Roeser’s Bakery

Delicious cakes and homeade ice cream!
The cakes are always great and I love all of the different varieties of homeade ice cream and cookies.

Very disappointing. Ordered a chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting. It was mostly frosting and not really chocolatey at all. The tasteless cake was dry and virtually lost in the excessive thick layers of bland frosting. Not sure why this place has been around this long as it has… maybe 50 years ago it was good… waste of $ 35

A place that has seen a steady decline since the last few years.
Their layered cakes which are supposed to be their specialty are cloy and taste almost like cakes sold in Jewel osco.
The pound cake was decent, so a star for that. And good Customer service
Forgettable experience

Horrible customer service! Went to buy a small cake for daughters baptism. Woman at counter was not only rude and ignorant on product, she had a horrible cough and couldn’t carry on a basic conversation. I wanted a basic chocolate 8″ cake with white frosting and simple cross on it. She said she didn’t even know what a baptism cake looks like, kept flipping through her binder, telling me a up-​charge of $ 6 for icing on bottom. She kept coughing and clearing get throat-​it was very uncomfortable. I kept asking, can’t I just get one of these basic cakes in case? She had such an attitude. I simply just said I will take my business somewhere else and walked out. They not only missed my cake purchase, but also cookies/​donuts I was gonna purchase for today. Go somewhere else that deserves the business!

Yes, the red velvet cake is about as good as it gets and the cannoli is pretty damn good. But out of nowhere… what the flying flack?! The «banana boat» is seriously one of the best bakery /​sweet goods I’ve had in my adult life.
All of the daily variety of hand held baked goods are top level delicious with fresh flavors, real ingredients (the bananas were fresh and the whipped cream was actual fresh whipped cream) and reasonable prices for the quality.
If you pop in on a busy day, expect a confusing set up. Make sure to grab a number from the grocery store meat market number machine… and be ready to aggressively move through the crowds to order some deliciousness.
Unilocal is telling me their cake game is not on point, but I don’t care. Their cupcake game is 100% on point!!!
I totally understand why this place has been open over a 100 years and I really hope they are open a 100 more. Pro tip: they have free off street parking.

Rouser’s is flat-​out the best bakery in Chicago. We just had our daughters birthday cake done with them and on the way home the fondant Pokemon creature they put on the top of the cake fell through the cake. I called the shop and they made me a brand new cake in two hours and hand delivered it to my home. In a world where customer service no longer exists these guys are a step above the rest. My daughter loved her cake and it made the day so special for everyone. I can’t say enough about the team of people that they have working for them, your all amazing. Thanks for saving the day and making the party a hit!!!

I am very disappointed with this bakery after giving them a second chance. The first straw was ordering a cake for my babies baptism. I clearly picked out a cake from their binder so my order should have been easy and quick but while I placing my order the person that was taking my order was helping other customers with their orders. So rude! I go pick up the cake it was NOTHING like the picture they had in THEIR binder. I told the lady but since she didn’t take my order she couldn’t help me it’s whatever was on the form. No apology what so ever and can I add rude! How hard is it to make the same cake you have probably made a million times. I was livid because if I’m paying more than $ 100 for a cake it should be what I ordered had no choice but to take the cake because I was heading to the hall right after.
My second straw was I recently placed a VERY SIMPLE ORDER for my sisters birthday. My mother picks up the cake and they can not find my order. Are you kidding me! Come to find out the lady who placed my order messed up my order put the wrong DATE but the right DAY. So my cake wasn’t even ready. They tell my mom to wait or come back 45min like she has has nothing to do. Manager comes out and tells her it will be ready in 10mins. (Who really knows if that was the real manager) I get home the cake is nothing from what I ordered how hard is it to make a PLAIN WHITE WHIPPED CREAM CAKE WITH COLORED WRITING!!! Now if I would’ve have gone there they would have given me some type of discount or apology because my mother still waited those damn 45mins with them trying to find the order and all the explaining they did and my cake still wasn’t done the way I wanted it.
I think this business would do better if their employees would focus more on placing orders and getting them right and listen to customers instead of trying to to get their orders out the door to get paid. How do you expect people to come back when your not being acknowledged.
Customer service is a big plus in this industry!
My advice if your placing an order here make sure they give you their undivided attention and focus on you, they have too many people working there for them not to. Also recheck your order, DATES AND ALL before signing!

