Suvan’s Café & Bakeshop

I always had such a nice time here — delicious food and friendly servers. Sorry to see that it seems to be closing up shop; I hope that their next projects go well for them. The pitfall of this incarnation seemed to be the odd hours.

They had good sandwiches and the veggie chili was awesome, but they closed their restaurant and now only do catering. Don’t show up at the restaurant hungry.

I like the BLT, and when the chili is on the menu it’s a must too.
The baked goods are about the best in the city.

Suvans is the type of place you walk in to and wonder «how does this place stay in business?»
The restaurant feels empty & desolate. I would NEVER even consider sitting inside of this restaurant and ordering a meal, in fact I ordered my meal to-​go.
My sandwich was just OK, nothing to brag about.
With so many food options in that neigborhood, it baffles me to think that someone would choose SuVans.

So, I wish I lived within walking distance to Suvan’s. I was getting my nails done right down the street so it was a great choice in terms of distance and the time that we had to eat, but it’s not a place that I would go out of the way to eat at. It looks like they had a great breakfast/​brunch menu; my mom got the pancakes, which came topped with strawberries, blueberries, and granola. Just from the visual, I wished I had gotten that! But my vegetarian chili was fabulous, too. Service was great, and it wasn’t loud at all. It was the perfect setting for my mom and I to relax and catch up after months of not seeing one another.
My main complaint is that 98% of the seats are in the front, with the pickup area/​kitchen in the center of the building — basically, all of the guests who choose to dine in get slapped with the cold any time someone opens the door. And sometimes it gets caught open with the wind — not so fun.
But regardless, I would recommend it to anyone in the area looking for a quick but delicious lunch.

We first found Suvan’s when we lived in Chicago years ago. It was just down the street and we just happened upon it. We immediately fell in love with the food and the staff. Everything they serve is AMAZING — from soup to sandwich, treats and even breakfast. We frequented the shop almost every single week when we lived there. Unfortunately, we moved on to Phoenix — and have not found anything even close.
The good news is every time we come back to Chicago we make a point to go over and have lunch — just like this weekend. STUPENDOUS! Its still great — the best food all weekend.
Thank you so much — keep up the great work!

As you walk into Suvan’s you have two options:
1. Walk straight ahead and order bakery goods to take with you, or
2. Be seated and served
While I’m all about baked goods — especially baked goods on the run — might I suggest that you sit and stay awhile. Suvan’s is adorable — one of my favorite lunch places in the area: casual, easy, reasonably-​priced.
The sandwich menu is extensive. Your party is going to have to be pretty picky not to find something for everyone. On my last visit, I had a panini and the boy had a cold sandwich. Both were mighty tasty. I also appreciate that the side options include healthy things like fruit. Lord knows I don’t need any more fries.
The only thing I’m not so cool with? The hours. They close a little early, so you better get in and get your sandwich on quick.

This place is just OK.
Decent selection of hot and cold sandwiches but nothing outstanding. I tried the Reuben and my lunch companions had the Chicken Primo and a grilled cheese. Everyone was satisfied with their meals but no one raved about their selection. Sides were OK. The pasta salad was much better than the potato salad, which was a bit bland for my taste.

I found this place thanks to Groupon Now! and I’m happy I did. The service could use improvement, especially since there are rarely more than a few tables that are filled at any given time (at least when I have gone).
Don’t get me wrong, the best sandwich place in Chicago is Panes Bread Café, but when you need a quick, easy sandwich while running errands, Su Van’s is the place to go. As someone with a hatred of deli meats, I love that they have tasty cold and hot veggie sandwiches. I have yet to be able to order anything but veggie sandwiches with a banana on the side.

I suppose I will have to go back to Su Van’s to give a more thorough rating, but this will have to do for now.
It was shit-​tastic out this past Sunday and my friends and I were looking for some shelter. Starbucks was packed, so we walked over to Su Van’s.
I got a hot cocoa and they got soy mochas. Service was nice. Hot cocoa was just OK. It was actually slightly bitter, which I wasn’t a huge fan of. I like it when my cocoas are more on the sweet side.
We had just eaten so we didn’t get any munchies, but I will have to go back and try the food.

