Best Desserts in Chicagoland?

Hi there,

I've searched the forums yet have found no definitive thread on the best desserts in Chicagoland. I am interested in all kind of desserts-- confections, cakes, chocolates, cookies, ect.-- and was wondering what others here consider their favorite dessert joints as far as creativity and tastiness are concerned.

To start, I've heard great things about Hot Chocolate by Mindy Segal. I had tried her desserts back when she was pastry chef at MK, and thought they were outstanding!

I don't hold much love for the barbeque at Fat Willies. But the chocolate pecan pie with a big dollop of fresh whipped cream is one of the best simple desserts I have had in a restaurant. My second place for great simplicity would have to go to the excellent strawberry shortcake that they serve at Gibsons- a crunchy, sweet biscuit covered in macerated fresh strawberries and cream.

I was reminded again tonight that the profiteroles at Sabatino's are among the best desserts served in this city or anywhere. Perfect puff pastry and the best hot fudge sauce -- almost bitter with the intensity of chocolate -- you will ever find, anywhere.

I'm not sure of any specific dish I can think of as the best dessert (although that recent discussion of breakfast as an excuse to have dessert as a meal makes me think of Walker Brothers' apple pancake). However, as far as an assortment of desserts, my favorite, bar none, is Oceanique, in Evanston. I know, they specialize in seafood, but when they bring out the dessert tray of around ten desserts, I've usually previously had most of them, and I know that just about every single one is sheer heavenly bliss. They always include their "day and night cake" (a white and dark chocolate mousse cake), one or two fruit tarts with a short pastry crust and an almond paste filling, one or two pastry cream (creme patissiere) based desserts like a napoleon, a nut-based tart or pie (think pecan pie, although with a short pastry crust rather than a conventional pie dough), and a few more. Just superb.

Of course, "best dessert" depends a lot on what you like. For me, I tend not to want anything too sweet or too heavy. Flan or creme brulée are among my favorites. Seasons of Long Grove was voted as having the best creme brulée in Illinois, so I'm happy there. I also have loved some of the one-bite wonders I've had at Alinea. The sweetened mascarpone at Otom the other night was sublime. And I find the crispy almond tuile cookies with passion fruit cream at Le Titi de Paris to be just about perfect.

bittersweet pastry shop and cafe!
judy contino and her talented staff have been turning out consistently delicious products made from quality ingredients for many years,located on 1114 west belmont ave..
one of my favorites and and one i enjoy taking to parties and celebrations is their flourless chocolate cake,sublime in presentation,texture and tatse.

I rarely have dessert in restaurants anymore; too often, cakes and pies have the flavor of freezer air, and anyway I can make much better at home. So usually if I'm craving a dessert, we go elsewhere to make it happen. For ice cream cravings, we visit Scooter's Frozen Custard, and for cake or cookies we stop by the Bleeding Heart. Usually the Bleeding Heart, though - I am a freak of nature who just doesn't like ice cream all that much.

Bleeding Heart offers exactly the kind of desserts I want: namely, baked goods that are more rich than sweet. It's a failing of many bakeries, in my opinion, to produce items that are overly sweet. Bleeding Heart gets the sweet/rich balance just right.

There is one restaurant I always get dessert at, though. Sticky Rice offers a mango and sticky rice dish that is wonderful. I actually prefer the durian and sticky rice dessert, but that tends to be an item best consumed alone.

Scooter's Frozen Custard
1658 W Belmont Avenue
Chicago, IL 60657
(773) 244-6415

Bleeding Heart Bakery
1955 West Belmont Avenue
Chicago, IL 60657
(773) 327-6931

Sticky Rice
4018 N Western Avenue
Chicago, IL 60618
(773) 588-0120

I absolutely love the vanilla cupcakes served at Southport Grocery and Cafe. I've heard they're also served at a few other places too(don't ask me to remember all the places they're served at, though), including the coffeehouse Pause near the Berwyn Red Line stop. I'm hoping to make it to Pause for the first time in ages later this week, so I can verify what I had heard from another website on the places they're served at.

