Riverside Bake Shop

Great hidden gem! Local family owned business. Their baked goods and bread are very good and the service is always excellent! So happy to be close to so much good food. Just wished they accepted credit cards, but I understand. Thank you for the great food and smiles! You cant go wrong with this great local bakery!

Stopped here today… cash only to keep costs down… WHAT? Cookies smaller than most bakeries… not much of a selection… need to get with the times… not much better than a grocery store and twice as much… save your cash and take a ride to Loving Oven Cakery Round Lake/​Lake Villa area… WAY BETTER

Came in to get some bakery. I understand not wanting to take debit cards. no problem cash in hand. I got to the front started ordering donuts, cinnamon rolls. The display case had some coffee cake slices I ALWAYS get. When I ordered from the display case I was told sorry,. Those are for orders only. no sign on them nothing. I couldn’t tell what was for sale or what wasnt. Suggestion if something is NOT available for purchase keep it in the back not in the front display case. or if you are tight on room put a sign on it! The bakery itself is good, but if you want anything for the holidays don’t bother walking in to get it.

I’ve been coming to this place since I was young, and I take my brother there a couple times a year while driving him to school. To be honest though, we seem to do it out of habit rather than out of real desire.
The donuts here are good, don’t get me wrong. They just have offered the same exact baked good options for approximately 400 years. I wish they would switch it up every so often, offer a holiday donut or two. It would also be nice if McHenry had the kind of bakery that was trying to keep up with all of these cool donut trends: cronuts, maple bacon donuts, old fashioned donuts. This place has a lot of potential!
The prices aren’t wonderful. A couple of donut holes, a cookie for my brother, and a small cranberry juice ran us about $ 7. It could be worse, but for what they offer, I’d expect it to be cheaper.
On top of that, the people that work there aren’t always very friendly. I don’t think I’ve ever walked in to a «Good morning» or even a smile. For a place that’s open early in the morning where people are stopping in before work, I really wish the employees would perk up a bit.
Overall, I like the donuts that they offer here, and I’ll keep coming back, but I wish they’d expand their horizons a bit and smile once in a while!

Would always go here as a little kid with my family and even as an adult, they have the best doughnuts I have ever tasted! For a small town bakery, they are amazing!

What a gem. I am a big fan of friendly customer service and this bakery couldn’t be nicer or more professional. Thank you for your great service, treats and decent prices!

If I can make it in and have cash (or checkbook) I will ALWAYS have my cake done from here. The buttercream icing is to DIE for!!! No one will ever compare to it. I had my wedding shower cake, wedding cake, a gender reveal cake and multiple birthday cakes done here. I recommend the marble with buttercream to anyone looking for the most delish cake ever!!! I wish I knew how to get my icing even close to it!!! You also can get a cupcake whenever your craving the icing and don’t need a whole cake.

Good old-​fashioned bakery. Cakes, cupcakes, coffee cakes, sweet rolls, bread, cookies, all like back in the day.

Once you have a donut here, you will never be able to eat Dunkin donuts again! I recently discovered that they also make realllyyy good cakes. They don’t take credit cards so be prepared to bring cash. Every item is definitely worth the price.

One of two back to back reviews that I preface with this… Living amongst the bright lights of the big city, I make it out to the suburbs infrequently, and the distant suburbs rarely. But something work related had me driving out to McHenry for several days in a row. Lots of long driving stints and many hours waiting around in the car made it feel like a continuous road trip, sprinkled with brief stops at home. Naturally, I searched for places to sate my roadhead snack cravings.
Sweet little classic bakery. Wonderful donuts, awesome bars. Large plate of various tasters every morning, nice big chunks, good for sampling. They’re so genuinely friendly here. I love places like this. The guy gave me an extra slice of cheese bar because the end slice was a little small. Must be my lucky day. Off to buy lotto tickets…

BEST. SMILEY-​FACE. COOKIE. EVER. Totally moist, ton of flavor — it is a McHenry staple, IMO
Donuts are just as good, always super rich with flavor and lets not forget, prices are totally reasonable!
Staff is always really nice and helpful, I know my mom ordered cupcakes for my Bridal Shower and it was a seamless transaction.
Also, I don’t know if this is the regular, but last time I was in there (quarter beers in July), it was Cash Only.

