Food: Maxim Oriental Bakery

One of the most unexpected sights in Chicago was a Chinese bakery smack dab in the middle of downtown. Not because Chinese food is rare there - heck, the upscale mall in Chicago had a restaurant called Wow Bao - but because I imagine the rents right off the Magnificent Mile are scandalous, and that it'd be hard to cover that selling baked goods alone. That might explain why when I search for the bakery on the web I can't find it - methinks they closed down.

More fortunate is Maxim Oriental Bakery, a rather typical Chinese/Vietnamese bakery selling all the items you've come to expect from those places - mooncakes, pineapple buns, and sponge cakes. They say location is everything in real estate, and it's really a great spot for a Chinese bakery; it's near both the ever-popular Silver Pond restaurant and a Vietnamese grocery store. The buns and cakes themselves are good but not incredible, but it's hard to complain when you can grab them whilst doing something else.

2/4 stars