When we were little, we always came to Chinatown for candies and toys. The neighborhood has changed over the years, but they are still a place to get our favorite rice candy, Botan. I think it used to be called Tomoe Ame, but it's the same as ever, though it used to come with a tiny plastic or even metal toy, and now it comes with a toy tattoo. The candy is a lightly-flavored set-jelly candy, much like a Turkish Delight, and the inner wrapper right next to the candy is rice-paper that melts in your mouth! I think we used to shop down Wentworth south of Cermak, and there are still authentic restaurants and all kinds of shops there. Nowadays we mostly head to the Chinatown Square open-air mall. This time we stopped in the Ichiban Candy & Snacks store. They have so many kinds of sweets, and yes, Botan Ame! They sell a trendy new ice cream bar, Dubai Pistachio Chocolate Flavor! Inside a fairly thick chocolate shell, the filling is like skinny long bright green sprinkles! It's fun and unusual. Even better, while we were there (Nov 2025), if you bought over $35 of candy, (we did :-), the friendly staff gave out a free ice cream bar as a sample! We all got to taste it. Pretty good! They have good old White Rabbit candy, like a white taffy roll. They have unusual "Chinese flavors" of Lay's Potato Chips we got Cucumber, Lime, Peking Duck, Five Spice, and Wasabi. They also have cans of formed potato chips like pringles. Other than the spicy flavors and the wasabi, none really have the flavor in the name, but they are all interesting, and every one we tried went well with beer :-). You can never go wrong with various flavors of Kit Kat. We like the original Pocky sticks and the chocolate-filled Hello Panda cookies. And there is a vast assortment of by-the-pound hard candies and chewy candies. We stop in now and then just to refill our candy dishes :-) read more

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When we walked inside this place was packed with people. Tiktok has definitely put this place on the radar. You walk inside grab a basket at the door and walk around and shop. They charge by the weight so it can be a bit pricey on your bill. There are a wide variety of candies, chips, ice cream and other favorable of snacks. There were many unique and imported items throughout the store. There is a station in the back that makes a homemade Dubai treat. The prices are kind of high at this location. Compare to the other candy and snacks store around in that area. It was a cool and fun experience to see all the different types of snacks. read more

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Candy everywhere! All of your favorites under one roof. Grab a basket, fill a bag and stock your favorite flavors and even enjoy some new ones. They have everything from fruity, to chocolatey and even spicy flavors. They even have uniquely flavored chips, dried noodles and ice cream. It's a fun space and prices are nice. read more

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This candy store has tons of variety and sells chocolate, chews, chips, ramen, beverages, gummies, and more. Everything is clean and organized, and a lot of the candy is loose so you can pack your own bag and purchase based on weight. There are also tons of packaged snacks and candies too. You can pay with cash or card, with a $5 minimum to use a card. read more

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There are so many choices. We did try the viral options. The fruit shaped ice cream is basically vanilla ice cream with a shell that is flavored. The candy coated kebabs are ok. It's sugar melted and dipped. No flavor aside from sugar. read more

Ichiban Candy & Snacks - Peach ice cream and candy covered strawberries - Candy Stores Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

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Just go. This place has everything. Don't think about it. And make sure you try as much as you can. The service was fast and efficient. The Dubai strawberry weren't good, but everything else was. It reminds you of a candy store in Korea read more

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Had a great time perusing and making some purchases here! Yes, it is a bit more expensive than other markets or local stores, but you do have the convenience of it being right in the middle of Chinatown square plaza, and you have a really large selection to choose from. The store is clean and well stocked and everything is labeled very nicely! From tanghulu, to mochi, to various flavored chips and candies and ramen and other snacks, you can definitely at least be intrigued just walking around and looking at the different flavors of things and offerings! read more

Loved this candy store! The variety is amazing, and I really liked being able to mix and match candies. They even had tanghulu, which was so good. The sugar coating was perfectly crunchy and made for a great quick dessert. I also tried the Dubai chocolate strawberry cups, which were rich and satisfying without being overly sweet. There were so many KitKat flavors to choose from. I tried a few, and the milk tea flavor was definitely my favorite. They also had a great selection of Asian chips. The seaweed tempura chips in wasabi flavor were my favorite. I was excited to see they even had the viral fruit shaped ice cream. The store itself was clean, well organized, and easy to browse. I'll definitely be back! read more

