The ULTIMATE List Of Chicago Area Paczki Bakeries

If you’ve never had paczki, you need to find some. If you just need to find the best Chicago paczki, I’m here to help.

Paczki (pronounced poonch-key) are a Polish tradition, and I love them. If you’ve never had them before, start with my tutorial on what are packzi for all the details.

With its huge Polish community, you can find paczki all over the place in Chicago, and that includes the grocery stores. Do not buy your paczki at the grocery store, however. They’re mediocre, at best.

Paczki should be fresh. No grocery store can compare to what you can find at a good bakery.

While I may make my own donuts, paczki I always buy. If you’re a donut lover instead, check out my favorites at the bottom of this article.

Paczki buying tips

A word of warning: If your bakery offers the option to order your paczki in advance, do it. They get busy and sell out of the most popular flavors. Some bakeries hit their baking capacity with preorders and can’t take walk-in purchases as Paczki Tuesday approaches.

If you don’t preorder, know what time your bakery opens, and plan to go early. Some bakeries start selling the Thursday before Fat Tuesday, some are open on Mondays when they normally are closed, and some sell only on Fat Tuesday. Know before you go.

You also want to go early in the day. Paczki are popular and labor-intensive, so bakeries generally can’t easily make more. Once a flavor is gone, it’s gone.

What if I don’t live near a bakery with paczki?

If you’ve never ordered from Goldbelly before, you’re in for a treat. They specialize in mail order foods local to specific areas from the locations you know and trust – and they know how to ship them properly.

Where to find the best Chicago Paczki

I did my research, and my jeans attest to the fact that I worked hard on this. Did I miss one of the best Chicago paczki locations? Let me know so I can add it – and visit it next year!

Country Donuts

Yes, paczki are a Polish tradition, but the paczki at Country Donuts are probably the best I’ve ever eaten. They make them fresh and sell them fast. In fact, this bakery ran out of paczki on Sunday – for the year. All their baking goes toward fulfilling preorders.

Country Donuts offers the most limited selection of paczki of any bakery I’ve been to, but the flavor makes up for the lack of variety. All their paczki are double-filled with buttercream and your choice of custard, black raspberry, or strawberry.

Each of the light paczki then get dusted with powdered sugar. This makes a delicious treat that isn’t too rich or overpowering in its sweetness but just perfect.

Country Donuts has two locations for this family owned business. Find them both in Elgin and in Crystal Lake, but do it quickly! In my book, these are the (second) best Chicago paczki, hands down.

Oak Mill Bakery

I have been visiting Oak Mill Bakery for over 20 years, and it’s probably better for my waistline that the Niles location is no longer along the way of my daily commute. They are an amazing Polish bakery that creates gorgeous custom cakes and sweet tables for special occasions, as well as daily baked goods to enjoy.

With locations now in Harwood Heights, Niles, Arlington Heights, Des Plaines, Chicago on South Harlem, there are plenty of locations to find some of the best Chicago paczki no matter where in the area you live. Each bakery has different operating hours and open dates, so make sure you check yours.

Their items are always beautiful, and I love that their paczki have a flavor that keeps me coming back. In fact, they offer 25 different flavors, plus mini paczki in 3 traditional flavors (rose, raspberry, and custard).

While I like to try a few different varieties from each bakery I visit, I had a tough time deciding here because so many sound so good. I finally settled on six paczki though I had to skip the salted caramel this time.

I love that the paczki are so round and puffed, a sign of a quality dough and proper cooking. The dough is tasty with the hint of orange oil in it and obviously very fresh.

Inside, most of the paczki were decently filled, though you can see the different between the strawberry paczek and the black current paczek was significant. These are a tiny bit smaller than some bakeries, but they are not undersized.

The fruit filling was fantastic. The black currant had a perfect level of tartness to go with the sweetness of the others I enjoyed, and the apricot had small bits of the fruit, which I love.

The custard was not my favorite of the fillings, as it had a strong cornstarch undertone to it. However, the Nutella had a delicious hazelnut flavor to it, much like the coffee notes in the whipped cream of the coffee bean paczki.

Though they usually open mid to late mornings on most days, on Polish Paczki Day and Fat Tuesday, they open at 6am to accommodate the rush of customers. 

Like most bakeries, you can order online, though you need to order in quantities of 6 or 12 of classic, premium, or gourmet paczki. Basically, you can’t choose peanut butter and jelly in combination with prune or sour cherry with whipped cream.

If you want more flexibility to mix and match, you need to go in the day of. If you do order for Polish Paczki Day or Fat Tuesday, make sure to order at least two business days in advance (and note that they are closed Mondays, so that doesn’t count).

Sweet Generation

Sweet Generation is a very small Polish deli and bakery located in Wood Dale. They had a variety of punchkin available, and at the relatively late hour I arrived, they were filling them as fast as they could to order.

Even though they were going quickly, the Paczki were extremely well filled and these may be some of my new favorite paczki of any bakery I’ve been to. They are obviously incredibly fresh, and everyone except for the Nutella was very generously filled.

Even though the Nutella one was not as generously filled on the inside, the chocolate ganache on top, along with the chopped hazelnuts made for an amazing paczek. The mango is delicious and has chopped pistachios on top in addition to candied mango.

I wish I lived nearer so that I could try even more of these because there were many many flavors that I would have enjoyed. The signage is all in Polish, so either take a picture of it and get it translated or be prepared to hold up the line slightly to ask for a translation.

They have paczki only on Tłusty Czwartek (Thursday) and Fat Tuesday itself, so prepare to go in on one of those days. If there is a particular flavor you want, you can order in advance, but I was impressed by how well they quickly filled the requests each customer made.

The black currant includes custard with the black currant compote, and this was perfect because they do not have a Bavarian custard, which is one of my standard comparisons. The custard was delicious on its own, but it also paired beautifully with the black currant and I highly recommend that version.

The coffee filling was very strong and a little bit curdled which doesn’t surprise me given that they use real coffee. It was still delicious, but you have to really like coffee to enjoy this paczek.

They were among the more expensive paczki I purchased this year, but they are definitely worth the splurge. And no, they were not the most expensive.

Lilac Bakery

Find Lilac Bakery in downtown Lombard, where they also sell their paczki only on Paczki Day. I strongly suggest you order in advance – by the Saturday before Fat Tuesday at noon.