We found reviews online while we were visiting McHenry for a football game. Stopped in for donuts, and we were truly impressed. Great friendly service and some of the best Boston Cream donuts ever.

I used Riverside for my wedding cake… FABULOUS! I have been to a million weddings where the cake is barely touched. Our cake was beautiful, and it tasted out of this world. I had went to several other shops and they informed me that they were by appointment only. I walked in to riverside and Bernie stopped what he was doing to get me cake and filling samples and then informed me that I could order the cake 24 hours before the event, because he makes EVERYTHING fresh. Needless to say, we didnt have much cake leftover. I would definitely go back for any baking need that i did not want to fill myself!!! THANKS BERNIE AND STAFF FOR MAKING MY WEDDING CAKE AND MY EVENT MEMORABLE!

The best baked goods in McHenry County. This place has been around for ever! We always get our Birthday Cakes from Riverside. They are pleasent to deal with and I love supporting local businesses. Both of my sons enjoy the cookies they bake as well. I had seen a review that compared it to the old bakeries in Chicago and they nailed it!

This bakery reminds of some of the old bakeries in Chicago where everything is baked– fresh and on the premises. Everything is made from scratch and as far as I can tell, with good ingredients. Not only is the food great, but the owners are very community minded. They have always responded positively when we approach them for charitable donations. This is a good quality locally owned business. I’ve been shopping there for 20 years.

I’m surprised by Jen P’s bad service experience, but I have no idea how they respond to bank errors.
However, I DO know that all of the baked goods they have are excellent and they’re a wonderful old-​fashioned bakery that reminds me of going to a family-​owned bakery 30 years ago. Very few of these exist anymore and it’s tragic. My favs are the apple slices, smiley cookies, choc chip coffee cake and about 20 different types of donuts.
The staff is very friendly and responsive high school girls and on weekends there’s about 8 of them back there, so the line really flies.
It’s a great experience and great food. Please support them and keep them open for another few decades.

I’ve been to the Riverside Bake Shop a handful of times now, and usually leave a very happy camper. Their chocolates and fudge are divine… great to give as treats for your special someone (I also gave fudge, chocolate dipped orange, and chocolate froggies to my boyfriend’s parents for Christmas).
I was recently in to get some goodies to ship to my brother, who is in the Army and currently stationed overseas. I chose some chocolate-​covered pretzels (white chocolate/​milk chocolate variety) and some Snaps candy — his favorite since he was a kid, and VERY hard to find. I was disappointed that they only had ONE movie-​theatre candy sized-​box of them, but then again I guess there probably isn’t a huge demand for black licorice-​flavored hard-​as-​a-​rock candy.
In all, it’s a cute little shop with fresh products. I’ve never had anything that didn’t make my mouth water. In the future I aim to try some of their chocolate dipped fruits (bananas, strawberries).

Have been going here since I was 7. I am now 41 and my kids love it to.
This is the real thing when it comes to hometown bakeries. Everything is always fresh! My favorite since I was a kid is the smilie face cookies.

I haven’t been ‘in shop’ since I was a little girl, so I can’t comment on customer service, etc., But my aunts & cousins bring these home to us whenever they come down from McHenry.
What I can tell you is that their chocolate iced Cake donuts are the worlds best and most perfect for dipping. Their sprinkled donuts are an experience of pure sugared bliss for your kids, and their filled long johns were the equivalent of Santa Clause on Christmas morning when I was growing up.
I have been eating their donuts since I was 3 and I’m now 32… They are still my absolute favorite.

Let me first start by saying that I was referred to this bakery I did go and try it out and we really enjoyed the bakery goods. Needless to say, I will not be returning nor will I refer Riverside Bake Shop to anyone I know and I will also share my experience with them.
To make a long story short, their bank had made an error and they handled the situation very unprofessional and RUDE! (trailer trash, to say the least!)