I have had a craving for strawberry pancakes for WEEKS! I’ve tried to satiate it, but none of the pancakes I have had came close to what I wanted… until I stopped in at Suvan’s Café.
I ordered the «pancake extravaganza» and it was an extravaganza alright… in my mouth!
Here’s what they do…
They put a pancake on the plate and then layer it with tons of sliced banana. Then they put another pancake on top of that and layer it with tons of fresh sliced strawberries. Then they put another pancake on top of that and sprinkle it with more sliced banana and strawberries. But wait! There’s more!
The thing that made these pancakes perfect was that they were topped off with granola and honey. Yes, honey! Maple syrup would have been too much for these extravagant cakes from a pan, but the honey was a perfect touch of sweetness that complimented the berries and bananas without being too overpowering and the granola added a nice little crunch. The finishing touch was a nice dollop of whipped cream.
Suvan’s Café is the bee’s knees.

I love hot sandwiches and this is a great place to get them.
We eat here almost every Sunday to cure our hangovers. I get the grilled veggie delight while my boyfriend can’t get enough of the hot & cheesy. Plus you get your choice of a side for no extra cost, some of the more random options I’ve seen on a menu but still… I haven’t had their breakfast but I hear it is worth a try.

My boyfriend had been here a million times a long time ago, and took me FINALLY for lunch. He eyed me suspiciously as to why I was getting a reuben when there were so many other delicious things on the menu I could have ordered. I told him, ever since I worked at Billy Berks, I have been searching for a reuben that could compare to how effing fantastic our sandwich was. So every time I hit a restaurant that has a reuben on the menu, at least once I have to try it, at least if I have a hankering for one, which I often do, I love corned beef.
So I got the sandwich, chose the pasta salad, and enjoyed both, but not as much as I was hoping to. Of course I just mean that the reuben was not as mind blowing as our old Billy Berks sandwich (that restaurant by the way has been closed for years to break your heart in advance in case you start to get curious), yet I enjoyed it and it was filling. My boyfriend also hyped the pasta and potato salad. I snagged a couple bites of his potato salad and REALLY enjoyed it, more-​so than my pasta salad, and I’m a real sucker for most pasta salads.
What he had told me was that because they mix up a new batch all the time of each that it’s hit or miss everyday, so sometimes the potato salad might be better than the pasta salad or sometimes the pasta salad might be better than the potato salad. Like I said, I enjoyed the pasta salad, just not as much as his potato salad. So the potato salad was the hit on that day, and the pasta the miss.
The restaurant was quiet, which was nice, and relatively empty. It was a weekday and we did come at an in-​between time for lunch, but it was a very chill lunch spot. I enjoyed my experience and would love to come back and have another one, perhaps with the Lunch Box combo.

We really enjoyed our lunch here. The chicken tortilla soup was awesome… as was the amount of food you get for the price!
Their oompha chicken salad was also quite good. Fast & friendly service. Can’t beat it!

Went here for a last-​minute sandwich to go after hitting the gym. At first I was kind of taken back by the prices, but then I realized you get more than just a sandwich (fruit, chips, pasta salad or potato salad also included.)
I really, really wanted a hot sandwich because they looked so good, but I knew it would be cold by the time I walked the mile home. I ended up getting the Cat’s Meow, which was a basic tuna sandwich was some spice in the tuna. It was just meh. I was expecting a bit more flavor, so I was a little disappointed. The pasta salad was REALLY tasty though. Yum.
However chances are high that I will go back post-​gym, but I might eat in and try one of the warm sandwiches.

We had lunch here on the day before Christmas on our way to Dinkel’s bakery. The simple décor was a nice change from the more gaudy and klitchy places around. The food was awesome! I had the chili and half-​sandwich deal including a Sweet Tom turkey sandwich. Great choices! Service was quick and the prices were right on.

This place is sweet. It’s one of those places that you go in and look at the menu board and everything looks good. It’s hard to decide… but the good thing is that you were right in thinking everything would be good.
Brunch, lunch, dinner… it’s all good here. I’ve had many things that are quite tasty, and they’ve all been paired with a nice price. Woo!
I’m trying to think of some of the things I’ve had recently… Ah! It’s hard when everything tastes good. The tuna melt and the Cat’s Meow are both awesome. Also, the sides are good. Wow, this review is pretty terrible. I’m just rambling at this point. But think of it this way, the quality of this place is inversely proportional to the quality of this review.
So, run, don’t walk, to this place. Actually, taking the Brown-​line to Paulina might be easier.

Thanks to groupon we headed over to Suvan’s for a delicious breakfast! The french toast with fruit was delicious, as was the strawberry banana pancakes.
What I liked the most was that it was 10AM on a Sunday and yet there were still plenty of available tables. No way was I going to stand outside Orange for 45 minutes when I can head over to Suvan’s. I will definitely come back to try more of their breakfast options and their sandwiches!

