel bread. Hubby saw the bread behind the counter and he was excited. He said this type of bread is one of his favorite. Well, I guess I didn't know my hubby all that well and didn't even know that he likes this. I will do a better job as the wife from now on. Even though yelp said that they accept credit cards, at the pastry counter they only accepted cash. Everything we've gotten came to under $15. Yeah, you gotta love local businesses: great value, great food! I didn't take time to check out the deli counter and the rest of grocery section. Patrons kept on fluxing into this tiny space, so it was better for us to leave so that they would have more space to shop. It's located in the Garfield Ridge neighborhood. The CTA 62 (Archer) bus drops off at Archer/Meade. Otherwise, driving is ok because of the availability of the private lot.

AWESOME FOOD - AWESOME CUSTOMER SERVICE - AWESOME EXPERIENCE. For the past 5 years we have ordered Lithuanian rye bread, bacon buns and pastries to be delivered to our Arizona Lithuanian food celebration and each and every time the service on the phone is second to none - friendly and efficient - and the product arrives in perfect condition and on time as scheduled. Thank you Racine Bakery for helping to keep our Chicago memories alive!

This bakery has so much to choose from, delicious pastries and they also sell polish dishes and ingredients!! Give it a try at least once. The service is also great.

I love eating really good potato pancakes without all the work. They're only one of many excellent items sold here.

This place has some of the best and most distinctive bread available in Chicago. It's not your usual crusty bread that's associated with most upscale bakeries, but it's some of the most flavorful bread around. In particular, the pumpernickel-based ryes are so moist that they're almost cakey, but have a depth of flavor that I hadn't tasted since traveling in Eastern Europe ages ago. The blintzes and poppy seed cake are likewise some of the best I've had.

We had the ambrosia cake from Racine bakery, the best cake I ever had. Give it a try you won't be disappointed

Awesome customer service . The girls upfront were very helpful and took the time to explain all the different pazcki flavors. I will definitely return to try their cakes

Great bakery!! Love their breads and cookies. If you're looking for a sweet table, look no further! Racine's sweet table is the best I've ever had. Gorgeous set up and delicious pastries, fresh fruit, chocolate covered strawberries, etc. Fantastic! Debbie K.

Great little bakery. Was in a rush, but staff is nice and they have the products I was looking for. Will come back for the bacon buns, kolacky and Latvian rye.

I haven't tried the deli section of this bakery, but I can attest that their Polish Rye is amazing. It's quite simple but I've been spoiled by having this bakery so close. On Tuesdays they offer a buy1-get1 free on their ryes. Their pastries are good, their cakes have fruit in it, their rolls are fresh all day but come evening time they've been expectedly picked over and a little stale. I've always liked their cheese rolls. Parking can be a pain since 3 Sons does not let you park in their lot, so it's street parking or round the corners either by the Mexican place or by The Egg Store.

I'm not Polish, but I've been a loyal patron of this bakery/deli for a couple of years. I usually come here to get a pound of cookies--specifically, cookies topped with a dollop of chocolate and a sugar-coated lime gummy. Also, I get ones that are dipped halfway into chocolate. Oooh, yes. They have several other kinds of cookies, so you can mix and match whatever you want. The bread here is quite good and essential to any open-faced sandwich. There are pre-cut loafs and rolls to choose from. The loafs are placed on easy-to-see racks behind the counter, and the rolls are in those plastic storage units with tongs where you can pick out the ones you want. Of course, they have cakes and other pastries. They are too numerous to think about or even remember. You just have to go and see for yourself. The deli portion of this place is small but pretty good. They have decent cepelinai here if you're too busy (or lazy) to drive out to the Lithuanian Bakery & Deli in Palos Hills. Just don't be shy to ask for extra bacon sauce and sour cream :) The one disappointing experience I had with this bakery was when a jello-topped cake I had bought went bad a little too quickly for my taste. It was probably an isolated incident, but I still remember being sad that most of the cake didn't make it to my belly. All in all, you should drop in for a taste.

