Chiu Quon Bakery & Dim Sum
Taro Bun
Black Sesame Bun
Walnut Bean Paste Cake
Egg Custard Tart
Lotus Paste Cake
Sesame Pork Cookie
Lotus Paste Moon Cake
Sesame Ball with Bean Paste
Peanut Rice Cake
Portuguese Milk Egg Tart
Billed as Chicago’s “oldest traditional Chinese Bakery,” the flagship at 2253 South Wentworth Avenue an updated location with modern signage, Chiu Quon Bakery & Dim Sum has been serving residents of the Windy City since 1986.
Owned by Joyce Chiu and brother Matthew, their no-frills approach to Pastries, Cakes, Buns and more having additionally entered Uptown with further expansion planned, it is from 7:00am until 8:00pm daily that guests are welcomed – COVID-19 currently seeing extra safety measures implemented at a space that already appears quite clean.
Cash only then and now, with dining area currently closed but take-out sales faring well thanks to Chiu Quon’s recent partnership with Facebook advertising, it is from over 100 daily items that diners must make choices, many of them identifiable to those familiar with Chinese Cuisine but others previously unseen.
Purporting to use “the finest Ingredients,” a dubious statement considering the low price point, it was at a cost of just under $17 that ten choices were bagged, a lack of seating finding the Taro Bun enjoyed on nearby church steps while Black Sesame baked similarly had an unpleasant gelatinous center as though it was undercooked.
Next sampling a refrigerated Walnut Bean Paste Cake, the Pastry on this as well as a “mini” Moon Cake buttery around well-textured Filling, suffice it to say that arriving immediately after Egg Custard Tarts emerged from the oven was fortuitous – both Hong Kong and Portuguese styles still jiggly with *better* largely a matter of personal taste.
Taking a chance or two before finishing familiar, Chiu Quon’s Sesame Pork Cookie undoubtedly an acquired taste, it seems hard to believe anyone might enjoy a “Peanut Rice Cake” that eats like sawdust in a flavorless Hostess Snoball, a far better taste and value offered by textbook Sesame Balls or golden Dough baked around subtly sweet Lotus Paste.
www.cqbakery.com
