I have loved everything I've gotten at Specialties, seriously. Â This place is a pricier lunch option but man, it is so worth it. Â The salads are great. Â I've gotten the vegan one and added chicken making a non-dairy haven of a lunch. Â I've also gotten the roast beef, club, and turkey, bacon apple and brie (but no brie) sandwiches. Â Both are delicious and the bread at Specialities is really top notch. Fluffy but hearty. Â Droool. Â And their soups! Â There seems to always be a vegan option which I totally appreciate. Â And they are really tasty chilli and bean soups. Â
Also, I appreciate the staff there. Â It's a very busy lunch spot, but it usually is a well-oiled machine of ordering and then getting your order. Â They have yet to mess mine up, knock wood.
Been ordering often from Specialty's. Â Great place to order food such as a salad and soup and customize it to your specific needs. Â Great thing about it is you can also get a calorie count from their online website when you do order online. Â I also had a slight snafu with one of my orders, and happy to say, they went above and beyond to remedy the situation. Â Will definitely keep Specialty's as one of my fave lunch spots near work!
Review Source:Pass on this place. Â The pastries look tasty but the soups and sandwiches are just meh and overpriced and the service is very slow. Â AND......Dear Mr. Wannabe tough-guy cashier: Â When you screw up the details (no thanks to the parm cheese) on the one item I ordered (very bland and small cream of chicken that costs an astonishing $5.54) do not roll your eyes at me and try to convince me that it wasn't your fault.
Review Source:Excellent, spacious place for a coffee break or lunch in the loop. I especially loved the convenient option of ordering at a computer kiosk with your credit card if you don't want to wait in the line for a cashier. Free wifi a plus. My friend told me you can get their "day-old" cookies for half off if you need a cheaper cookie fix - lol.
Review Source:I work just across the street and had passed it lots of times without thinking about it. Then, I saw the most beautiful muffin I had ever seen. Unfortunately, someone else was eating it. I had to splurge and get one. I tried a latte too,and I was so impressed. I hadn't had Intelligentsia coffee before, and it's my new fave. Since then, I have had a variety of breakfast sandwiches and lattes. The breakfast sandwiches are HUGE! I get the sausage, and it has TWO patties!! I eat the first half with the coffee and the second at lunch. To me, that is value! Two meals for one. I don't mind spending $10 in the morning for coffee and sandwich if I don't eat again until 5.
Review Source:Awesome. I had the hot Big BLT sandwich. It was done just right, bacon nice and crispy just as I like it and the price was just right $5.99.
I also could not help myself and had the White Chocolate Macadamia - $2.29. Which was Heavenly!
Beautiful cafe right by the financial district. Friendly staff and super fast service. Can't wait to go back!
Specialty's looks like a busy lunch spot just west of the Loop. Its main space branches off the central lobby of this office building, and it is hard for a first-timer to see where you line up, or order, or what. There's a bakery counter adjacent to two registers, and the fountain soda machines are there too. After you order from the sandwich-centric menu, you get one of those flashing devices that buzz off when your order is ready. That is usually not a good sign, as those disks are mainly dished out at gargantuan restaurants with hour-long waits. Although my friend warned that they do take their time with the food here, my sandwich came out in less than five minutes. The dining area gets crowded as you would expect at noon hour, so my friend and I shared a communal table with a bunch of other diners (all the smaller tables were seemingly anchored with customers). This takes me back to the day when my family had to share tables at restaurants in New York's Chinatown...and we HATED to share tables with a bunch of strangers. The hate has dissipated over the years, but it's hard to enjoy your friend's wacky stories when they are occasionally overshadowed by the louder vocal chords of other tablemates. Well, at least my BBQ chicken sandwich was good, with cole slaw, cheddar cheese and bacon atop the chicken chunks all on a chewy ciabatta roll. My friend liked her toasty BLT.
Review Source:The Intelligentsia kiosk, and the woman who runs it (Zabrina), are the best. Â You know when you are abroad and you have a macchiato, or a cafe cortado, and you think: "Why can't coffee taste like this in the US?" Â Well, here you go. Â So lucky to have this in the building.
I have a place in my heart for Specialty's, as it is a San Francisco company. Â Over the years, I have probably eaten hundreds of their cookies. Â Maybe even over a thousand. Â I had a friend who knew the baking schedule of the Specialty's by our office, so we would always get cookies right out of the oven. Â So. Â So. Â Good. Â Don't look at the nutritional value on the website, it will only make you sad. Â And cookies should make you happy.