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I love this place! Me and my son explored Chinatown for his birthday and we just had to stop when we saw all of the colorful offerings in this shop . There were so many sweet treats to choose from and many of the containers had a little bowl and spoon so you can sample the candy. I loved seeing popular brands such as Lays, Kit Kat and Doritos with foreign labels and flavors. Just like a candy store, it was bright, fun and eye catching. There was so much to choose from, but I wish there was staff around that could answer questions about the different products and read the labels to those of us who don't know the language. If you are in Chinatown, you should definitely check this place out and take home a few treats. read more

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This place had a ton of items I never saw before. I went for multiple flavors of kitkat. There was a pistachio cream filled ball similar to ferrero rocher. That was my favorite candy. Yuzu white peach drink was excellent as well. read more

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A cute Asian candy and sweets shop in Chicago's Chinatown. They have such unique Asian sweets there. We were in a rush but noticed a group with eye-catching ice cream treats shaped like peaches and mangoes. We asked them if it was worth it and tasty, and they said yes and recommended we try it. So, we looped back just to get that ice cream. At least it was readily available, unlike the fruit bubble tea, which my friends had to wait 20 minutes for at another shop. The ice cream treat cost about $11 CAD, but it's so cute, shaped like fruit. The hard shell is some sort of flavoured artificial chocolate coating. I enjoyed it. I can't say it's worth the price, but it's definitely fun! read more

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Yes absolutely yes. If you are a fan of Asian candies and sweet treats this is the place for you. I always love bringing my out-of-town friends and family to the store so they can experience Chinatown and also experience the different candies and snacks that Ichiban has to offer. It's often very packed and it is a small space however, the candies are very organized and there are always staff cleaning and trying to assist with questions. The selection is top-notch and the prices are fair. read more

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This candy store is super popular and always packed thanks to the likes of TikTok, but it's worth braving the crowd for all the fun treats. They sell Tanghulu, which is a must-try, though it sells out really fast! The mixed fruit Tanghulu is my personal favorite (about $8) if you can snag it. It's fresh fruit delicately coated with a thin layer of hard sugar candy to give it a nice crunchy The shop has a huge selection of candy filling all the walls and shelves, and it's bigger than it looks. They also carry snacks like chips and drinks in unique flavors not found in the USA (like salmon and wasabi and duck tongue) so there's something for everyone. If you're into Asian snacks, it's definitely a place to check out, especially since it's right in Chinatown. read more

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This is one of our must stops when we are in Chinatown. This time around we saw that they have the viral peach, mango or lemon ice creams and had to get a few along with a bagful of assorted treats! Staff always throws in something extra based on your total spend - this time we got a big bag of cookies! read more

Such a fun little stop. We mainly came for those Kit Kats and got about 7 different flavored and not a single one was nasty. All of them were so good. Be sure to take your time in here and look at all the neat items available. read more

Ichiban Candy & Snacks - Candy Stores Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

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Nice little shop located in Chicago's Chinatown. The prices on the candy were heavily upcharged, but they had a large selection.

This is such a cute little store if you're looking to try some snacks & candy from outside the US. They have a wide variety of candy to choose from and also tons of different chips, drinks, and even ramen packets. The only thing i would do differently when going next time is asking someone to assist me in actually seeing what some of the candies are. Not everything is in English so it's a bit hard to know what you're all getting. I got a few different kinds of kit kakats, seaweed flavored chips, cucumber flavored chips, and a packet of ramen to try. This is definitely somewhere I would go back to to try out more out of country goodies. read more

Ichiban Candy & Snacks - Candy Stores Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Wow! What a concept. I think Ichiban candy's claim to fame is the customizable candy bags. They primarily sell candy by the 1/2 pound and you can mix and match flavors of common Asian candies such as Hi-Chew or White rabbit. There are also Chinese medical herbs you can also buy by weight as well. Only improvement I can see is about the store layout. You enter in from the outdoor mall side and see all the candies immediately when you enter. However, the cash registers are on the opposite end of the store so when it gets busy it can be difficult to exit if lines are long. read more

This place is a scam! I'm so stupid for even coming into this store, they are charging more than 3x and even 4x of candy which u can buy from Asian market. Attached photo costed $15 and I've read online reviews that people got some dried fruit and got charged $90? Are you serious?? read more

Ichiban Candy & Snacks - $15 worth of candy probably just worth less than $5 - Candy Stores Near Me - Chicago, Illinois