Barbara’s Polish Deli Store

Got a soup from them for lunch, got back to my work open up soup and I found green flies and maggots a lot of them, went back to the store to show them what’s in a soup and they said I’m sorry soup it’s no longer for sale they didn’t have a clue till later on and a date that it had green flight and maggots in it…

Polish deli’s are absolutely one of the more interesting places to explore for a culinary adventure.
And like most, BPD is a small store that is just jam packed with variety. The deli offers a unique punch of intensity that can be somewhat overwhelming for such a small foot print. You have to read between the lines and focus on what they do best.
The homemade «Fresh Polish Sausage» fills the bill here…“This is the real deal”.

This review is based on one visit, and one meal. It was my birthday and I really wanted stuffed cabbage (I can’t spell the Polish word). Barbara’s has hot served meals (Yeah). Two decent sized cabbage rolls came with a small bit of tomato sauce and 2 sides. I picked mashed potatoes and a kraut with some kind of meat. The warm kraut was very good. The cabbage rolls were good and acceptable. They had a lot more rice than I like but they were good — not enough tomato sauce. The potatoes were not good — I tossed them because they were real potatoes but made with water. You can always tell water instead of milk in taters.
I wasn’t thrilled and I appreciated that they are local. The store seemed fine, but I must say I was a little intimidated with the polish menu and signs. I am half Polish by nationality, but I only say a few words in Polish.
Service in getting my meal was fine. Checking out, I felt faceless. The clerk never even looked at me.

Great service and wonderful selection but the quality and flavor is barely above average. I like to go there and have made it my «go-​to» Polish deli because of the friendliness and smiles they offer, not to mention their patience in getting me the sausage & pierogies I want. They could spend a bit more on the quality of ingredients. By no means is their food bad, but it is obvious they go light on spending for the perfect kielbasa. This is what you want in a Polish deli but don’t be afraid to add a dash of salt and a grind of pepper to get the flavor you are looking for.

I like this small polish deli because food are good. :-)
I am polish as well and. There is not so much polish stores around elmhurst where i leave
Five star for service. …

I’ve been shopping there for over a year but I won’t be going back after yet another round of spoiled food. This time it was their homemade chicken soup that apparently was made a week ago yet they were still serving it. The deli counter for sandwich meat is the only reason to shop there. The hot food is hit or miss… but when it’s bad, its bad as in you will get sick.

My fridge stinks of garlic. I mean, my fridge is currently retaining the incredible smell of the wondrous herb known as garlic. Once I actually cook the delicious-​looking reasonably-​priced kielbasa that I bought at Barbara’s, perhaps the smell will abate.
I live in Lombard. Why was it so hard for me to find a polish deli in the suburbs? I see «Mowimy Do Polski» on lots of store fronts, but it has been a difficult task to find kielbasa. And I don’t mean «polish sausage.» Big difference. Why so hard? Is it unofficial polski food? Is it akin to chop suey? Regardless, we love it enough to have had had it at our wedding reception. But that was in Toledo, where most last names end with the «ski» or «itch» phoneme.
When you walk into Barbara’s, you’ll wonder if you’re the only person in the deli that doesn’t speak Polski. You might worry that no one behind the counter speaks English. But they do. When my wife found the big mound of kielbasa biala and saw how reasonable it was, we bought enough for Christmas dinner with my family and plenty of leftovers. And now my fridge is feeling the effect of all that garlic.
I’ll know on Christmas Day if the short trip to Addison was worth it. But I don’t think I’ll buy it in advance anymore. I was worried about the lemon bars picking up the smell.
UPDATE: Pretty good, the kielbasa was. Nice job, Barbara’s. We’ll be back soon.

Friendly staff, great polish food, fast service. I’ve been shopping at Barbara’s for years and they always have fresh meat and bread. Love the location and convienient hours. They always have hot lunch too. I don’t know why such low rating here, they deserve 4 – 4.5 stars.

I love Polish food even though I’m not Polish and due to the high ratings.
Rating a 1 star for Customer Service was not able to try out the FOOD!
I went over to try it out. I was there around 6pm on Wednesday, June 13^th. I was the 3^rd person in line to be waitied on no one else was in the store when someone else walked in and when it was my turn the deli associate spoke to the lady in Polish and skipped me. I was so upset that I was waiting about 10min to be waited on. What came to mind was that I was just discriminated??? I just walked out the door. I want to know what happened to the staff that is customer friendly? Do they only work during lunch time? If the owner of the deli reads this and I hope they do please talk to your staff about this. It was an older short lady.
I will be giving this place a second chance

I am Polish and I live close by so I shop here once/​twice a week. The store could be a little bigger and have more space between shelves, but the choice of products is sufficient. They have tasty lunch meats and sausages to choose from and delicious homemade lunches/​dinners. I buy soups for my family here very often as I do not have much time to cook at home. The staff is nice and customer friendly too.

As you can tell from my picture, I’m am not Polish. But I know Polish people and Polish people frequent this little supermarket/​deli!
I recommend going for lunch — get a boxed lunch for under $ 6 and huge portions of homestyle food — think cabbage rolls which are SO GOOD. Usually there are several soups to choose from and your lunch includes a deli salad (ie. potato, cucumber & tomato, etc).
I try to come here at LEAST once a month!