The other plus about having this in the building: the smell of baked bread in the morning. Â Seriously, even ten floors up, the hallways smell like a hot loaf. Â And not that kind, get your mind out of the gutter.
Awesome Cobb sandwich on freshly baked bread. This is my favorite sandwich at Specialties. Always good, always fresh, always what I want. The Reuben is good, too. Pastrami instead of corned beef but it is still a great sandwich. Everything at Specialties is made fresh. All the breads are baked on site. They bake cookies, bagels, croissants, muffins, brownies, and I'm sure I have left things out. They serve Intelligentsia coffee and make a great latte. When I choose the food for meetings, I always choose Specialties. Nobody ever complains. If you go during the lunch rush, expect to wait. The secret is out. Specialties is some of the best lunchtime food in the loop.
Review Source:Beyond cute little cafe. I was given a coupon for a free coffee or cookie, so I thought I'd check it out. Great service at the register and very good coffee.
Grabbed a menu to check out later, as they seem to have quite a few interresting lunch options. They definitely have an edge on Panera in terms of vegetarian food and prices are comparable.
This location has a very large and, more importanly, clean dining area. I will definitely be back for lunch.
I actually really like Specialty's. Good bread. Great baked goods, just good food - I go there a lot. I reduced my stars because I am so sick of getting food there and ending up with a giant mess when I open the package. For Christ's sake, reassembling a sandwich is not what I overpaid for there. Every damn time, it's the same. Sandwich construction is an art that is totally lost there. I dare say that Jimmy John's could teach them a thing or two.
But do try the black and white cookie. That's pure genius.
Good thing this place is not in SD, because I would be in carb heaven all the time!
Came here with a girlfriend, because her colleagues all loved this place. Â And it really is fantastic. Â We were part of the "earlier" lunch crowd around 11:30 am-ish, so we definitely beat the rush of lines.
- Turkey Cranberry Sandwich: Â These are big sammys! But pretty freakin tasty and delectable. They go a little overboard with all the alfalfa sprouts so ask them to ease up on them, so you can actually bite into the sandwich, but it's yum. Â Nice smothering of cranberry, and the warm bread.
- Tomato Gnocci Soup: Â Hello comfort. Â Warm, cheesy, oozy. Â A cup of it is perfect to split and dip your bread in it.
- Asian Peanut Salad: Â Made with cabbage, this was a light and fresh salad. Â It's very veggie and it was decent.
All in all. Â This place does get crowded at lunch times, but its crowded for a reason. It's fantastic.
I love Specialty's! Â Thrilled that they opened a second location in Chicago because golly, the lunchtime crowds on a nice day were out of control. Â I'm not a fan of lunchtime crowds and I often can be flexible with my schedule, so I try to go at off-peak times.
I wandered into this location for the first time this week and the huge seating area is a big plus! Â I also appreciate the free wi-fi, but I always think it's strange when new cafes don't put in lots of power outlets. Â Maybe they didn't do much remodeling when they moved in...I don't know what the space was like before.
Had a slight issue with my order, but it was fixed quickly and handled well, so no hard feelings.  Delicious café au lait and of course, the cookies are out of control amazing.
I usually order the turkey pesto sandwich, and they never flinch when I ask them to leave off half the ingredients, so that's a plus. Â I can't wait until strawberry season arrives, because I was a little addicted to the strawberry, spinach, and feta salad last year! Â It's not often that I get addicted to a salad, so this is pretty serious, folks.
Stopped here on my way home from a lunch meeting and I'm glad I did. Â I remember coming here when it first opened and I can't remember what I got but it was good. Â Obviously not that memorable though.
I got the Turkey Pesto today and it was yum. Â Cream cheese... my weakness. Â Add pesto and red peppers and pickles and red onions? Â Yes, I can still smell the wrapper in my garbage and that's okay with me.
Also, I dig the whole order yourself and pay with a credit card and wait for your order. Â I'm all about not having to talk to someone if I don't need to.
Delightful! Â The selection is great, though I always go for the peanut butter sandwich. Â Banana, green apple, cranberry sauce, and peanut butter on the best bread ever. Â All you need is a big glass of milk!
Their bakery items are amazing as well. Â Prices are pretty typical for the area - not cheap, but well worth it for the quality.