In addition to having preorders (and prepaid) customers go through a separate line to pick up your paczki quickly, they sell out of flavors quickly, as well.

I visited before 10am, and a few flavors were already sold out. And the line to purchase? It was long and not the most efficient.

The paczki, however, are worth the wait. They make 20 different paczki flavors, ranging from traditional poppyseed and prune to the more decadent and delicious raspberry chocolate mousse and blueberry cream cheese.

Most of their paczki come cut in half and filled, but some are filled without being cut. I expected the blueberry and peach to be “stuffed” but were instead sliced and filled.

That is not a complaint, as each bite is more likely to contain filling. However, they are sometimes more messy this way!

The blueberry was very jammy, while the peach contained large slices of fruit that tasted of fruit versus filling. The raspberry chocolate mousse, however, stole the show. I got just one bite before my daughter devoured the remainder.

The dough for these packzi is also fresh and delicious. However, I did notice that the exterior was slightly tough compared to some bakeries.

Weber’s Bakery

Located on South Archer Avenue in the city of Chicago, Weber’s Bakery is well known for their paczki. While you can purchase paczki in person starting the Thursday (Paczki Day) before Fat Tuesday and going through Paczki Day, I highly suggest you order in advance.

Preorders get a choice of 15 different paczki from custard with chocolate icing to strawberry or apricot rolled in sugar to poppyseed with a fondant top to raspberry jelly with a peanut butter top and more. You can also buy a four-pack of fresh strawberry with whipped cream costs or fresh strawberry.

You can also order an assortment that has one of each flavor except poppyseed and fresh strawberry. They do not allow customization of the assortment.

The provide paczki from the Thursday prior to Fat Tuesday (Polish Paczki Day) to Fat Tuesday. Note that they are closed on Mondays.

When I visited, the walk in offered “just” five options, so ordering ahead means you know you get the flavor you want.

However, you must order at least one day in advance (and by noon), so plan ahead. Once the online order period shuts off, you do not have the option even to see what you could order until 7am the next day.

This also means you need to order on Sunday by noon for Fat Tuesday paczki. Also, you must order a minimum of six paczki if you plan to pick up on Fat Tuesday, which generally isn’t an issue, right? (Fresh strawberry four packs don’t count towards the six.)

Another benefit to ordering ahead is that they do pickup in a tent to the side of the bakery for quick in and out. Walk ins wait in line to get into the bakery, and even on Thursday morning, the wait was over 15 minutes.

That said, Weber’s Bakery makes good paczki. The dough is extremely soft and fresh, and though they did not feel overtly heavy, the paczki I purchased were reasonably well filled.

The strawberry buttercream was one of my favorite paczki from any bakery, and though I usually don’t love cookies and cream type flavors, I truly enjoyed the cookies and cream paczek with oreo topping.

Few bakeries carry poppyseed paczki, and I loved seeing the traditional flavors like this, as well as the fresh strawberry with whipped cream and apricot. The do not offer prune or rose, the other traditional, less common flavors.

My paczki had some variance in filling, and I wish my apricot had more filling in it, but they leave nothing to complain about. Weber’s offers a solid choice for paczki.

This is another bakery that also offers a cinnamon king cake for those who look for that.

Peterson’s Tasty Delight Bakery

I love that Peterson’s is a small local bakery. You can find them on Algonquin Road in Hoffman Estates where they have the most delicious giant cookies, in addition to their daily donuts and coffee cakes and more.

Their paczki are available for preorder, but make sure you do so by the Friday before Paczki Day, which is their cutoff.

They offer a discount on a dozen paczki versus purchasing one or five, so keep that in mind. They also are one of the bakeries to offer king cakes if you prefer those.

Peterson’s provides three types of paczki: traditional with classic cream and preserves, a specialty cream filling, and fresh fruit and combos.

Pick up anything from a banana cream with chocolate glaze to Oreo with either chocolate glaze or powdered sugar to prune with frosting or powdered sugar. With 33 different flavors, this bakery has some of the widest variety of any bakery I visit.

Their paczki are very fresh. When I picked up mine the weekend before the big day, I had to wait to have them filled to order. They are heavy and well-filled, which is always a plus.

I love that their filling tastes like fruit and not pie filling. In fact, many of the flavors had actual slices or chunks of the fruit in them.

The custard I tried was definitely homemade, but slightly grainy, so maybe stick with the fruits. They offer everything from prune and raspberry to apricot and pineapple in preserves.

Their fresh fruit and combos include blueberry and apple, as well as peach and raspeberry mousse, plus so many more. And of course you can’t go wrong with the specialty flavors like peanut butter and jelly, key lime, or cannoli.

EuroFresh Market

I know, I know, I’m putting a grocery store up there with the bakeries? I am. I didn’t expect to, but sometimes I surprise myself.

EuroFresh Market, located on Northwest Highway in Palatine, is a fantastic grocery store with the best (and cheapest) fresh fruits and veggies that I buy all the time. Their bakery is on par with the quality of their produce. (I used their strawberries to make my s’mores stuffed strawberries, just to give you an idea.)

I just happened to notice a sale sign for their paczki, and of course I had to buy some. They are among the more affordable paczki out there.

While they have limited flavors – just custard, rose, raspberry, apricot, and plum – they are traditional and popular flavors, including my two favorites.

While they have limited flavors compared to other bakeries, you can’t beat the price. They were incredibly fresh, and appropriately stale the second day.

These paczki were decently filled – especially for the price – and tasted good. They aren’t as ginormous as some, but I have no complaints about the size at all.

For a quick fix of nothing fancy, I would buy these all day long!

Deerfield’s

Deerfield’s has been one of my favorite bakeries since I first got a job in the suburbs and someone brought in a chocolate coffee cake to the office one day. They do amazing baked goods.

They have locations in Deerfield and Buffalo Grove, with all baking happening in Deerfield. Sadly, the Schaumburg location closed.

I’ve never had a product from Deerfield’s I haven’t liked, but a heads up that they are a higher end bakery, and their prices reflect that. Pay in cash, as they add 2.5% to any credit card transaction. Though they call it a “cash discount,” the prices listed are the cash price, and credit card has a fee added.

