Aya Pastry

Aya is my favorite bakery in Chicago! Any big event, like birthdays and thanksgiving, we make sure to order one of their cakes or pies. The black sesame and caramel cakes are our favorites.My partner and I also often stop by for breakfast, picking up a few of their biscuits and croissants. Special shout-out to their Ube puff, which I think is seasonal

We haven't been impressed these past 3 yrs... we keep ordering cakes hoping it will be as good as it used to be.... Enough is enough at this price We bought the Banana Chocolate Peanutbutter cake.... it's awful. Dense, 1 layer of mush bananas, and the peanuts were stale and had a dusting of metallic gold glitter? The last 2 years, it was the coconut pineapple... dry. Very disappointing

I was drawn in by the reviews of the samoas cookie type pastry! Cute little shop, not a ton of seating so definitely more a pick up and take somewhere else to eat which is what I ended up doing. I love ham and cheese croissants so I picked one up as well to try. Unfortunately they aren't able to warm anything up for you in store. I got: - Samoas pastry - Ham and cheese croissantThe samoas cake like pastry was so good!!! It had a cake like texture but was surprisingly quite light to eat. The it was definitely reminiscent of the Girl Scout cookie of the same name, except less sweet actually since it's more of a coconut with chocolate and caramel, vs the cookie ratio feels more caramel with coconut and chocolate. When I was able to go back and warm the croissant, it was pretty decent with some nice flaky buttery layers. It did seem to be one of the sweet leaning Ham & cheese, which I don't love as much as the really savory/salty ones. Looking forward to visiting again when I'm back in the area!

I have been meaning to try this place and Aya is the place to be. I got an almond croissant and was surprised how light it was but also how much almond there was. There was almond on the inside and on top with almond slices! I would definitely come back. The service was quick and friendly but be warned that there are not that many seats within the place. This is a cute place to stop by and get a drink or two. I am definitely coming back!

I came here for one thing and one thing only. The scallion cheddar biscuit lol. As soon as the lady and I saw it on the menu, we knew we needed to have it lol. It was delicious. It's even more delicious warmed up. If you really want to take it a step further, buy a couple, bring them home, and make breakfast sandwiches out of them. The service was quick. We were the only ones there. And the vibes here are very cute. You can tell a lot of thought was taken when the owner designed the interior.

Cute bakery just outside of downtown Chicago. They've got some interesting options for pastries. Not too much seating inside though.

Favorite Aya tastes: traditional butter croissant and the Kouign-amann. These two are NOT to be missed if you're in the area!Chocolate croissant is delicious too and the chocolate bar inside is high quality which deepdark chocolate flavor.Least favorite is the weekend special, Apple Galette. The crisp, flakey texture was the best thing about it, but the apples lacked sweetneas, tartness and some spice. The dough also lacked flavor - I wonder if sugar and salt was forgotten? The employees were warm, welcoming and helpful. Definitely will pick up more pastries and try the cakes next time I'm in the area!

Aya Pastry was mentioned to me by a yelper I follow by the name of Melanie B, a black badge yelper out of Chicago, and the culprit as of late in my discoveries of dessert places throughout Chicago. Aya became an instant bookmark for a future visit once I saw their Samoa cake.The location of Aya itself sits along a highly trafficked W Grand Ave. The parking lot is privately owned which I found after doing a loop in the area in order to get an open spot outside of the bakery. During this visit, the mood inside was set with a song by Drake ft. Rihanna 'Take care of' played in the background. And the bakery itself appeared bright with very nice antique decoration. Atmosphere: 5 (Great)Once I walked in the door and up to the display to see what was offered, I was greeted by the employee. As visited for, I ordered the Samoa Cake, and a PB&J Dino Mac after nearly considering two Samoa Cakes. Being that I love peanut butter & jelly, the PB&J Dino Mac was very hard to pass up after browsing the display. Along with the Samoa Cake, and the PB&J Dino Mac, I ordered a Hibiscus Tea out of both the Hibiscus, and Jasmin Green which were mentioned by the employee as the tea options.Service: 5 (Great)I had a smirk on my face prior to opening the box in anticipation of something delicious. My mouth salivated in-between each bite of the PB&J Dino Mac, which appeared like a moon pie and had a slightly crunchy taste. And my oh my it was filled with peanut butter & jelly! It will surely be an option I purchase again on a future return to Aya. The soft feel of the Samoa cake made for a light approach, a light touch! Each flavorful bite felt as though it was melting in my mouth, tehehe. It was like a much softer, yet larger version of the Girl Scout - Samoas cookie! And I kid you not, I had the biggest smirk on my face after taking the last bite of it, wishing that I went on and purchased two along with the PB&J Dino Mac. Food: 5 (Great)Being that I had a great experience, I would surely re-visit and order from Aya Pastry again. Tehehe, I would say when in the Noble Square (West Town) area, but I know darn well that I will drive out solely for it. Atmosphere: 5 | Service: 5 | Food: 5Recommendations: Hibiscus Tea, Samoa Cake, Banana Chocolate Peanut Butter Slice, or PB&J Dino Mac~ Oh darling, let's be adventurers ~Thomas G

Cute place with nice tasty pastries and the cute decoration gives an old 1950 vibe. It's cute place to visit.

4.3/5 The bakery is a casual but well appointed takeout spot. The woman behind the counter was very friendly and even directed us to some great coffee in the area (shoutout to "move along cafe"). We loved the Kouign-amann, we definitely recommend that pastry the most. The only better version of this was at cellar door provisions (which you can no longer get) but if we had this fresh out the oven it would def be close. We also had the peach galette and jalapeño cheese biscuit which were good however we wished the peaches had more sweetness and the biscuit was flavorful but we def recommend something to drink along side it. We look forward to coming back earlier and trying all the various pastries.