Seating area is cozy, can get very busy.
So glad I found this place for lunch!
So close to the office, I can't believe I wasn't aware of this lunch spot sooner. I have ordered from here three times - including one catered order - and am a convert. The online ordering feature makes it oh so convenient and cuts out the standing around time. Baked goods look fantastic, especially the mini bundt cakes. ... if they taste just as good, I will be in definite trouble. The homemade bread is excellent, when the servers remember to throw it into my bag, and I love that Intelligentsia coffee is on-site. I am a bigger fan of the soups and salads than I am of the sandwiches. Personal faves are the Greek Goddess salad and the chicken Caesar- love the homemade croutons. A bit pricier than Corner Bakery but I have no qualms about paying for freshness.
Review Source:Specialty's is one of my favorite places to eat lunch on workdays, though I think it's pretty expensive for lunch (not unusual at this location though). Their baked goods are great. I seriously cannot resist their semi-sweet chocolate chip cookies. It's bad. They also have a cookie radar thing you can sign up for that tells you when cookies are fresh out of the oven. Sooo dangerous.
They have great homemade bread which makes their sammiches deelightful. They have a good variety, and salads too (though I haven't tried them). Some of their sandwiches have sort of odd ingredients, like pickles on every sandwich, no matter what kind, and I think they could stand to employ more of a "simpler is better" approach to their toppings. There's a lot going on on some of them. Overall though, very tasty.
Their soup is great and I know I'll be loving that in the wintertime. They also have an Intelligentsia location in-house, which is a fantastic complement to their yummy baked goods.
So nice to have a reasonably priced sammich place right across the street from my building. Â Not 30 short minutes ago, I was midway through a hectic day in which I didn't have the ability to think about lunch until nearly 2, when lo and behold, I spot the Specialty's "order online!" reminder flyer on the corner of my desk. Â It took all of 2 minutes to peruse the menu and put in my order (and had I saved my billing info on my account, I might have shaved off 30 seconds, but alas, I am too paranoid), then a few work e-mails later, I ran down to go get my grub. Â I was in and out of there with my order in the amount of time it took the light at Monroe and Canal to cycle through. Â Once. Â
In addition to the convenience, the pastries and cookies (!!) are crazily fantastic, and the folks providing service certainly do their best -- anywhere is going to be nuts during the morning and lunch rushes. Â
Why not 5 stars, then, you ask? Â You can tell that the sandwiches and soups were designed by someone with inspiration, but the execution on those are lacking a bit -- like a foodie put together the menu, but they don't have someone with any kind of training making it. Â I also find the open floor plan too cafeteria-like -- i wouldn't want to eat in; the environment doesn't add anything for me.
The pastries and breakfast stuff at this place are awesome. Â Really, they are. Â The lunch food, however, isn't. Â It's also some of the unhealthiest stuff I've ever eaten. Â A chicken sandwich with more bacon than chicken? Â Really? Â The bread my roast beef sandwich came on actually broke my knife while I was trying to cut it.
The orders are often incorrect. Â Don't even think of asking them to leave the dressing off. Â Even if you use their awesome little computer order station and mark what you don't want, it still ends up on it. Â Oh, and their little cubby station if you order ahead of time? Â I just want to go there and start swiping orders. Â No one seems to notice.
I say go there for a cookie, that'll be safe. Â Now if you'll excuse me, my stomach is upset and I'm going home.
I've been going to Specialty's since it opened at 191 N. Wacker. Â Their baked goods are amazing. Â Seriously, uh-maz-ing.
I think they they have a long way to go before becoming one of the IT lunch places in the area, but they're in a great location and offer a diverse menu. Prices are about on par with downtown pricing (that is, absurd, but better for you than eating off McDonald's dollar menu).
While I haven't had a sandwich from this location, if it's anything like the location on Wacker, they're exceptional. Â Their vegetarian sandwich is just delicious. Â
On the other hand, I had a salad and was not terribly impressed. Â The salad was mundane and the ingredients seemed sparse. Â While it sounded good, it's hard for me to determine if my issue is because the ingredients didn't flow together, or if it was because there wasn't anything that was particularly delicious in the salad. Â Plus, I felt like the salad wasn't spun enough because there was water in the bottom of my carry-out container (which means the dressing was runny, blech).
I'll give them another shot,  but will probably  look elsewhere for salads.