This is a Lithuanian bakery/deli with some Polish pastries and dishes. Everything here is very good. We strongly recommend getting/trying their hot dishes in the deli. If you're not sure of something, just ask and the ladies will give you a taste. The staff is very nice and helpful. They can also cater your party! They are always very fresh and very good. I always stop in when I'm in the area.

Called them to ask if they had smoked Polish sausage, they said they did. Went there and asked for 3 links of smoked Polish sausage, girl asked me "which one". I said the regular smoked Polish, she asked "can you show me". I replied that I didn't know which one was the Polish because the sausages weren't clearly marked. One would think she should should know since she works there, right? Anyways, another girl came over and said, "it's this one". I purchased the sausage, got home and tasted it, it wasn't Polish sausage. Whatever type of sausage it was, it was disgusting. I guess that's what I get for going to a bakery/deli for Polish sausage. Lesson learned, will not go back.

How can you go wong with a cinnamon bun as big as your hand for $1.01 & the chicken buns are fantastic

DBF happened to be in this part of the world right around Shrove Tuesday, and since Polish food is hard to get in Indianapolis, he stopped in and fought the crowd to bring some paczki home. I'm used to getting donuts that are just labeled paczki, but these are completely different, more like bread--much less sweet, and with a tougher crumb. The fillings are delicious and varied, and include such exotic-to-us things as rose hip. They were so good that a couple of weeks later we both stopped in while in town. Everything *else* in the place looked simply fantastic; besides a wide variety of things baked in-house, they also have shelves of Polish/Lithuanian items and a deli counter as well. We managed to get out without buying anything else other than a small cookie-like item, shaped vaguely like a pastry flower and with a dollop of red gel on top. I don't know what the heck it was, but it was delicious.

Good polish neighborhood bakery... Good rye bread.. sweets.. etc etc Stuff varies by the day.. so take a gander inside and smell all the goodies

First time there, great selection of bread and sweets still available. Some places run out by noon but not this place, they keep it coming! Quality baked items and reasonable prices. I am going back for sure!

Don't just go there. Go there EARLY. This place sells out, so if you don't get there early enough you don't get the really good stuff. They make a variety of rye breads daily. All of them are great, but the Lithuanian rye usually sells out first. Get there early, snag some fresh rye bread, then add some bacon buns, cookies and whatever else you can carry to the car.

The bakery has an excellent selection of fresh-made bread on site. I highly recommend the 7 Grain, non yeast 7 Grain and Lithuanian Rye bread. The loaves were DENSE, quite heavy and chewy with crunchy crust. Exceptionally unique was the non-yeast version of 7 grain. Though it was flatter (obviously without the yeast) than the yeasted version, it had a more oilier, slightly saltier and spongier taste. Still remarkably delicious, though it's advised to eat each slice untoasted. The non-yeast version would be ideal to use if one wants to make a remarkable bread pudding. Anyhow, each loaf at the bakery was roughly under $4 and considering what you're getting, it's an EXCELLENT value. The cheese babka rolls were very good as well. In fact, after demolishing a babka in the parking lot, I had to run back in to buy couple more just to keep in the house later on. As for the deli section, it was...okay, hardly remarkable. (FYI, Gilmart offers a slightly better experience for food take-outs if you happen to be in the area). Overall, the selection of bread is definitely worth coming here, especially for those who grew up eating toasted sunflower topped rye bread with butter (for me, it was oselka) and pear jam almost every morning. Finally, the service was great!

I recently woke up thinking about kolachkis(Lithuanian or Polish cookies). When I lived in Marquette Park I would go to the Baltic Bakery on 69th street or my grandmother would make them. Well the Baltic Bakery is no longer in business so I decided to make the 30 mile drive to Racine Bakery. I got a pound of raspberry kolachkis, a dozen bacon buns, and a loaf of raisin bread. It was fantastic and we'll worth the drive. Not as good as grandmas, but she's no longer here. This place is a great substitute.