I'll later update this post accordingly, if other places SG+C cupcakes are served come to mind. And like others, I recommend the vanilla over the chocolate cupcakes, IMHO, though I don't dislike their chocolate cupcakes.

Southport Grocery and Cafe
3552 N Southport Ave
Chicago, IL 60657
(773) 665-0100

Pause (unconfirmed if they serve SG+C cupcakes, hope to soon check)
1107 W Berwyn Ave
Chicago, IL 60640
(773) 334-3686

Banana Cream Pie at Lula Cafe.

Regardless of what you think about Lula, and I am not its biggest fan, the Banana Cream Pie with a cup of their very fine Intelligentsia coffee is as good a desert as you can find anywhere. Even the Hungry Hound agrees...

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?sectio ... id=4138338

Not a restaurant, but you might want to check out Sweet Connection Bakery , they supply a lot of restaurants & hotels in the area and also are open to the public. You can get coffee there too, and sit at a table.

Sweet Connection Bakery
5569 N Northwest Hwy
Chicago, IL 60630
(773) 467-1042

Cynthia wrote: ...Seasons of Long Grove was voted as having the best creme brulée in Illinois, so I'm happy there.

Thanks for the tip. Creme brulée, when done right, is my favorite dessert. Long Grove is not all that convenient for me, but this just might be worth the drive. Out of curiosity, who voted Seasons' version the best in Illinois? Anything in particular make it so special?

Heck I'm happy anytime I can talk the hubs into ordering dessert!

I personally love the cookies at Coco Rouge. They usually have one cookie with blueberries, white chocolate and ginger taht I love but I noticed the other day they had a new one with pureed pistachio, roasted pistachio and white chocolate. It was really good.

Kennyz wrote:Creme brulée, when done right, is my favorite dessert.

One place that has a dynamite creme brulee available for carry-out is Gourmet Frog, the carry-out/catering arm of Froggy's in Highwood. They also have wicked eclairs, and their other pastries are excellent as well.

chinkyeeboy wrote:To start, I've heard great things about Hot Chocolate by Mindy Segal. I had tried her desserts back when she was pastry chef at MK, and thought they were outstanding!

I actually don't care for Mindy Segal's desserts. I find the desserts at Hot Chocolate pretentious, and they've never tasted very good to me. I've never been to MK, though.

I partake in dessert far, far more often than I should and have a very liberal definition of what constitutes dessert. My list of favorites definitely changes depending on the mood I'm in, but here are some of my loves:

- Tarte Maeve @ Vanille Patisserie
- Any donuts on Blackbird's menu
- Nut tart @ Letizia's (though I feel like they haven't been as good lately)
- Chocolate cake @ Opera
- Macarons @ Bittersweet
- Anything liquor-soaked @ Pasticceria Natalina
- Ginger cookies & cinnamon buns @ Fox & Obel
- Cherry turnover @ Bennison's
- Red bean cakes @ Chiu Quon (Argyle location only)

Vanille Patisserie
2229 N Clybourn
Chicago IL 60614
773-868-4574

Blackbird
619 W Randolph
Chicago IL 60606
312-715-0708

Letizia's
2144 W Division
Chicago IL 60622
773-342-1011

Opera
1301 S Wabash
Chicago IL 60605
312-461-0161

Bittersweet
1114 W Belmont
Chicago IL 60657
773-929-1100

Pasticceria Natalina
5406 N Clark St
Chicago IL 60640
773-989-0662

Fox & Obel
401 E Illinois St
Chicago IL 60611
312-410-7301

Bennison's
1000 Davis St
Evanston IL 60201
847-328-9434

Chiu Quon
1127 W Argyle St
Chicago IL 60640
773-907-8888

Although I was not a huge fan of the rest of the meal, the Passion Fruit Souffle at VTK was excellent.