Went with a friend for a late lunch on a Saturday. It was pretty empty inside. We shared the Grilled Cheese Italiano — panini bread with olive oil, mozz cheese, tomato & basil. It was HUGE. Freshly made so the bread was hot and toasty and oily/​buttery and the cheese was very melty. The soup of the day was cream of tomato soup and yay for us it was made with beef broth, so not vegetarian friendly. We each got a bowl in which to dip our grilled cheese. It is probably the bet cream of tomato soup I have EVER had. Freshly made from scratch, could really taste the beef broth. So good.
We walked over to the bakery counter and were debating between the chocolate and vanilla cupcakes. They were the big oversized gourmet looking cupcakes with about 1.5″ of frosting on top. The waitress said the vanilla was her fave, so we decided to get 1 of each to try both. Unfortunately, both kinds were borderline disgusting. The cake was very dense, not sweet, and kind of tasteless. The frosting was also not very sweet, taste & texture was very buttery but they also tasted just like straight up butter. Not good at all, overall pretty darn gross. Pretty presentation though, and all the other baked goods looked delicious as well. If all their «sweets» taste like this, they should just change their name to Suvan’s Café, leave off the Bakeshop.

FINALLY I got a hold of some of their whoopie pies. The whole ordeal started at Unilocal Summerfest, when I was standing in line for a drink and Unity (bless her heart) put a whoopie pie in my hand. «Look, David – they have whoopie pies!» «Hey, this isn’t bad… where did they come from?» «That stand over there.» So about ten beers later I realized that I had never gone back for more whoopie pies and in fact didn’t even know who the vendor was. So later that week I queried Colleen, and I was off on a quest to get some Suvan’s whoopie pies in my belly.
That was in August. What’s happened since then? Let’s see, about ten phone calls and a handful of futile visits. Each time, they didn’t have any and couldn’t exactly tell me when they would be making them next. On one of the visits, Suvan told me that she would call me when they next made some whoopie pies. Her assistant took down my number, and I waited and waited by that phone like a teenage girl in prom season. After several weeks I sort of forgot about it. Then last weekend I stopped in again… no whoopie pies. «We have some pumpkin.» «No thanks, I want the chocolate.» «Well, he’s just starting a batch now.» «So you’ll have them later today? Tomorrow?» «If not tomorrow, then definitely Monday.» (I started having flashbacks to my experience with Flourish.) Wait a minute – you’re «just starting» to cook them but you might not have them for two days? Shady.
So yesterday I called and LO AND BEHOLD they had whoopie pies. I jumped in the car and drove 33% above the speed limit. So after all that, how were they? Pretty good. From the authenticity angle, so-​so. The icing is SO close, but the cake part is too dry. On the straight-​up pastry scale, I give a B+. There was a good chocolate flavor, and I liked the icing, plus the dryness didn’t detract too much. I would definitely eat these again.
Since Fraiche broke the seal on my whoopie-​pie purism, I also got a pumpkin one just for shits and giggles; that was really good too. They use a very thick, almost waxy, cream-​cheese frosting on those. I’d say just as a bakery item, the pumpkin version somewhat outshines its chocolate cousin. But I’m a purist after all.

Sometimes I have conversations with myself.
«Shoot. 30 minutes early for hair appointment! I’ll get a green tea lemonade at Starbucks.»
(sits down by the window and tries to read tedious article on economics and psychology. lalala!)
(spies Su Van’s Bakery across Lincoln)
«WAIT. Su Van’s… weren’t they at Unilocal Summerfest? I think so. Which baked delights did they make again?»
(walks across street, into Su Van’s and to the counter)
«HI! Weren’t you guys at Unilocal Summerfest? What did you make again? Potato chip cookies? The prepackaged potato chip cookies that the lovely girls told me to keep in my purse for eating later? I love you.»
ANYWAY. Turns out they didn’t have the potato chip cookies when I went in today. I was told it would be their special cookie later this month. No worries though, I’ll settle for chocolate chip.
The lady I talked to was such a darling. I wanted to wrap her up and take her home so she could make me cookies for the rest of my life. Sweet and friendly — I left like I had walked into somebody’s home kitchen, and their mom was baking.
In case you were wondering, the chocolate chip cookie was incredible. Soft, chewy and great buttery chocolaty flavor. I will be back for more. This time I won’t be an idiot and buy more than 1. While I’m there I’ll probably have some lunch too. This space is so low-​key, cozy, and cute… and right next to the Paulina stop (score! love public transit). I am creating a mental list of places to get great cookies. Su Van is the only place on the first so far. Love!