Bittersweet

My favorite place when I’m in Chicago! Amazing pastries and delicious food. Had the best fruit plate of my life here too and their sandwiches are fantastic!

Wow! Is the reaction I always feel when walking in here. So many impressive baked goods and such an amazing variety! Bittersweet is our go-​to place for desserts and cakes. I have never been disappointed with any of the custom cakes we have gotten here. People always «oooo» and «ahhh» over the presentation and design and they are impressed with the moist cake and inventive flavor pairings with the fillings. Their cheesecake with fresh berries is the best cheesecake I have ever had. Bittersweet also offers a great brunch and lunch menu. New, inventive and flavorful things are always on the menu.

The staff at Bittersweet is amazing. I wanted a special cake for my son’s first birthday but I also wanted to stay within budget. Zaida worked with me and after several emails back and forth I was able to get a budget friendly design which was still amazing! Everyone who attended loved the cake. I would recommend using them without a doubt. I also got my hubby’s birthday cake from there and it was also very good. This bakery has one of a kind cakes, again I would definitely recommend them.

One of my favorite bakeries in Chicago. I’ve had a birthday cake with crème brûlée filling, which was absolutely delicious, and various pastries.

Awesome staff. Ordered a cake from Bittersweet today and the ladies who I spoke with are great! The first time I called, I asked regarding their process in ordering a cake. The first woman was helpful in answering my questions. After a few minutes to collect my thoughts as to what I want in a cake, I called again and the second woman I spoke with was a rockstar! It was smooth and quick and I was so happy with the service I was given. This review will be updated once I retrieve my cake I ordered!
To Be Continued…

I cannot say enough good things about Bittersweet. My coworker ordered his wedding cakes from here, and after eating a slice at his wedding, I became hooked. I ordered a cake for my engagement party from here, and they did an amazing job. I brought a design in that I found online, and they replicated it perfectly! We received so many compliments on how pretty the cake was, as well as how delicious it was. We ordered the coconut crème cake, and the vanilla cake was super moist, and the coconut crème filling was decadent. Everyone who left the party asked for leftover cake to bring home.
I have also stopped in here to simply grab a pastry or coffee. The inside of the bakery is very cute, and reminds me of a small parisian café. All their pastries are amazing. I especially love their seasonal cookies (super buttery) as well as their croissants. You really can’t go wrong with anything on the menu. Stop in for a coffee and pastry, or order from them for your next event!

Wow, the wedding coordinator, Nancy, needs to work on her customer service skills. The gentleman who picked up the phone was very nice and helpful, but as soon as I was transferred to Nancy it went downhill. He asked me all the basic information about my wedding and then transferred to Nancy, but when she picked up she made it sound like she had no idea why I was calling. So I went over all the details and told her that they were the first bakery I had called and that I didn’t know exactly what I wanted so I asked to hear my options. She threw some numbers at me like she was in a rush to hang up. I told her I wasn’t able to catch all of that information and that it would be great if she could more slowly go over that with me. She repeated the same things but this time she actually was yelling at me.
I ended up calling a different bakery (which I had heard great things about) and the manager was more than happy to patiently and carefully go over my options with me.

Our CPA lives on the same street but who cares. I must always check in to «BitterSweet» first, pick up some pastries and then head to file my taxes.
1. visitors can sample bits of bread/​brownies/​cookies.
2. They have so many options to chose from and everything looks fresh and delicious.
3. Staff is friendly and helpful.
4. The whole place is so warm and lively and sets a perfect example for a local small business doing well.
5. Tip: Window seats are even better.
My favorite — grapefruit meringue.

Our tax accountant lives on the same street but who cares. I must always check in to «BitterSweet» first, pick up some pastries and then head to file my taxes.
1. The shop always has some sample bread/​brownies/​cookies for the visitors
2. They have so many options to chose from and everything looks fresh and delicious.
3. Staff is friendly and helpful.
4. The whole place is so warm and lively and sets a perfect example for a local small business doing well.
5. Top: Window seats are even better.
My favorite — grapefruit meringue.

I had a $ 5 online coupon. Nowhere in the «details» does it mention that this store is closed on Mondays. The 1 star is for the half hour I wasted finding that out.

