Mariegold Bakery and Fast

Food didn’t look that appetizing and there weren’t that many of a selection. Was highly looking forward to eating here but got disappointed big time.

Tiny store & not really a grocery.
We ordered 100 Puto & 100 Karioka for our wedding.
Our guest loved it and both ran out before our cupcakes!
We got Ube Puto to match our purple color.
Both are perfect dessert sizes!
They make the best Puto and Karioka in the city!
–They do not deliver

We have been ordering birthday cakes for over decade from this place. Yummy ube and mocha cakes. My birthday was last month and my dad surprised me with a gigantic ube Cake.

Although the food is good if you are Filipino, please take your High Blood Pressure medicine first before coming to this place! I love the ube hopia and love the snacks for sale if I have cravings!

Warning: This is a hole in the wall
If you can look past that and are open minded and looking to try Philipino food as close to home made as possible, than you have arrived at the absolute best spot in town. This is heavy soul food filled with rich flavors and great meats, considering this place if filled with Philipino customers I know its legit, I love the pork stew in coconut milk, BEAUTIFUL, and the Lechon (baked pork) is the best I have EVER had. The baked goods are unique and of the very best hidden gems chicago has to offer, I would suggest the Cassava cake and Boku (young coconut) Pie… so good I cannot describe =)
Now the ONLY thing that keeps me from giving this place a five is that, unless you get Albert as your server, you will more than likely get a cold reception with no hello, no thank you and a «what do you want?» kind of service, otherwise Albert is a hell of a nice guy and seems to enjoy interacting with customers and guiding you thru what his place serves up.
Enjoy guys =)

I went to this bakery and fast food place about 2 months ago. I happened to get their chicken empanadas. I did try some other dishes but my partner and I have become addicted to the empanadas. They are delicious. THe filling is extremely tasty and the dough is very well done. It is baked. They sell for $ 2.00 and 2 each is a full meal. We now have empanadas at least twice a week. Unfortunately they only make chicken ones.

K, my uncle was driving us around Chi-​town and traffic was bad. I was so frikkin’ hungry!!!
«We could just eat in Chinatown,» apologized uncle. «Trappik* is so bad.»
«No, no, we will hold out for this special place,» intoned my dad, who’s 84. I rolled my eyes and ate some dilis** that I’d stashed in my daypack. Baon*** to the rescue!
When we got to Mariegold, I wended my way back to the bathroom through the bakery/​kitchen area which pulsed w/​salsa music punctuated by clicking knives and the clang of pans.
Whoa, I thought, the other review was right, it’s def a dive.
But OMGoodness, the lechon**** was so good I literally screamed aloud! Which very much endeared me to the cupcake-​frosting owner and her fairly queen-​y counter guy, though it embarassed my family. It is the best lechon I’ve ever eaten in my life. Seriously. My salivary glands are aching at the memory.
I guess they’d just gotten a batch out of the oven b/​c it was melty crispy delectable and I took minimal bites of every other dish (including the kare-​kare***** and the dinuguoan******) b/​c I wanted to save every possible cubic inch of tummy space for that lechon!
Further bonus: the special bibingka that’s wrapped in banana leaves with small pieces of white cheese is INCREDIBLE.
The cake decorations looked pretty, but I didn’t taste any of the cake stuff.
trappik — this is a Pinoy pronunciation of «traffic»
dilis — whole small anchovies battered and deep-​fried usually with red pepper. Tasty sweet spicy salty snack item
baon — packed lunch
lechon — roasted pork with crispy skin
kare-​kare — peanut-​based pork and/​or beef stew
dinuguoan — Filipino blood pudding, cubes of pork stewed in beef blood

talk about dives, but this place makes awesome food. i would never take someone here who wasn’t filipino, because they just wouldn’t get it. this is the real deal, super greasy, eat with your hands filipino food. my mother, who was born and raised in the philippines, thinks this place is the only place to get filipino food. she says they make better sinagong then she does, i agree. their calderretta is the best i’ve ever had. the lechon is amazing crispy, but can get soggy in just 20 minutes from all the fat! everything i’ve ever had here is amazing. the ube hopia is addictive. however, if you aren’t familiar with filipino food, i would suggest going somewhere that caters more to the american palate.

My parents have passed this often and wanted to try it when they were visiting. We ordered the lechon (fried pork w/​skin) and some type of beef with onions. Of all the counter-​service Filipino restaurants I’ve been to, Mariegold definitely has the best lechon. Definitely a heart attack in waiting, but oh so good and definitely a nice treat here and there. Most items are either priced by size of the container or by weight. Very affordable. They also carry some baked goods such as empanadas and cuchinta (sp?) Definitely not a place I would sit at and eat, lacks ambiance; although they do have a few tables for those who want to eat there. They also carry a limited selection of Filipino grocery items. Employees are friendly and were pretty good about answering whatever questions we had. FYI: this is immediately next to another Filipino restaurant (the name escapes my memory), but my parents reiterated that Mariegold was much better.