They have absolutely gorgeous paczki and so much variety, you’ll be hard pressed to choose. Thankfully, they provide large boxes for you to abet your addiction.

The offer the prettiest paczki of any bakery I’ve been to. Thankfully, the flavor matches the looks.

Like Konrad’s, the paczki have filling throughout, and they taste as fresh as though they just left the oven. Their filling tastes more like fresh fruit than many bakeries, proving beauty is more than skin deep.

While most bakeries keep their products behind the counter, at Deerfield’s you have access to the paczki on shelves to take as many of each variety as you choose. Thankfully, they make a ton of paczki, so you’re less likely to run out of what I consider some of the best Chicago paczki here than many other bakeries.

Deerfield’s does, however, take preorders to ensure you get the exact flavors you want. Preorders now run for two full weeks, including up to Fat Tuesday.

The offer 22 flavors, ranging from traditional lemon or custard to cherry or birthday cake to chocolate mousse or peanut butter.

You can also pick up an assorted dozen with two each of custard, chocolate custard, raspberry, lemon, blueberry, and apple. Don’t ask because no, you cannot substitute out.

They also sell king cakes, for those who fall on the southern end of the celebrating spectrum, as well as Mardi Gras themed cookies.

Baranowski Bakery and Deli

Located in Franklin Park, Baranowski Deli also offers a number of flavors at a reasonable price point, but they sell out earlier in the day. They continue to fry their paczki until 4pm, but they go quickly.

When I arrived midday, they were sold out of many of my favorite flavors including advokat, Nutella, Bavarian, custard, apricot, and more. Lesson learned: order ahead.

I was able to get raspberry and black currant, but besides that they mostly had Rose and prune remaining. Go early.

Their dough is very light and fresh and soft, but the filling is less generous than in many other bakeries. The raspberry is a jam without the fresh fruit pieces that I like, as is the black currant.

They are dipped in a glaze so that makes them a little messy to eat, but still tasty. They are still delicious for a relatively cost-effective punchkin, but these are not my favorite.

Sweet T’s Bakery

Sweet T’s Bakery in Arlington Heights sells their paczki from Thursday through Tuesday. They do not do pre-orders, so be prepared for a line depending upon when you go in.

These are among the more expensive paczki that I have purchased, with the lowest price being over $4 and half of them being over $6, so be aware that these are definitely specialty paczki. On the plus side, they are all relatively well filled, and these are large paczki, which helps to justify the cost.

Most of their paczki are cut in half and filled, with only the custard and the raspberry preserves being filled without being cut in half. It allows for a really good amount of filling, but it does make them a little messier.

They also coat most of their paczki in powdered sugar, so again there is a mess factor. I do love that their fruit paczki have really nice big pieces of fruit in them rather than being just jelly. It is definitely Frozen fruit, but it has great texture.

The custard, which is always one of my big criteria, is well done with both great texture and taste. It is not at all gritty nor does it taste of cornstarch or any other off flavors.

The dough is a little dry for my preference, and perhaps slightly overcooked, but it isn’t bad by any stretch. The key lime was one of the two most expensive specialty donuts, with peach, surprisingly being the other.

The key lime had great flavor and I loved that it was not a neon fluorescent green. I would have loved a little more of the key lime and a little less whipped cream, but key lime is also my favorite flavor anything, so I will always go heavy on the key lime.

One note that this Bakery is usually closed on Mondays but is open the day before Fat Tuesday though with different hours, so be sure you check before you go. Because it is normally closed on Mondays, that might be a good day to pick up your paczki simply because not as many people are aware or will go on that day.

I had a much shorter line when I tried on Monday, than the 35-person deep line on Sunday. This is a great bakery, as evidenced by the crowd, and yes, they do also sell king cakes here.

Aracely’s Bakery

Aracely’s Bakery has locations in Cicero, Melrose Park, Villar Park, and Franklin Park, as well as a pop up location at Horton’s in LaGrange just on Fat Tuesday itself. They offer 15 different paczki flavors, as well as king cakes.

In terms of quality for price, Aracely’s provides what may be the best bang for the buck. You can also get a 4 pack of your choice for or a dozen with a slightly limited selection but nearly all the flavors.

These paczki are very fresh, and they do a great job with filling, partly because they cut the paczki in half and then add filling. I love when every bite has a taste of the special flavor.

They also offer paczki ahead of Paczki Day, starting the Thursday before Paczki Day, but they have limited flavors for walk-in customers. If you wish to get the flavor you want, order ahead, and they offer both online orders, phone orders, and in-person advance orders to make it simple.

Online orders are available for pickup at the Franklin Avenue location or the pop-up location only, and on Fat Tuesday, with one additional later date for each location.

The blueberry glaze may not have had the bright flavor notes I’ve had in some blueberry paczki, but it remained tasty. The dough and the complete filling help a lot here.

The cream with powdered sugar, on the other hand, is one of the best creams I’ve tasted. It was rich and cooked perfectly, and not at all grainy like so many are.

If these two paczki – which also have my favorite packaging with their individual paper cups to hold them – are any example of the quality of their other flavors, this is a bakery you do not want to skip.

I can’t wait to try more, from their Nutella with Nutella topping to lemon glazed to raspberry and pineapple and more. Next time, I will order in advance.

Krystyna’s (KD Market)

You can find Krystyna’s within KD Market, a full size Polish grocery story, in Crystal Lake, Wheeling, Mount Prospect, Schaumburg, and Schiller Park. This is the exception to the rule about not finding the best Chicago paczki in a grocery store.

Krystyna’s attracts a clientele that knows their paczki. Like Deerfield’s, you find the paczki on display for you to choose and purchase, and the variety is beyond overwhelming.

They stick with the traditional, however, with Nutella the most “out there” option. They offer black currant, mixed fruit, apricot (Fat Tuesday only), raspberry, plum butter, Nutella, rosehip, and custard with chocolate frosting.

You can order half dozens of each flavor or a mix of flavors or walk in the day of to select individual paczki of your choice. This is one of the rare bakeries that offers paczki year round, but the selection outside this “season” is limited to just a few flavors.

One unique aspect about Krystyna’s I loved is that they offered mini paczki for a low price, which allowed you to sample more flavors with less guilt. They are not offering this option, but I hope it comes back in the future.