I’m not much of a cake person but I had to order a cake for a 20^th year anniversary at work. I ordered the mocha cake since that’s the cake my employee likes. I pre ordered the cake to make it easier and to make sure they had one for me. The price was good at about $ 20 a cake that fed about 10 people. The cream and filling was fresh and tasty. The cake had yellow and chocolate cake inside. The cake was actually really good and like I said I don’t eat cake much. This cake would make me want more, maybe not today but another day lol

Been going here for over 20 years to get my birthday cakes. Lately the service has been getting horrible. We recently ordered a Rugrats cake instead they gave us a Pokemon cake. Over the years don’t know of Management has changed but that will be the last time I go here.

I have been going to roesers bakery for years. The birthday cakes are by far the best cakes in Chicago!!! The red velvet is really good. great taste good service!!!

While I am not a huge fan, and in fact feel that their cakes are on the dry side, one thing I can say about Roesers is they are consistent.
Roesers cakes have been a big part of my family’s birthdays and events. The flavoring of their cakes has stayed the same for as long as I have been alive. (Nobody likes when recipes and flavors change, after they’ve become accustomed to something right?)
Even down to the way cakes are decorated they have stayed true, and since my family loves it I guess im ok with that.

DISASTER. I had them make my daughter’s first birthday cake as we had her first birthday party in Chicago with family. Mind you I ordered over the phone, sight unseen based on a recommendation (as we were living in NYC at the time) but I went over what we wanted over the phone, and then I later went in person. I thought these people are experts, and mistakenly trusted their judgement and supposed expertise. The cake was supposed to be a My Little Pony theme. My husband picked up the cake without me as I was setting up the venue so I didn’t see the cake until it was too late. Whoever decorated the cake needs to get a new job because they have no taste! It looked hideous!!! Had I gone to pick it up perhaps I would’ve been able to have them salvage it a bit? The color scheme was OK, but those cheesy flowers, that ugly ass Roeser’s green and white paper beneath the cake (couldn’t they just use plain white), UGHHH and the horrendous yellow and blue plaque for the «Happy Birthday.» (didn’t match the other colors) WTF were these people thinking. NEVER AGAIN.
To add insult to injury, the cake not only looked terrible but tasted terrible. TOO MUCH FROSTING. That’s all it was frosting, frosting and more frosting. The worst! I still get so ANGRY thinking about the horror of this cake especially for such a special birthday…

My boyfriend surprised me with a 30^th bday cake from here… they helped him create a BEAUTIFUL cake and it was so good. The raisin bread and doughnuts are incredible here also. Staff very friendly and helpful!

Update October 8^th, 2015:
I always have said that my ³⁄₅ rating is a bit harsh but that my rating was for the DONUT shop Roeser’s, not the bakery. Well, today I went back and bought three donuts, and have decided to increase the rating to ⁴⁄₅ for the following reasons:
1. I had a custard filled bismarck and it was GREAT. In particular, the type and amount of custard was really really good. I would highly recommend this donut.
2. I bought three donuts and my total was less then $ 4. That really is a great price, especially around here.
3. Again people were very nice.
4. I drove this time (knowing there were no seats) and parking was really easy because of their lot
I will still say that everything I said before holds true (the real tipping point for me was the custard in the bismarck this time), in particular:
1. this isn’t a donut shop that you can’t sit around and drink coffee while you enjoy your donut — for me this is a big deal (though I realize it’s not something that can easily be «fixed»)
TL;DR;
— No seating
— Doughnuts were pretty good, not perfect, but good
— I can’t speak to other baked products but other folks have said their cakes are AMAZING and I have no reason to doubt it — I came here for doughnuts though
— The staff was very friendly and professional
— ³⁄₅ stars is likely very harsh, but is based 90% on the fact that I was expecting a donut shop with seating, coffee, etc. This is perhaps not a fair critique because I’m sure there would be seating if space/​location allowed. Still, when I think «donut shop» I think, «go in, get a donut or two and a cheap cup of coffee and sit and enjoy it»
— I’d prefer to give this place a 3.5+ rather then a 3, but obviously that’s not possible
I came here for the doughnuts, and that’s what my review is focused on, the doughnut shop experience. Honestly, this is unfair, because as a bakery I believe this is likely more deserving of the 4 – 5 starts that it (currently) has. But, as a doughnut shop it didn’t have some of the features I’d like.
Let me start with the doughnuts. The doughnuts were good. Not AMAZING, but good. I had two doughnuts: the custard long john (my favorite generic doughnut), and the Oreo doughnut. I felt like both had a somewhat overly shortening/​heavy feeling to them, but they were still good. The Oreo doughnut in particular was pretty rich and again, seemed to be pretty shortening/​lardy and heavy.
Still, for the price I’d give the doughnuts themselves ⁴⁄₅ stars. If price wasn’t a factor I’d give them 3.5÷5.
The real issue I had with the place, in terms of a doughnut shop, is that there just wasn’t any place to sit! The shop is small, and not the sort of place you really would even stand in to eat your doughnut. Not only that, but outside there isn’t a great place to sit/​hang out to eat your doughnut. I rode my bike to get to the doughnut shop and ended up sitting on the sidewalk to eat my doughnuts before I got back on my bike.
If there was a place to sit to enjoy the doughnuts, I’d give this place ⁴⁄₅. If you don’t care about staying/​sitting, consider this review ⁴⁄₅ stars.

