Overview:

As you take a trip by the Peoria riverfront, you start walking along and notice the large train station that, if you have previously read on my blog, contains the restaurant known as Blue Duck. As you venture a little bit further, you will come across a corner store that has a sign on it that says “ARDOR Breads and Provisions”. Sounds appealing, right? Let’s take a journey through here.

ARDOR is local restaurant that is built on the foundations of selling pastry items, while recently offering a wide selection of restaurant items such as burgers, salads, and other sandwiches. Originally, they were just a walk-in bakery with very limited bar seating, and the only nearby places to eat your food was sitting by the river. Now, with recent renovations towards expansion of the restaurant, ARDOR gives you the option of ordering from the bakery bar, ordering in at restaurant style seating, or ordering at their lovely bodega.

I personally have only been to the bakery area, so when giving an overview of my experience, I will focusing on that section.

My Experience:

My first time going here was with a group of friends, and when I first visited, they hadn’t even had expanded yet. We were all waiting outside the door for our pastries and the first time I went, I ended up getting a brisket sandwich, which is probably not ideal for a place built on pastries. I absolutely had to come back here though because the sandwich was DELICIOUS. The place was so good that I had to keep track of everything I had ordered there and put ratings with each one (my full ranking will be at the bottom of this post).

The next time I came here, I made sure to bring my girlfriend because I knew she would love this place, and we ended up getting three different pastries that I had never had before: a ham and cheese croissant, a strawberry danish, and a blueberry cheese danish. The ham and cheese croissant was very good, it was flaky and with every bite a bit of the croissant you could taste the ham and cheese combination. I was a bit messy, so if you get this, I recommend eating either in public or over a napkin/plate. The strawberry danish was next, and this again was very good. The strawberry filling was prepared perfectly, although there was a little too much bread for my liking and it was a bit dry, but I would definitely go again. I am not a fan of cream cheese, so I did not try the blueberry cheese danish, but my girlfriend would rate it a solid 8.25/10.

This place is always one of my go-to restaurants when I am giving recommendations. The best experience is to come on a bright, warm day and take your pastry to go while you sit by the riverfront and enjoy your food with the calmness of the water. I love this place, and I will be very sad to leave it once I graduate.

Overall Rating: 9/10

*See below for full ratings of every item I have ordered at ARDOR*