Their paczki tend to be large and heavy, but watch the ones you pick up. I picked up a few lighter paczki that had far less filling than any paczki should. Others, however, had the filling I expect to see

Just grab a bag and add what you like, then head to the front checkout to pay.

I found these paczki fairly soft and fresh, but make sure you don’t grab any overbaked ones. These have the feeling of assembly line paczki to some degree versus the small batch in other bakeries, but they still taste great.

County Donuts

County Donuts in Schaumburg, not to be confused with Country Donuts which has locations in Crystal Lake and Elgin, is another 24-hour a day 7 day a week bakery, again like Country Donuts and Spunky Dunkers. They have a selection of paczki, although the woman working there who described them to the customer in line in front of me basically said that they were high-calorie donuts with too much jelly, so I was not super optimistic about how I would like these ones.

The Bavarian came with powdered sugar rather than a chocolate ganache, although she did tell me that the chocolate ganache would be available as of Saturday. They sell their Paczki from Friday through Tuesday rather than starting on Thursday.

They also did not have all of their flavors yet available, so if you are looking for a specific one, either call in advance to ask if they have it, or wait until closer to Fat Tuesday to ensure that you have the flavors you want. On the plus side, they did have a wide variety of paczki available later in the day partly because they are a 24-hour bakery.

You can order a head, and that provides you with additional flavors. The flavors include chocolate iced Bavarian, black raspberry, jelly delux, apple, vanilla cream, chocolate cream, lemon, mango, pineapple, Boston cream, strawberry, and cherry.

Their paczki are relatively well-filled, and I enjoyed the fillings. The custard was well-made and flavorful, which is always one of my criteria.

The donut itself was also relatively light and fluffy and very fresh. That’s not a surprise again with a 24-hour bakery.

I also tried the apricot, pineapple, and black raspberry. Each of those had small bits of fruit in them, though my favorite is really the ones that have the larger chunks of fruit for the fruit varieties of paczki.

This is not a traditional Polish bakery, so they did not have many of the traditional flavors like rose or prune That said, this is not a bad place to pop in if you live nearby to get your annual fix.

My major disappointment was the powdered sugar that of course makes a mess everywhere when you eat it. I would have loved to see the chocolate ganache for the Bavarian, but I came in a day early for that option.

Kolatek’s Bakery and Deli

You can find Kolatek’s Bakery and Deli at Harlem and Fullerton in Chicago with a new location on Rand Road in Palatine. When you walk in and have the staff greet you in Polish, you start with a positive feeling about the offerings.

Their paczki are among the prettiest of the bunch, rivaling Deerfield’s. You can purchase their Paczki starting the Thursday before Paczki Day, as well.

Unlike many bakeries, they have all or nearly all their flavors available for in store purchase rather than just a few. That said, I still recommend ordering in advance to get the flavors you want, especially as the holiday approaches.

Kolatek’s has raspberry, plum butter, blueberry, rose, custard, and apricot with additional premium flavors of Nutella, Limoncello, tiramisu, rum, caramel bacon, and fresh strawberry with whipped cream.

One unique order ahead function? They take their orders via Facebook Messenger and phone. So yes, you’ll want to contact them through the Kolatek Bakery Facebook Page.

Standard priced options include raspberry, cherry, plum butter, blueberry, rose, custard, and apricot – most of the traditional paczki flavors. Their premium options tempted me, however, so I cannot speak to these paczki.

It’s hard to choose from the other flavors which run the gamut from Nutella, Limoncello to tiramisu, rum, and fresh strawberry with whipped cream. All told, they have 12 varieties, so you’re sure to find a favorite.

The rum raisin (no longer offered) was less strong on the rum and raisin than expected, as I used rum raisin ice cream as my baseline. I did like the buttercream frosting (not whipped cream) on top, as that fit will with the flavors.

The custard for that was somewhat grainy, possibly because of the rum in it. The limoncello, however, had a much stronger flavor and as a better choice if you want boozy paczki.

For those who love a sweet and salty mix, the caramel bacon provides a solid choice. All paczki were good and fresh, though not the softest dough of the paczki I’ve tried.

These paczki were hit or miss on the filling, however. The black current (no longer offered) was beautifully filled, and I will share that with no one in my house. However, the filling for the caramel bacon left a lot to be desired. The limoncello paczek had a little more filling than this, but still not the right ratio.

Mundelein Polish Deli

While Mundelein Polish Deli is not a bakery, this small store does bring in paczki for both Tłusty Czwartek (Thursday) and Fat Tuesday. It was not busy when I arrived on Tuesday morning, and they had plenty of paczki remaining.

This traditional Polish location offers – not surprisingly, many of the traditional Polish flavors without a ton of embellishment. You can choose from rose, plum, strawberry, apricot, raspberry, blueberry, and Bavarian cream.

All the paczki are the same price and among the least expensive paczki I purchased this year. They are a decent size, so you feel like you’re getting a reasonably good value.

That said, they had relatively little feeling with the exception of the Bavarian cream. However, the chocolate on top of that flavor was essentially melted chocolate so flaked off very easily as I cut into it.

I do like that the other flavors are glazed. The dough is not my favorite as it is a little dry, and the custard is fine but again not my favorite.

The apricot had delicious chunks of fruit and tasted exactly how I want apricot to be. The blueberry and raspberry however reminded me of pie filling.

These are definitely Polish-style paczki and not American-style.

Karina’s Bakery

Karina’s Bakery, which is also located in Mundelein, is a Hispanic bakery that is offering Paczki this year. They have them just on Fat Tuesday and do not offer preorders, but they have plenty in stock for walk-ins.

This is one of the few bakeries where you serve yourself. Grab a tray and a pair of tongs, and then find the paczki display and select your favorites.

Karina’s offers just three flavors: strawberry, apple, and vanilla. I have to say that the vanilla custard is probably one of my favorite custards that I have tasted.

However, the paczki themselves are somewhat greasy. The dough is also very yellow which leads me to believe that there are a lot of eggs in it.

They dust the tops with powdered sugar and cut them in half to fill them. When I arrived at home, the grease had actually soaked through much of the powdered sugar.

I do not love the dough used for these, as something just tastes off to me, and I do believe it is the eggs. While I loved the vanilla custard, the strawberry and apple are very sweet and taste like pie filling to me.