I was excited to see Specialty's open up in this location. The building hadn't had a tenant since the previous restaurant closed a few years ago. I have to agree that is is a little chaotic and disorganized during the morning rush. I am not a fan of the two counters and I think it makes this difficult the first time you order.
That being said, I think their pasteries are amazing. I cannot say that I have had a bad one yet. I like the fact that they sell day-old pasteries for 1/2 price. And I really like the fact that they sell Intelligentsia coffee. They also sell pour overs which I am a fan of. I am looking forward to trying their lunch menu. I am hoping they are as good as their mini quiches.
I have been a huge fan of Specialty's since my boyfriend's mom would bring home the cookies. Good scones, great breakfast sandwiches, a solid Caprese sandwich. This location is way closer to my office than the one on Lake and Wacker so I stopped in after getting off the train.
They DEFINITELY have newbie jitters. Super slow to make the food, and they burnt my bun. However, I will return and write a follow-up, as these things are to expected (especially since there are only 2 stores in this market, the rest are west coast).
I've been to Specialty's twice now and the food has been good both times. First time I got a salad and second time a sandwich--sandwich was the better choice. Â The bread is fantastic.
The reason they don't get four stars is purely price. When I ordered a sandwich, soda and cookie, the grand total was $12. Â Yeouch! Â Seriously? Â That's a pricey sandwich!
My coworker and I have spent many a day trekking from our West Loop office over to the location at 191 N Wacker. Â The day we found out a location was opening across the street from my office, I was *this close* to openly weeping tears of joy. Â (OK, not really, but I was really happy.)
I can't figure out what's not to love about Specialty's. Â
1. Â They make all of their food from scratch, in house. Â
2. Â Everything is super fresh. Â Yeah, you pay a little extra for it, but I have no problem paying for quality. Â And I think the portions make up for it - they are very generous.
3. Â I think their employees are the happiest bunch in the Loop. Â After one too many lunches out with surly people behind the counter, it's nice to go somewhere where you know they'll smile at you. Â
4. Â Three words: Â WARM COOKIE RADAR. Â If you go to their website, you can find out what cookies are just out of the oven. Â There is nothing better than a warm cookie on a lousy work day. Â
An added bonus: Â order online, and you don't have to wait in line. Â Just order, and then pop over 15 minutes later to pick up your food. Â Great for anti-social actuaries like myself. Â ;)
I tried out the place down from my work the first day it opened. Â I was quite impressed with their selection and the atrium had been smelling wonderfully due to the baking of bread.
One of the workers was showing me how I could order food at a computer and just go down and pick it up. Â Well, she scanned my credit card twice, no worky so she gave me my meal on the house. Â Awesome. Â I'll happily take it as it was QUITE pricey for a salad.
I got the chicken caesar salad to go and it was alright. Â It was decent, don't get me wrong but the little piece of bread they put in the salad stole the show. Â I wasn't planning on eating the bread but after one bite, I had to gobble it down. Â Great flavor. Â The salad was good, too, but not sure it was worth the $9 or so after tax.
I'll definitely be back, but as I'm really trying to work on my weight, I haven't dared look at the baked items because I know they have chocolate chip cookies that will just call my name.
This morning I was invited to the launch party at the new Specialty's location, which opens to the public tomorrow. I'm VIP like that. At least, that's what they told me.
This new location is spectacular. Walking in, you're greeted by a separate coffee bar, complete with all the fixings your caffeinated heart desires. Then, a case full of baked goods that will have you wiping drool off of your chin and not caring how many hours of cardio it will take to work it off. As I write this I am currently vibrating in my chair from all of the sugar in the orgasmly delicious cinnamon roll. My coworker might be concerned because I just licked the icing off of the knife in a trance. Oh sure, they have their yummy salads and sandwiches too. They even have fresh breakfasts that won't send you into a diabetic coma... but where's the fun in that?
The space where you place your order is kind of tight - but never fear, because Specialty's has hooked this location up! To help speed things along they have two kiosks set up where you can place your own order, customize it, view calorie counts (dangerous), and they give you one of those vibrating light up pagers to take to alert you when your order is up. You can grab it to go, or you can snag a seat in their spacious dining room. Pressed for time? No worries - you can opt for priority pick up, or even have them deliver.
Add in super friendly employees, and you have all of the ingredients to make a fine addition to West Loop lunching. Welcome, Specialty's!
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