Panaderia Ortiz

Panaderia Ortiz (PO) is a very unique neighborhood gem and difficult to compare with other local restaurants. This place is a local Mexican bakery, a mini-​grocery store, and an order-​and-​sit restaurant all rolled into one.
As a bakery, PO is by far the most unique and delicious in the Peoria area. The selection is incredible. You start by grabbing a metal tray and a pair of tongs. You then walk through and select any number of pastries, cookies, breads, or treats. Counted over 30 different items to choose from. Most of them I’ve never seen before. Once you’ve selected, you walk up to the counter and pay. Would rate the bakery by itself 5 stars.
The restaurant portion has a small menu with Tacos, Burritos, Tortas, or Tamales. I ordered the three tacos (all chicken) with rice and beans on the side. The server messed up the order but corrected it later. The tacos were outstanding. The rice and beans (especially the beans) were sub-​par. The beans were dry, overcooked, and pasty. The tacos are served in a double mini soft corn tortilla with cilantro and salsa. Very yummy.
3 stars for the restaurant.
Last they have a mini grocery section with hard to find Mexican items.
Overall unique experience. You get the feeling you’ve temporarily left Peoria for a quick trip to Mexico when going here. Must have the right expectations when eating in.
I will definitely go back.

It’s a hit or miss place. Tamales are great. Tacos are good but not a lot to them. Baked goods are decent. Best for take out.

Overall: Poor service, did not get the food we ordered, not good.
After having delicious pastries and tamales at the farmer’s market, we decided to go here for lunch. There were no adults in sight. We ordered, paid, and were waited on by two young teenagers. My husband and I each ordered three tacos with rice and beans and a mexican soda. Our bill cane to $ 18. The kids brought us three tacos each, no salsa, no rice, no beans. The limes looked like they were cut two days ago and left out to shrivel. There wasn’t even an adult present for us to voice our complaints. I am so disappointed to read other reviews about excellent service when our experience was so terrible. I am also so disappointed we did not even get to try these famous salsas everyone else raves about on this site. I am not sure if we went on a bad day or if service has declined over time.
We will not be back. We had planned to get pastries to go. But, the pastries looked old and there were flies in the case. At this point, I am not even sure we will continue to patronize the cart at the markets.
One review on here claims the customer got 8 pastries and four tacos for $ 18 with excellent service. Our $ 18 got us poor service, six tacos, two drinks, no pastries, no salsas. Utter disappointment after how excited I was to try this place for lunch.

If you want authentic Mexican, this place is quite nearly a taqueria in addition to a bakery. The tacos and burritos are phenomenal, service is prompt and attentive, and the salsas are RIDICULOUSLY GOOD.
The treats are great too, but do yourself a favor and order some tacos. You’re gonna like the way they taste. I guarantee it.

Panaderia Ortiz made our wedding the great event that it was. They prepared excellent appetizers: shrimp ceviche and savory mini pastries. They also provided the main dish, original and tasty tacos with rice and beans. Finally, they made our delicious cake.
They were very attentive and listened to our desires and needs through the entire process. They were able to provide the customized dishes and cake we wanted and they delivered right to the event!
Thank you, Ortiz family for making our wedding a memorable event!
Anne and Pablo

So good. So cheap. I would go here every day if only they weren’t so far away!
I’m sure everything they bake is excellent, but I haven’t been back enough times to try all the pastries, because the selection is ridiculously wide… and also because I can’t stop buying the churros.

This is the place!!! We got four delicious tacos and about eight supremely made pastries for $ 18. The tacos come in steak, chicken, or pork. We tried all three, and man were they great. Each taco is only $ 1.99. They come with lime wedges and one green salsa and one red salsa. The green is your typical tangy and tasty green tomatillo, while the reddish one is more like a smokey chipotle — both awesome! We plan on returning to try the tortas and burritos, among other items. They also have a full-​scale coffee service that we want to try. Huge selection of baked items. The owner was very kind and gave us plenty of info when he learned we were first timers. He told us they also serve pizzas. We’re excited to live so close to this place! Just sad we waited so long to try it!
Note: the only reason I didn’t give it five stars is for the atmosphere… the least important aspect of the food service business in my opinion.

We love this place! The food is fresh and authentic and very reasonably priced!

Not a huge selection of hot food, but what they do make is really great. It is a bit out of the way for us, but we make a habit of stopping there for lunch when we are in the area. They make the best, authentic taco’s in Central Illinois.
Their baked goods are reasonably priced and good.

This is the place for me. They have tamales, menudo, cakes, and they are very good, along with the pastries and traditional Mexican breads.
The owner’s are friendly and pleasant to talk too while you get your fill of the goods they offer.
I am happy that Peoria finally has a bakery for people to come too without having to go to other places and have day old or stale bread.
They do offer other traditional treats as well, but definitely recommend you stop by and look around and try the food or breads.

¡Olé! It’s a new Mexican bakery just a bit northeast of downtown. If you haven’t yet visited, you owe it to yourself to stop in and grab an assortment of their conchas, sweet breads, cookies, and– believe it or not– tamales. I’ve been here half a dozen times, and hadn’t tried the tamales until my last visit. They’re available with either green or red sauce in them, and both varieties are made with pork. ¡Que rico!
But seriously, the attraction here is the collection of sweets… and MAN, are they SWEEET. If you are due for some dental work, I would stay away. But if you have no problem shrugging off the sugar, then this place is for you. Mr. Bernardo Ortiz and his nice wife, the owners, are very accomodating. The first time we stopped in, he gave us a tour of all the different sweet treats behind in cases, and before we left, he set us up with a little sample box of all their offerings so that we could spread the good word to our friends. Humble, guerilla marketing at its finest.
They take advance orders for tamales, cakes, etc. And they make their own version of a flatbread-​style pizza too. Give the new kids on the block a shot!