These were also not the most inexpensive paczki, so unless you happen to be in the neighborhood, I might select a different location.

Central Continental Bakery

Central Continental Bakery in Arlington Heights will always hold a special place in my heart, as they baked my wedding cake many, many years ago. They do a fantastic job with so many of their baked goods.

Continental has amazing paczki flavor from the traditional lemon and prune to fresh peach and apple to really fancy varieties. Their s’more flavor looks amazing, as does the lemon meringue pie and mocha latte and more.

Altogether, Continental has 46 varieties to choose from, which can be overwhelming. They do a good job filling their paczki, although their custard tends to be less well filled than fruit or specialty varieties.

They start taking online orders in late January for the six days they sell paczki for pickup between Paczki Day and Fat Tuesday. Again, if you want a specific variety, order online so you don’t risk not having your favorite flavor.

Place orders online by 1pm for pickup the next day (unless you order way ahead obviously!) Orders close at noon on Sunday for pickup, however, given the high volume on those last couple days.

To me, they taste slightly more like a donut passed as a paczki than true paczki. That said, they do a decent job with a homemade custard and decent filling flavor.

The real downside to Continental is the price. Their paczki ar the most expensive I’ve tried. Now my key lime paczek was delicious, I won’t argue that, but it’s hard to buy more than a couple at their prices.

Ania’s Polish Deli

Finally, a traditional Polish location, right? That’s where you expect to find the best Chicago paczki.

Ania’s Polish Deli in Lake Zurich and Round Lake Beach doesn’t make their paczki onsite, but they have a fantastic Polish bakery that delivers their paczki daily – except on Sundays.

Because they don’t make the paczki on site, they aren’t as amazingly fresh as Country Donuts, for example, but they still taste great and are one of my favorites. As with any paczki you purchase, eat them the day you buy them because they don’t last well.

Here you’ll find the traditional sugar rolled paczki, as well as powdered sugar paczki in all the traditional flavors. You have rose and plum, as well as other fruits. They do not offer the “exotic” varieties that you may find elsewhere, but they have plenty to choose from.

Spunky Dunkers

If you have a specific paczki flavor you want from Spunky Dunkers in Palatine, order ahead. They offer over 27 varieties and don’t make each one daily.

Spunky Dunkers, like Country Donuts, is open 24/7 and makes donuts fresh daily on site, so you always have an incredibly fresh paczki. Their fruit fillings are more similar to pie filling than the jam you find in many other bakeries, which makes them even sweeter.

Their paczki are cut in half and then filled rather than being filled from the side. That means every bite has the filling, something some paczki miss.

That said, my family finds some of their paczki too sweet with a thick layer of buttercream or cream cheese combined with a fruit filling. Granted, I have yet to make it there when they have just the cherry, lemon, banana, apricot, etc filled paczki, which I suspect more closely resemble the paczki I am used to.

In 2023, their paczki cost $3 apiece, with a dozen available for $33. Unlike many other bakeries, you can choose exactly what you want in your dozen from the 27 they have available this year.

Jarosch Bakery

Jarosch Bakery in Arlington Heights is another old school famous Chicago area bakery. They also recommend you order in advance, and they even include their order form on their website each year to make it easier.

Each order has a minimum of two paczki, but that’s not a problem, is it? The only challenge is that you have to get two of each flavor you want, which makes walking in a possibly better option.

Online orders are available through the Saturday prior to Fat Tuesday. After that, you must go to the bakery and cross your fingers they still have what you want.

The offer “only” twelve varieties of their incredibly fresh paczki, but you’ll find your standard favorites from cheese to prune to custard and more. While they don’t have the over the top fancy flavors, you can tell they focus on tradition.

They have a great dough for their paczki, one of my favorites. This makes up for the fact that their paczki tend to be slightly smaller than many other bakeries’ paczki, partly again as they stick to tradition.

I love their philosophy on ensuring each paczek has as much filling as possible. They cut their paczki in half, then fill them, which gives you filling in every bite no matter what.

However, they don’t have my favorite filling. Their custard had an odd taste to it, almost like they mixed it in a bowl that had something else in it first. Their filling tastes more pie filling like to me, which isn’t my favorite.

Each paczek costs $2.95, and they have them available for two full weeks prior to Fat Tuesday. Jarosch also offers king cakes for $21.80 each for that same time period.

Country Style Donuts

Do not confuse Country Style Donuts located in Hanover Park with Country Donuts that has locations in Crystal Lake and Elgin. They are two completely separate bakeries with two very different takes on the paczki.

They offer 15 different – mostly – standard flavors that range from chocolate iced Bavarian to strawberry, lemon, or prune to black raspberry, apple ‘n spice, or mango.

You can order in advance on their website for pickup in store. To ensure you get the flavors you want, I suggest you do so. They have a form on their website that sends an email to the store, though unlike most, they do not require payment in advance.

I did this the day before, but they did not have my order. Thankfully, they are continually refilling and I was able to get the paczki I wanted to purchase.

Their paczki were large and somewhat flat compared to the traditional mounded shape. Most paczki come coated in powdered sugar, so don’t eat these in your car.

Interestingly, most of their paczki are cut in half before filling rather than filling the center, though there were a few exceptions to this. The paczki have the traditional lighter circle around the center showing how much they do rise as they fry.

I tried six paczki, including the mango I was super excited for as it is relatively unique. I expected a filling similar to a traditional apricot filling, but this was more of a mango pudding. It was tasty but not quite what I expected.

I also got apricot, as this is my favorite flavor. This one did have the chunks of tasty fruit in the filling. The only downside was that the one I received had very little filling, unlike most of the other paczki I tried from Country Style Donuts.

The chopped cherry was another paczek I looked forward to, again expecting chopped pieces of fruit inside. This was not sliced in half but was filled with a similar amount to the apricot, and it did not have the chunks of cherry I expected.

The chocolate iced Bavarian was well done. It had a good taste and texture to its custard, and it was well filled and delicious.

The black raspberry was the most filled of all the paczki I tried this year. It was a black raspberry jelly inside with no seeds, which I appreciated.

The vanilla cream was one I picked up just for fun. The buttercream was light and fluffy and filled the paczek completely. Though it was sweet, this is what I expected for a buttercream filled paczek.