My sister discovered this place and we all now adore it – especially the large brownie that we can split amongst the whole family! Delicious.

First time eating here, will be back! The service is fantastic, food is excellent, and tea selection is very good. Harney and sons hot cinnamon black tea with honey is wonderful on a cold day. We shared the pork chili, macaroni and cheese, and arugula salad. The chili had a great favor very balanced without being heavy. The Mac n cheese was delicious wonderful cheese flavor perfect seasoning. The arugula salad was light, flavorful. Tried the panicottie, great texture, rich, light! Will have again. The cheese cake also a winner.

Rude counter staff… dry cookies… nearly made my 6 yo son cry they were so rude and such bitter peoplesuchand we were the only ones in there… nothing at all sweet about this place… skip it.

My co-​worker brought in some goodies from this bakery into work… and immediately I needed to know where they were from. We had a variety of scones (I had the raspberry), an apple torte, and a vanilla bean cheesecake with some fruit on top. Everything was SO GOOD. I don’t think I have ever had a scone that was that good. It made me wonder why I hadn’t eaten many scones in my life. Maybe I’ve been missing out. Needless to say, everything was amazing. Hands down, one of my favorite bakeries. I need more.

Let them eat Cake!
If this famous historical quote were to have been made specifically about this bakery, nobody would have said off with her head, they would have made her a friggin goddess and all of France to this day would still be singing her praise!
Ok, that’s a little dramatic, and stories of the bad queen Marie on the side, this place is Da Bomb for Cake, yes, its a cake bomb!
They have some amazing mix of choices, and add to that a free cake tasting for up to 4, and a free round on your 1 year anniversary! You dont have to save your top, they give you a free small round on them after your first year to celebrate with fresh cake, who does that! That’s awesome!
Now you can have your cake, and eat it too.
We chose their Almond cake with passion fruit and another layer with fudge and vanilla bean filling, all with a vanilla butter cream frosting. Their long list of choices made the tasting a difficult but enjoyable gorging of cake cake and more cake. Make sure you bring some insulin and ask for some coffee to help recover!
Don’t let the guests scoop up all your slices, keep an eye on those folks, once they know how good this is they will road from table to table looking for abandoned slices! I know!

Stopped in for lunch for the first time with my Mom after having been by several times to pick up cookies, macaroons, scones, you name it. Their bakery items are very, very good! I also love their buy one breakfast bread, get one free deal they offer during the last hour they’re open each day. This is a great deal for people coming home from work like me!
Anyway, back to lunch. Their menu changes from day to day which is cool. I ordered the vegetable soup and chicken caesar sandwich while my Mom got the same soup with a chicken and brie sandwich. Everything was delightful! Food was really good and even the half sandwich size was quite generous. We also had the bittersweet hot chocolate which comes in an adorable tea pot like thing with enough coco to fill your cup twice.
Whether you’re looking for a place to have a nice healthy (and tasty) lunch or need to pick up a bunch of treats for a large group, Bittersweet is the place to go!

Bittersweet created our wedding cake and we couldn’t have been happier. The experience was great from start to finish. It was love at first bite when myself, my husband and two of our friends went there for our tasting. Each of us were provided with small but adequate slices of cake options (I think about 8 – 10 in total) with buttercream piped on the side of the plate. Then placed at the center of the table was a dish containing about an equal number of frosting choices for the cake’s layers and another dish with additional pairing options for the frosting layers. I was in heaven trying out every combination imaginable and we were pleased with our final selection of a Hazelnut Cake with buttercream frosting and filling of a passion fruit curd and strawberry preserves for the bottom layer and the top two layers being a fudge chocolate cake with buttercream and filling of a vanilla brûlée and salted carmel. They provided books of cakes they have decorated in the past for us to use when choosing the look of the cake but were very accommodating when I showed them a picture of my inspiration for the cake which I had found online. The end result was stunning. We had so many compliments on our cake from guests at the reception (both for its look and taste). We also look forward to having a mini cake of one of the cake flavors for our one year anniversary, which they provide as part of the wedding cake package. What a great thing to offer since, while a nice tradition, year-​old frozen wedding cake doesn’t taste all that great.