And I love the cookies from Bittersweet as a take-home dessert.

Sweets and Savories also has some wonderful options. In fact, the best part of the tasting menu was the round of four different desserts they gave us at the end of the meal.

I absolutely love the desserts at Hot Chocolate . . . sorry happy_stomach

I think they're delicious and well-conceived across the board. The combinations of flavors and textures are quite satisfying. Her ice creams are fantastic, too.

=R=

I'm not a big dessert person myself, but occasionally, I'll make the trip to Hot Chocolate and have a bowl of soup for a meal with the intention of having dessert. The last time I was there, the donuts with a chocolate sauce were unbelievably light, and the sauce was intensely chocolate and silky in texture. I find many dessert sauces are prepared ham-handedly, without the same attention given to savory sauces like bechamels. Chocolate sauces, in particular, tend to be stodgy, IMHO. But not Mindy Segal's!

wak wrote:Sweets and Savories also has some wonderful options. In fact, the best part of the tasting menu was the round of four different desserts they gave us at the end of the meal.

That's funny; when I ate there, I thought the desserts were the weakest part of the menu. Not terrible, but not their strength.

I find it interesting that there is often a disconnect between the savory courses and the desserts. Some places have great mains but really fall down when it comes to desserts. (Places I've felt this way about recently include Custom House and Quince.) Others are the reverse, with great desserts outshining a meal that's otherwise just okay. Still others do both well, which is why I think such places (e.g. one sixtyblue, Aigre Doux, North Pond, Michael, Oceanique, Chefs Station) are the best places of all.

I realize that many restaurants have a separate pastry chef in charge of the desserts, but still, you would think that the executive chef would choose a pastry chef whose capabilities are consistent with the rest of the restaurant.

I LOVE Sweet Mandy B's on Webster in the Lincoln Park/DePaul neighborhood. Plus, unlike most bakeries, it's open late and you can
sit at the counter, have a piece of cake or a cupcake and watch them
frost a cake.

But I think the very BEST chocolate cake is from Tag's Bakery on Central Street in Evanston. Be sure and get the fudge icing and filling and not the buttercream. The butterscotch coffee cake is great too.

I agree about Sweet Mandy B's. I can't resist their puddings. Banana with wafers, chocolate, butterscotch, rice...they're all sooooo good! Also, the giant whoopie pie is another favorite. It's definitely a great thing that they are actually open late. That way, I can stop in on my way home from work or school.

If you're looking for a great dessert in a very casual atmosphere, the hot-out-of-the-fryer donut holes with mocha dipping sauce at Depot Diner are really, really, really good. If I'm in Evanston I'm a very happy camper getting the key lime pie at the Lucky Platter (disclaimer: I was a server there for a while). On a hot summer day it's hard to beat Miko's italian ice, particularly the mango flavor, which tends to be available earlier in the summer season.

The Depot American Diner
5840 W Roosevelt Rd
Chicago, IL 60644
(773) 261-8422

Lucky Platter
514 Main St
Evanston, IL 60202
(847) 869-4064

Miko's Italian Ice (Logan Square location)
2234 N. Sacramento Ave.
Chicago, IL 60647
(773) 645-9664

This may sound odd, but I absolutely love the chocolate cake from Portillos. It's a double-layer chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and the whole thing is very rich and moist. The cake is cheap, available by the slice or whole, and there's usually a location nearby.

I had heard of this cake before I tried it. And a lot of people like it.
It *is* nice to be able to order a piece from a drive-in window.
But it tastes like a cake mix to me and I much prefer a good bakery
cake to theirs.
(The convenience factor *is* nice though.)

i am loving this topic and all of the great reply's!
i want to add the red velvet cake at "TWEET" on sheridan near argyle,a delightfull neighborhood breakfast/lunch restaurant.
their version of this beloved classic is dense,rich,sprinkled with crushed nuts and slathered in cream cheese frosting it's also paired with whipped cream and fresh berries.