Country Style Donuts starts providing paczki the Monday before Fat Tuesday all the way through Fat Tuesday itself.

Chicago Pastry

You can find Chicago Pastry in Bloomingdale, where they sell king cakes in addition to paczki.

You can also purchase a six pack or a dozen for slightly discounted prices, though the fresh strawberry is excluded from the packs.

Note that they sell their paczki through Fat Tuesday starting in early February though with fewer flavors to start. Check their socials on Facebook and Instagram for when they launch each year.

They start with the most popular flavors of custard, apricot, lemon, and raspberry. As Fat Tuesday approaches, you’ll also see apple, blueberry cheesecake, cannoli, cherry, fresh strawberry with French cream, Nutella French cream, and raspberry.

On Fat Tuesday, they are open 7am to 4pm.

Their paczki are large but somewhat flat, so I was concerned, but they have soft dough and are well filled.

The blueberry cheesecake was a unique flavor I had to try even though I don’t love cheesecake. The filling was light and fluffy with more of a blueberry flavor than cheesecake, and I really enjoyed it.

The raspberry was a jelly and included a more traditional coating of granulated sugar. It was fine, but not the filling style I prefer.

The apricot was what I had hoped the raspberry would be. It had delicious chunks of fruit without being too sweet.

The Nutella French cream was interesting. I actually detected no Nutella flavor, and the filling by itself was not very sweet and heavy on a bittersweet chocolate flavor, but it paired beautifully with the pazcki dough and may have been my favorite from this location.

The cherry was incredibly well filled, as it was sliced in half and placed on a paper wrapper to keep it secure. It was more of a cherry pie filling flavor, which again isn’t my favorite style but was still tasty and enjoyable.

Donut Drop

In Schaumburg, Donut Drop always has cool and funky freshly baked donuts. They limit their paczki to only Paczki Day, unlike most bakeries that create them in the days leading up to Fat Tuesday.

Again, order ahead as they make a limited run of their paczki. You have the option of six traditional flavors like sugared raspberry, sweet cream cheese, and sugared apricot. While they used to offer more unique options like sugared guava and chocolate iced coconut, they no longer do.

Note that their online ordering system does not default to Fat Tuesday, but know that all paczki are available for pickup only that day. Be sure to order online before noon on Friday to get what you want.

They sell individual paczek, half dozen, and a dozen. If you choose a half dozen or dozen, you can either get a random assortment or choose from their six flavors.

That said, make sure to get your preorders in early. They cut them off the Friday before Fat Tuesday.

The paczki from Donut Drop tend to be smaller than other paczki, but they have the freshness factor I look for in a good paczki. They also do a great job filling their paczki thoroughly.

These paczki were fine, but not my favorites. The fillings didn’t quite do it for me, and the size was relatively small for the price compared to what I can get elsewhere.

Pete’s Fresh Market

As you may have noticed, many of the local grocery stores that are more produce markets than mass market super stores tend to carry paczki during the season. And many of them are worth checking out.

Pete’s Fresh Market has 20 locations across Chicago, with plans for more. You can find them anywhere from Lemont to Oakbrook Terrace to Willowbrook and more.

They offer their paczki in their bakery section, and they have a pretty wide variety available. You can choose traditional fruit-filled varieties individually from apricot to raspberry to custard and more.

Each location has different flavors, but they generally cover the traditional bases at every store. Similarly, the prices vary slightly from location to location, so check your closest store for accurate info.

In addition to those offerings, Pete’s also sells four packs of additional varieties that they slice in half and fill. Many of these are cream and fruit, and they have more options if you choose to purchase more.

As I’ve bought and eaten too many paczki already this year, I picked up a few individual ones to try rather than the four packs. Pete’s makes relatively good paczki.

They have fresh good dough where the flavors of the orange oil and rum come through, something too many bakeries miss.

However, the filling leaves a lot to be desired. Though their sliced in half paczki are well filled, the traditional filled versions lack filling. Each of the three I purchased were a disappointment in that regard (though less so than the ones from Craft Donut and Coffee).

My recommendation? Spring for the four pack and enjoy the filling and flavors in those.

Kuppie’s Bakery

Kuppie’s Bakery in Villa Park makes all their products from scratch, as a good bakery should. Their standard donuts look amazing enough to almost convince you to forget buying paczki. Almost.

They offer 17 different varieties, including the elusive poppyseed filling a friend has been telling me I need to try. Of all the bakeries I’ve visited, this is the one of the very few to offer a poppyseed paczki.

Most of their paczki are traditional filled from raspberry to lemon to prune, as well as fun flavors like cheese chocolate chip and chocolate covered custard.

Their paczki are among the versions that get slit in half then filled. Needless to say, that means lots of filling in every bite.

They also have three fresh fruit varieties – apple, cherry, and strawberry. Like most bakeries, if you have a flavor you want, order it in advance.

Kuppie’s is closed on Mondays (including the Monday before Fat Tuesday), so make sure to get any advance orders in by Sunday. You can call them or walk in to place your order.

The paczki were made to order, just like at Peterson’s, because I came in the weekend before the big day. I love how fresh that makes my treats.

The filling tasted delicious, and I enjoyed it. That said, the outsides of the paczki were overly crispy, almost as though they’d been fried just a little too long. 

Deli 4 U

Deli 4 U is a traditional Polish grocery store with locations in Norridge, Schaumburg, Prospect Heights, Niles, and Algonquin. They have everything from your traditional European dry goods to an authentic hot deli and so much more.

Of course, they bake their pastries in house. Deli 4 U is one of the few places that sell paczki year round and not just before the start of Lent. Their year round flavors are far more limited – just custard, rose, and plum – but for Fat Tuesday, they go all out.

They will have raspberry, rose, plum, vanilla custard, Nutella, whipped marscapone with strawberries, and whipped marscapone with blueberries.

Both the daily paczki and in “paczki season” are much more affordable than some of the fancy bakeries. They do promise to not run out, but I still suggest heading over at a reasonable hour – just in case.

Unlike many other bakeries, they do not offer a traditional preorder for families. If you want to preorder, there is a 50 paczki minimum.

I picked up two paczki – the plum and the custard – and I could tell they were baked just that morning. They were incredibly light and fluffy, with a ton of crumb as I cut into them.