Cute place. Picked up a classic croissant and a macaron. The croissant really hit the spot!

In Chicago for three nights and I came here twice. Actions speak louder than words.
Speaking of actions, putting the grilled cheese panini made with cheddar, gruyère and apples was an action that I want to repeat over and over. I actually didn’t order it, my wife did but I pretty much stole it from here.
I ordered the breakfast sandwich and that was also delicious but I’m a sucker for a great cheese sandwich.
My buddy ordered the pecan French toast and practically wet himself with excitement.
All expertly plated.
All very reasonable priced.
The second time we came, we left to Miami with a bag full sweets like if Halloween came early. Cookies of all sorts and tarts that are like your tongue is being bathed by playboy models.
I learned that Bittersweet has been around for a long time and their consistently incredible sweets and savory dishes are the reason why. A true local patisserie but you are in Lakeview not Paris

I ordered a birthday cake from here last week and the cake was impeccable! The service on pickup was great too. The young lady I ordered with spelled my name wrong initially (she should have verified the spelling, as I have one of those names that could go anyway).
Overall I was happy with my experience and my guest all loved the cake! It was absolutely delicious. The designs were simple, but the taste made up for it!

So my friend called in to complain and i was informed the owner was very apologetic and offered to credit us for the cake… i like when businesses genuinely care about their clients and not always think about profit making. Great job management of Bittersweet, i hope the experience is better second time around. Thanks for listening to your clients expectations!!!

Today is our 1 year wedding anniversary! We picked up our complimentary 1^st year anniversary cake. Bittersweet had us choose one of our flavors from our wedding cake. Since we had a Fall wedding, 10÷11÷14, one our flavors was carrot cake with buttercream. It was amazing! Just the right amount of spice!
During our wedding planning last year the best and most fun part was the wedding cake tasting. Nancy at Bittersweet made it fun and easy! The cake tasting was phenomenal! Experimenting with the different flavored cakes and fillings was quite a treat! Nancy was very helpful in helping us pick the look of our cake. She also quickly responded to e-​mails.
The tasting experience, service, and our wedding cake from Bittersweet was fantastic!
Having a slice of our 1 year anniversary cake confirmed how amazing Bittersweet is with their cakes and pastries! All of our cakes and special pastries our coming from Bittersweet! Hands down the best bakery!

Nancy and her team did a fantastic job on our wedding cake!!! And she was so nice and helpful. The tasting was AWESOME. I can’t wait for the anniversary cake!

We got our engagement cake here and even got a small gluten-​free red velvet cake. Both cakes were delicious and the designs turned out exactly how we wanted. The guests loved the flavors — we had a tiered cake with vanilla for one tier and chocolate for the other.
The only hiccup to remove a star from this review is the day-​of stress we had to face due to a rude delivery coordinator at the bakery. We had requested a small window of delivery and upgraded to pay extra for this service because our party was on a boat. The morning of the delivery they called us at 8AM to say the cake is out for delivery, when our requested window was 1PM-​2PM. The person on the phone was extremely rude and while the order slip had recorded all the details of the delivery conversation, he said we didn’t understand the delivery business and neither do the bakers, so we need to now take his word for it instead and accept the cake at 8AM for a party at 2PM. Not what we needed on the day of our party.

After spending many many evenings walking down Belmont and thinking, «that place looks so cute,» I finally made it in just before they closed. Great selection of cookies, chocolates, and cupcakes. Just before close, cupcakes are 2 for 1! Unfortunately, nothing I tried was that good. The cupcake cake was pretty dry (although chocolate cake ones were more moister than vanilla based cakes). And the frosting is a dull buttercream that tastes like cheap cannoli filling. If you’re not looking for a rich frosting, the milk and cookies cupcake was cute and filled with different types of frosting. The mint chocolate chip at least had some flavor.
My final morsel was a salted chocolate truffle, which sadly tasted only like baking cocoa. I probably won’t be back, especially since they aren’t open late enough for me to make bad decisions after a visit to Cheesie’s.