Somethin’ Sweet Donuts on Fullerton was closed for their month long vacation and I was in the mood for donuts. Unilocaled and found Roeser’s Bakery, but I did get there later in the evening about 1 hour before they closed so took the few donuts they had left.
I bought 10 donuts for $ 14.42…I think just a tad high, but let’s go and try a sampling of them.
I first tried a donut that was filled with cheese and topped with powdered sugar that looked really tasty, but was doughy and tasted uncooked in the middle.
The next one sampled was the lemon poppy seed donut that was really good and I would highly recommend it.
The maple bacon long john donut was a good bet too.
The coconut frosted donut was just average.
The red velvet had good texture and taste.
The Boston crème donut was richly filled with custard and not overly sweet.
I was expecting more and basically won’t be back because I prefer Somethin’ Sweet Donuts over on Fullerton and will call ahead to be sure they are open.

Go for what speaks to you, and you won’t be disappointed. They had quite a crowd at 11am on a Saturday, but they moved quickly through orders (without rushing the more tentative decision-​makers), and the free parking lot makes it easy to bring a lot home. My favorites were the Oreo doughnut, maple bacon long john, and Nutella bizmark. But really, these are fresh, delicious, and relatively cheap — totally worth a trip.

I’m a regular, I love this place! For birthday parties, work events or just for the heck of it, this place is an institution and should be registered as an historical landmark! I can’t wait to sink my teeth into another donut or cake! Yum!

I have ordered 2 cakes from this bakery and yet to be disappointed. The service is great. The 2^nd cake was a bit pricey, but definatley worth it.

My coworker brought a bunch of these doughnuts in today.
I ate the Oreo doughnut. It was a chocolate doughnut cut in half with a white buttercream and fondant filling in the middle (it looked like a fancy bagel). There were oreo crumbs sprinkled on top of it.
It was pretty good! It wasn’t chocolatey enough for me though. I would have preferred some more flavor in the filling. Maybe cream cheese or chocolate or caramel syrup.
Not bad though.
My coworker bought some chocolate chip and M&M cookies too. I just ate the chocolate chip one. At first, I didn’t have high expectations because when I broke off a piece, I knew it was going to be a crunchy cookie (I prefer chewy). However, I realized it was just enough crunchy with the right amount of chewy. Kind of hard to explain but the texture was actually surprisingly really good. The M&M cookie was like a plain butter cookie with some M&M’s in it. This one was crunchy and not my cup of tea.

Proclaimed to be the best doughnuts in all of Humboldt Park!
Bacon Maple Doughnut — You’ve had one, you’ve had them all, right? Not really the case with the one from Roeser’s. This donut had thick maple frosting on top but the great thing for me was the bacon was done just right for a donut. It wasn’t too crisp or too soft, the perfect texture to bite into so that you’d get just the bit your were biting & not tear the whole strip off the donut.
Poppyseed Doughnut — This donut just looked so delicious sitting there in the case. I usually only go for chocolate donuts but this one was calling out to me! The donut was really quite good with a mouthwatering glaze over the top.
Chocolate Chip cookie & M&M cookie — Both were good, the crumbly kind of filled with butter cookies. I definitely preferred the chocolate chip to the M&M cookie, but I must say the M&Ms were perfectly placed on the cookie!
My total was just 4 dollars and some change for all of my items — a great deal. Most of the ladies were nice overall but also seemed a bit more into talking to each other at some points. Overall, I liked everything I got but it wasn’t so amazing that I’m dying to go back.
Pro-​Tip: They ask if you want writing on your cake, but keep in mind the charge is a few extra bucks for that.
Pro-​Tip: Roeser’s has their own parking lot on the side of the building. A rarity in the city for sure!