The custard tastes amazing, lots of rich flavor of the eggs and vanilla in it, compared to some that taste more like boxed pudding. It was not grainy at all, and I could have eaten just that alone.

My family also enjoyed the plum flavor, not too sweet but definitely a delicious filling. The only downside was the relative lack of filling.

I love paczki that have filling in every bite, and this was one where you definitely have to be patient until you reach it. The perfectly cooked dough helped make up for that disappointment, however.

When you do, make sure to pick up other treats you don’t get in a standard grocery store from the stuffed cabbage rolls to the pierogi to Hungarian stew to fun cookies and candies and more. Make the most of your visit!

Vanilla Sugar Bakery

I visited Vanilla Sugar Bakery at the suggestion of a friend who has gotten their paczki before and enjoyed them. They operate as an order ahead bakery with weekly menus and limited hours, though you can try to walk up on Fat Tuesday – they sold out this year before 10am, however.

Do your preorders for Paczki Day, but they close preorders 10am 8 days prior, so ordering is a challenge. The good news is that they put their online order up over a month in advance to help you plan.

You can try to walk in, but know that you will have limited options. They release “extras” after filling all preorders, but when I visited, it did not happen in the morning as they had communicated to me but at nearly 12:45pm.

That said, the online site quickly sold out of the banana cream and strawberry whipped cream that my friend claims are the best, as well as the raspberry my son wanted. I did snag an Oreo cream pie and Nutella cream filled, which worked.

The paczki are heavy, and they are decently filled. Vanilla Sugar Bakery cuts them in half then fills them.

However, I did not like the fillings of the two I purchased.

The Oreo cream pie tastes like chocolate pudding with some crushed Oreos mixed in. It was a pretty paczek with the buttercream and Oreos on top, but it was nothing special.

Nutella is my love, so I was excited about the Nutella cream. However, it tasted like Marshmallow fluff mixed with a bit of cocoa powder. There was no hazelnut flavor of the Nutella at all.

One other note about Vanilla Sugar Bakery: They are focused on baking and not on customer service or social media.

If you call and get voicemail, they alert you that they check voicemail only once a week. If you send an email, they warn their turnaround is 1-3 business days.

On social, they go many days between posting, and they do not respond to customer questions or comments on their posts.

They make gorgeous cakes, and they have the feel of a bakery that wants to make great fancy cakes. Except someone told them they need a storefront, and they have done so begrudgingly.

If you want to try them, order in advance, and get the banana cream and strawberry whipped cream that my friend recommends.

Smakowski’s Deli

This small grocery store in Palatine offers paczki at their deli counter, proudly open early on Fat Tuesday. While they typically don’t open until 9am, they know their customers want paczki early! (Note: they do not have a website.)

They sell their paczki just on Tłusty Czwartek (Thursday) and Fat Tuesday.

These paczki are large and heavy, always a good sign. They’re incredibly fresh and soft for paczki not made on site, and the price is definitely right with these paczki.

They sell a limited variety of six traditional flavors. You have your choice amongst raspberry, plum, Bavarian cream, rosehip, Nutella, and advokat (an egg and sugar based liqueur).

The fruit in their filling doesn’t taste processed and overly sweet. It has a great tang, and you can feel the small fruit chunks in the filling that I prefer.

The only downside is that they tend to be less well-filled than some other bakeries, but the remaining paczki has such a great flavor and soft texture that I don’t mind as much as I would otherwise. This puts it on my best Chicago paczki list – fresh always wins in my book.

Hanna’s Bakery and Cafe

Located in Bloomingdale, Hanna’s Bakery and Cafe opens at 4am on Fat Tuesday and the previous Fat Thursday. Those are the only two days they offer this variety of paczki, but they offer rose, apricot, and plum paczki throughout the year.

You can preorder from them, but you must order at least two dozen paczki to do so. Thankfully, they have plenty available for walk ins.

They offer plum butter, rose hip, raspberry, apricot, and strawberry paczki for their standard flavors. The Nutella, advokat, custard, and whipped cream with strawberries are more expensive varieties.

Their paczki are well shaped, though on the smaller side, with fresh and delicious dough. Unfortunately, they had less filling in every paczek I tried than I expected.

The raspberry had less than a teaspoon of filling, but it was a tasty and bakery made filling without being too sweet. It is one of my favorite raspberry fillings I’ve tried, if only there were more of it.

The apricot was much the same with little filling, though good flavor. The Nutella also lacked filling but had a fun dollop on top that makes it look pretty, though I added my own Nutella to round it out.

The custard was a good custard with a good flavor and texture, though it was a little heavy on the cornstarch. This had the most filling of any of the paczki though still not a ton.

Costco

Certain Costco locations started carrying paczki from an outside bakery. As much as I love products from the Costco bakery, these paczki were not up to snuff.

In fact, DO NOT BUY paczki from Costco.

They offer strawberry filled and custard filled in a dozen box, and they were the cheapest paczki I’d seen in years. You cannot choose anything but the two or a smaller quantity than a dozen.

The paczki are incredibly heavy and well filled, as well as solidly frosted. However, these paczki were soggy when we first tried them about two hours after I brought them home – and I had picked up a box that was just being loaded to the shelf.

The next morning, the paczki were not just soggy but wet. In fact, the entire box had water on the bottom. We threw them away, and I have never thrown away paczki in my life.

As incredibly disappointed as I am to say, don’t buy your paczki from Costco.

Bennison’s Bakery

Bennison’s in Evanston is a bakery friends have been telling me I need to visit for years. Judging by the line around the building, the word has spread far and wide.

Pro tip: Order online in advance. There is a separate entrance and non-line line for those who have their orders waiting for pickup.

I waited so long in line that I had to go refill my parking meter because I ran out of time.

One of the fun unique paczki traditions for Bennison’s is that they offer paczki again in August for a “halfway there” celebration. If you need your fix outside normal months, you have your place!

Bennison’s also tends to offer paczki for a longer period of time than most bakeries. They start on the Monday before Polish Fat Tuesday and continue all the way the Friday after Fat Tuesday.

You can find 11 different flavors here, ranging from lemon to German chocolate to banana whipped cream and more.

If you order online – and make sure you give 24 hours notice! – you can only get four packs of German chocolate, chocolate praline, banana whip, and strawberry whip. In person, you can get singletons.