I had the the tastiest chicken caesar sandwich! The brioche roll it was served on was sooo, sooo good. It was buttery and light and complemented the chicken very well. I also had a carrot muffin that was really delicious. When I eat here, the food is so good and tastes so well made that the price doesn’t even bother me.

The Strawberry-​Rhubarb macaron was one of the best ones I’ve had. The strawberry-​rhubarb center was part cream and a surprising part fruit jam. The Lavender macaron was just OK.
I was a little surprised that the FIRST thing we encountered upon entering was a sign indicating that we should watch our belongings, because pick-​pocketing has occurred here. Well, okay…
The last thing we noticed were the samples by the front door. The sugar cookie was really good, and my friend raved about the white cake.
The employees weren’t the friendliest. They seemed in a hurry to get us to sit down at a table, but we wanted to look at the bakery case first. The dining room was cramped, and I didn’t feel like having to wait to be seated. It was faster to just order our items and go, so we took our goodies to the coffee shop across the street.

Today, I noticed a hole in the elbow of my fave Pacifico long sleeve T-​shirt. The same shirt that I was wearing years ago when my Unilocal profile pic was taken (resplendent in fake jewelry) at the Goat on Wells. The same shirt co-​workers mocked me for wearing every Friday for years (Hey! must be Friday, you’re wearing the Pacifico shirt). On this sad day, I’m reminded by the sage words of Monty Python’s Eric Idle. Always look on the bright side of life. Even in bittersweet moments (unfathomable bitterness followed by a touch of sarcastic sweetness) you must always look on the bright side of life.
This advice, sung at the end of the movie Life of Brian, was at one time the third most popular song played at British funerals and was in fact sung by the surviving members of the comedy troupe at Eric Idles’ funeral. And by countless other cheerfully depressed Brits whilst dealing with impossible circumstances including the crew of HMS Sheffield while their ship was sinking after being struck by an Exocet missile in 1982 in the Falklands war. (thanks wikipedia)
Yes, that must of have been quite a bittersweet moment. Your ship is sinking in some bullshit ocean because some trigger happy Argentinian ahole decides he’s got a point to prove. Sure that’s fair. You could be watching Tottenham Hotspur complete it’s amazing run to FA Cup glory in your favorite pub, or else you know, sink off the coast of wherever. So bittersweet.
It’s times like this that you need a little pick me up. A small cake or two. A bit of coffee to lift your spirits. A delightful exchange with a counter person. Yay. Bittersweet (the store) does indeed strive to be such a place. You only need to see how many Unilocalers say it’s «really cute» to understand what’s on offer.
I had a gingerbread cookie (shaped like I forget like what) and another cookie. I remember them both as being mediocre. I also ordered an Americano which threw my very cheerful counterperson for a loop. After asking in the back, and realizing that an Americano is expresso (they have an expresso machine) + hot water she happily made my drink.
Munching on my mediocre cookie and sipping my Americano, I was reminded of Cameron Frye. Sure Ferris Bueller’s day off was fun. But now, looking into the abyss. Your dad’s vintage Ferrari destroyed. You have to man up. You have to face facts. Uncomfortable facts. The present is bitter. But the future might be amazing. (I’ll be at Target this weekend).
(I remember this as the actual ending)

Bittersweet is one of those places where you want to keep returning to even though you know deep down it’s not good to do so. They have so many little dessert creations that it leaves me very conflicted on what to order each time I ignore my deep down feelings and pop in anyway.
+ easily walkable from the Belmont or Wellington ‘L’ stops!
+ samples!
+ such a cute and brightly lit store. Perfect for afternoon snacks.
Macarons — The flavors are outstanding and really pop when you take a bite. My favorites are the salted caramel and the passion fruit. The one area that was lacking was the texture. It didn’t have the chewiness that I like from macarons so each bite fell flat instead.
Pecan tart — Excellent pecan flavor as well but the tart was too hard for me. I felt like I had to stab at it to take a bite.
Flourless chocolate cake — Very rich and chocolately. They use quite a bit of cocoa powder making it a little bitter but it counters the sweetness so it makes for a good balance. Perfect for chocolate lovers.
Vanilla cheesecake — Yummy! I love the sturdiness of the cheesecake. It holds up well and doesn’t fall flat in your mouth.