When I tried my paczki, the chocolate custard was not super well-filled, but all the other paczki were. The small circle of yellow was the entire filling; it was wet and doughy around the filling, which makes it look like more filling in the photo.

I found it had more of a pudding flavor versus a custard taste, and it was not my favorite. It tasty salty to me, and it was a little overcooked, so the custard had a gelatinous mouthfeel, too.

The chocolate praline was split in half, versus the other flavors that were filled like the jelly donut you’re used to seeing. I enjoyed the chocolate praline mousse, so definitely add this to your list.

I tried the apricot and cherry paczki, as well. They were both well filled, and the apricot was fantastic with chunks of fruit. The cherry was more like a pie filling and tasty but not quite what I had expected.

Hewn Bread

Almost across the street from Beth’s Little Bake Shop in Evanston is Hewn Bread, which makes more than “just” bread – and has a second, newer location in Libertyville.

They bake rather than fry their paczki, so they are not traditional paczki, but don’t let that stop you.

The offer two flavors only, chocolate pastry cream and lemon curd. You can also order the chocolate pastry cream online in a four pack, but do it early because they shut down orders the Thursday before Fat Tuesday.

Their paczki are available only on Fat Tuesday, and they do not make as many as most bakeries. I purchased two of the last five lemon curd at 9:15am that day.

The paczki get rolled in granulated sugar, which is somewhat unique, as well. They are incredibly fresh with a light dough, which I enjoyed.

That said, they are somewhat unevenly filled. The chocolate pastry cream had a pudding like taste and was decent. The lemon curd, however, was worth the drive – so incredibly good!

Beth’s Little Bake Shop

Also located in Evanston on Central Street is Beth’s Little Bake Shop. They also only have paczki on Fat Tuesday itself.

You can order online to ensure you get the flavors you want (some of mine were sold out that morning), but they do not have the long line that some other, more well known bakeries do.

They cut off online orders early because they sell out of what they can make in this small bakery, so be organized if you want to try this one or chance what they have left for walk ins.

Beth’s has just four flavors, but they are fun ones – raspberry jam, strawberries and cream, bananas foster (with rum), and chocolate mousse.

The two paczki I got were very different sizes, and they dough tasted different, as well. This photo has them sitting side by side and represents the size differential accurately.

The chocolate mousse was thick and a good-tasting mousse, but slightly grainy. The dough was delicious and soft, but it was almost too rich for me.

I also tried the raspberry jam, which interestingly was a different dough and size paczek. The raspberry filling was very sweet and definitely a jam, while the dough was a bit dry. Had it been the same as the chocolate mousse, it would have been a much better paczek.

The raspberry flavor is one of the more expensive options I’ve seen, while bananas foster and chocolate mousse is even more, and the strawberries and cream rings in at nearly $6 per paczek, which makes this one I would not rush back to.

Delightful Pastries

A friend recommended that I absolutely had to try Delightful Pastries on Lawrence in Chicago. Not only did they have great paczki, she told me, but they make boozy paczki.

That was enough for me to add it to my list.

Their paczki range traditional fillings like rose petal jelly and plum butter to fancier ones like German chocolate and drunken paczki. In total, they have 13 flavors available.

However, Delightful Pastries did not quite live up to the hype. They make extremely pretty paczki, and the dough was soft and fresh.

I was disappointed that the paczki I purchased had sparse filling in all four paczki. The apricot had approximately a teaspoon for the entire paczek, which is not a ratio I want.

Every bite of your paczki should give you the selected flavor. Had they doubled or tripled the filling, these paczki would have been amongst my favorite, however.

The photos on their website show some paczki that are very well filled, especially the raspberry and custard. If only they truly held filling like this!

The apricot filling tasted amazing, with fresh apricot flavor coming through and a great texture that didn’t just taste like pie filling or jam. I also really enjoyed the flavor of the salted caramel, though interestingly it had an almost burned note to it, but that worked really well with the dough and salt.

The lemon vodka paczek had a strong lemon flavor I enjoyed without the vodka overpowering it, but there was so little filling that it was hard to fully appreciate. The custard was… fine, but nothing special.

Maybe I had built up my expectation too high for Delightful Pastries, but I think I would have felt similar no matter what given the lack of filling in the paczki.

Life’s Sweet Inc

My friend Annie insists that Life’s Sweet Inc has the best Chicago paczki, and this Rogers Park bakery is on my must try list for next year.

While they don’t offer the most traditional paczki, they do adhere to pickup on Paczki Day only from 8am to 4pm, so make sure you order in advance. All preorders are due the Tuesday before Fat Tuesday.

While they offer strawberry and cream, you’re more likely to find cookie butter paczki (yes please!) and almond guava or oreo cream. The offer 10 flavors that I can’t wait to try.

My friend swears the filling just melts in your mouth.

You can order individual paczek only. With their cottage kitchen space, they do not offer dozen orders as they used to.

You can find Nutella, apricot, rose jam, raspberry jam, mocha, cookie butter, almond guava, coconut cream, oreo cream, and strawberry cream.

Bakeries NOT Selling Paczki in 2025 (closed or for other reasons)

Konrad’s Bakery

Konrad’s Bakery is still open, selling their usual assortment of treats. However, starting in 2022 they no longer make paczki, as they do not have the staff to make them in addition to everything else.

They do, however, still make king cakes in cheese, almond, and cinnamon flavors.

Clarke’s Bakery

Located in Barrington on Northwest Highway, this bakery closed in 2024.

Doughs Guys Bakery

Dough’s Guys Bakery is another bakery that is also still open but choosing not to sell paczki anymore.

Ingram’s Busy Bee Bakery

Ingram’s Busy Bee Bakery closed in spring of 2021, but the owners hope to find someone to purchase the bakery and open it again. I can only hope they succeed!

Craft Donuts + Coffee

Craft Donuts + Coffee closed all their locations, so they no longer have paczki available.

Where do you find the best Chicago paczki?

Looking for some donut recipes you can make at home? Try these:

• Lemon glazed donuts
• Mini chocolate frosted donuts
• Strawberry donuts
• Cereal crusted donuts
• Cinnamon sugar donuts
• Apple cider donuts
• Pumpkin donuts

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